No Man’s Sky is going where it has gone very, very many times before. It’s getting another major patch! Specifically, the No Man’s Sky Beyond update is another massive overhaul of the game on par with No Man’s Sky NEXT. That previous update added things like true multiplayer. No Man’s Sky Beyond seeks to improve on those changes (and the various upgrades made in other patches) and then some. All of which is to say that this is a big update. And that’s exactly why we’ve gone ahead and drawn up this: our No Man’s Sky Beyond details and patch notes.
Just bear in mind that the full Beyond update isn’t out until this Wednesday. That means we don’t have the patch notes in front of us to break down all the No Man’s Sky details down piece by piece. But we will! Be sure to check back in on this article come Aug. 14, 2019. We’ll keep you posted! In the meantime, though, let’s take a look at what we do know for sure.
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No Man’s Sky VR Support – No Man’s Sky Beyond Patch Details
This is sure to be a big deal for some, and completely meaningless to others. We’re getting No Man’s Sky VR support! Finally! Honestly, if you had asked me, oh, six months ago, I would have said that the game already had exactly that. Oh, sure! There are some third-party mods and hacks to let folks fly around the galaxy in their favored $300 headset. But apparently the game didn’t have it for realsies. Now it does! And it honestly sounds mildly incredible.
No Man’s Sky VR supports PSVR, the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Valve Index: basically all the major players these days. PlayStation Pro owners will even get a slight boost in performance, which is good considering… That’s the whole point of the PS4 Pro. Speaking of PlayStation, your Move controllers will work just fine (at least as fine as Move controllers ever do). As will other varieties of motion controls, like Oculus Touch. “Normal” controllers, like your trusty DualShock, are also an option. That lack of limitations right there? That’s what I like to see in a VR game.
Let’s follow that thread for a moment. Virtual reality No Man’s Sky players aren’t restricted from playing with non-VR ones. So if you were concerned that Hello Games would ditch that for balance reasons, now that multiplayer is becoming a bigger feature, fear not! This appears to be the case even if you use VR teleport controls (to avoid motion sickness) or normal movement (which has a history of causing motion sickness in other VR games).
We’ll update this section when we find out more about VR support and see for ourselves how well it works!
No Man’s Sky Multiplayer – No Man’s Sky Beyond Patch Details
Prior to, and just after launch, there was a very vocal contingent of No Man’s Sky players that wanted multiplayer. That’s not personally what I go to a game like this for, but sure! I can get the appeal of wandering around a laughably huge world with friends. Well, that become a reality last year. You’ve been able to play with up to four friends in No Man’s Sky for a while now.
For some, that’s likely not enough. And so Hello Games expanded the multiplayer suite significantly. You can now form groups of up to 32 players on PC and eight players on consoles. Although I suspect most folks will only reach those upper limits during special events. Otherwise, you can bump into larger groups on the new No Man’s Sky social hub. This metal moon is called the Nexus (formerly the Space Anomaly). And it’s now the No Man’s Sky equivalent of the Tower in Destiny or the Gathering Hub in Monster Hunter World. Basically, it’s a place to chill with other people and maybe group up. The Nexus can hold 16 players per instance on all platforms.
There wasn’t a lot of incentive to group up before, however. That’s also changing in No Man’s Sky Beyond. The game is adding missions for singletons and multiplayer groups to complete together. While No Man’s Sky already added a hefty single-player campaign some time ago, this should give those newfound friends in the game’s worlds something to do ad infinitum. That’s assuming you weren’t happy just taking snapshots of alien animals before. I’m especially interested in these new base building missions added with Beyond. It seems like a solid incentive to keep building on new worlds, even after I finish my home headquarters.
Quality of Life – No Man’s Sky Beyond Patch Details
This is the big question mark right now. If No Man’s Sky Beyond is anything like No Man’s Sky NEXT, it will offer hundreds of small tweaks and improvements that just make the game feel, look, and perform better. Hello Games has promised as much — directly comparing this to NEXT instead of the other, more specific patches like the Visions update.
We’ll have a full analysis of the No Man’s Sky Beyond patch notes soon! Just be patient while we untangle everything the updated game has to offer. In the meantime, you can read the nitty gritty No Man’s Sky Beyond patch notes for yourself on the game’s official website.
Discovering Old Changes – No Man’s Sky Beyond Patch Details
This isn’t so much an analysis of No Man’s Sky Beyond itself… In fact, it has very little to do with the update at all. It’s just an anecdotal observation. Personally, I find that returning to No Man’s Sky during a major overhaul like this reveals all the work that Hello Games has done in the interim.
When No Man’s Sky NEXT came out, I hadn’t ever touched the Pathfinder and Foundation updates. Yet they added things like a single-player campaign with a rich story, farming, and vehicles. Since then the game has gone through a couple of named updates: Abyss and the aforementioned Visions. The latter patch drastically diversified the flora and fauna you can find on alien worlds. Now No Man’s Sky Beyond is adding animal mounts. See where this is going? These truly huge updates tend to make the littler ones from before more meaningful — acting as perfect jumping on points for lapsed players.
Of course, No Man’s Sky Beyond might also be like No Man’s Sky NEXT. I might play it for a hundred hours and then completely burn out after I see all the new stuff. Multiplayer missions can only go so far to fuel my long-term obsession if I don’t have any friends who keep up with the game. Not to mention September 2019 is packed with new games. But 100 hours of excited exploration? Learning to ride (and milk) aliens? Count me in this time around as well. I’m just as excited to see what I missed in the last nine months as I am to discover what the No Man’s Sky patch holds.
