No Man’s Sky: three things that work, and three things that don’t – from the soundtrack to the gameplay

At this moment in time, our readers might expect a review of No Man’s sky – a game so massive, it’s said to contain more than 18 quintillion planets.

But is it really possible to review a game this size? Stay tuned for more on that on eveningstandard.ca.

In the meantime, we’ve pulled together six factors to consider when venturing into No Man’s Sky - the good and the bad.

1) It's just so big

There are big games, and there there’s this. In fact, as a technical marvel, No Man’s Sky is up there with the very best.

The mass galaxies and eco-system come thanks to procedural generation using algorithms and random number generations. What this means is that no planet will ever be the same – with an almost infinite number of flora and fauna variations.

If you’ve always wanted to explore another galaxy, or several, then No Man’s Sky is for you. Just make sure to dedicate a large amount of time to it – some planets can take hours to get to.

2) You can create your own adventure

While most games guide you through a narrative, the plot in No Man's Sky is very much left up to the player.

There are overarching objectives - but these often resemble little more than fetch quests. The most fun you can have in No Man's Sky is to touch down on a vast planet and gaze at the different creatures and plants. Some even let you feed them - often giving off an irresistibly-cute 'squeak' when you do so. Venture too far from the ship and you may face a battle against a dwindling life support system - creating a mini survival mission of your own.

It never gets boring skimming across the surface in your ship, spotting something interesting, then flying over to investigate.

3) The soundtrack is incredible

It's no easy task developing a soundtrack for a game that, potentially, lasts millions of years but No Man's Sky manages to pull it off. It's all thanks to 65daysofstatic, who use a clever combination of riffs, loops and chords to provide a subtle and ever-changing score that compliments the world beautifully.

1) Mission: survive

While most of players’ time in the game will be spent mining and crafting items, you’ll have to battle the environment in order to survive. In reality, this leads to countless hours searching for materials and elements to simply not die.

Leaving a planet can prove a burden too, with launch thrusters requiring a hefty amount of plutonium to initiate take off. You'll rarely have enough, which may put you off landing and exploring planets proper to avoid having to scour the surface for some. A fiddly inventory - better suited to a mouse and keyboard - doesn't help matters.

2) Set phasers to annoy

No Man’s Sky operates a ‘wanted’ system – which causes a host of robotic Sentinels to come and spoil your scavenging. Start messing around with flora and fauna too much and your wanted level will increase.

Sentinels start of as annoying flying drones (resembling Halo's Guilty Spark on steroids) but soon upgrade to giant robot-walkers if wanted levels continue to rise. Shooting can feel clunky at times and battling both the environment and enemies feels unbalanced.

Be sure to send all information to The Atlas (a huge universal database) as quickly as you can to avoid losing any information you've collected. When in your spaceship, look out for space pirates – who try to steal your loot.

3) It's repetitive it's repetitive it's repetitive it's- you get the idea

For all its technical wizardry, No Man's Sky's gameplay is fundamentally very basic. This is particularly felt in the combat sections, both in space and on the ground, which employ little more than a 'press button to fire' approach.

And it's not just limited to combat. Planets may look different initially but soon start boasting familiar structures and colour schemes. Despite the impressive scale, low-res textures up close on PS4 will annoy those after pin-sharp visuals, while the odd-framerate issue creeps in during busier scenes.

Some of the automatically generated creatures also, well, don't live up to what we were promised.