Last week Hello Games announced the Desolation update for No Man’s Sky. It’s just the latest update that the game has seen since it launched, and it’s undoubtedly the creepiest. The trailer alone is enough to send shivers up your spine, and make you want to do nothing more than get to the nearest space station and stay there forever.
What exactly does the Desolation update add to No Man’s Sky then? Well the overview is that it provides a way for you to explore derelict ships out in space, where people have met an untimely end with no one around to help them. This is pretty much the setting for a good chunk of science fiction novels, and I can’t really wait to get in there and start exploring these ships.
More specifically, this update adds derelict freighters throughout the universe for you to discover. You can explore these ships with friends or alone, and fight against the hazards that you’ll find within them. From strange new alien threats, to systems that have been set to protect those who perished, and never turned off, there will be a lot of stuff trying to kill you inside of these ships. Every ship has its own story, so if you’re really into these I suggest you start exploring right away.
Each ship you encounter will have loot to collect deep inside it, which is of course the only reason that you’d explore them. You’ll find parts for your own ships, but they’ll bear the marks of the ships you took them from. This should help your ship look more interesting, and tell a story of being built over the course of time.
This update is probably the most attractive one that I’ve seen for the style of gameplay I want from No Man’s Sky. I want to be a salvager, someone who floats around in deep space looking for derelict ships. I want to gather the technology and loot inside, and sell it for a profit, because I’m not interested in building a base. I can foresee salvagers becoming way more prominent in the game now, though I don’t know where the No Man’s Sky community will take that profession, making it their own.