No Man's Sky becomes No Mech's Sky with latest update
No Man's Sky will never die. Not that I want it to. Hello Games just keeps coming up with update after update that, despite my interest in other games, newer games, different games, somehow No Man's Sky makes me turn my head and watch it walk by, a low whistle on my lips. I am the distracted boyfriend meme.
No Man's Sky: Exo Mech is the name of this new Update 2.4. The Sentinels are no longer the only robotic life form in the galaxy. Well, this is neither the time or place to get into the distinctions between robots, mechs, androids, etc. Just know that these fully controllable exo mechs are your new favorite way to traverse and explore planetary surfaces. This one is called The Minotaur.
The thing's entire name is The Minotaur Exocraft Hybrid. It's an advanced mechanical walker, offering unique new technologies. It comes with a powerful jetpack that lets you soar and slide to a stop with a whole bunch of dust and debris kicked up while you do it. It also comes with an immersive cockpit you can look around in—360 degrees in VR. The Minotaur is immune to all planetary hazards and directly collects valuable materials so you never have to step out of the thing.
In addition to the exo mech, new Exocraft technologies let you upgrade your other now-outdated planetary vehicles with solar panels to recharge their engines during daylight. Your exocraft's scanning capabilities are now boosted, revealing all nearby points of interest, pointing the way to objects usually found only through the Analysis Visor. And if you own a freighter, you can now build an Orbital Exocraft Materializer that summons your Exocraft to wherever your freighter is present in the current star system. While you're at it, customize your Exocraft with new decals, if you've unlocked decals from the Quicksilver Companion Robot.
That's not all. A large number of visual improvements have been made to the lighting model, mostly outside on planets. Thin, moving objects such as grass now appear lighter and more stable with improved performance all around. And you can scale your game resolution without scaling UI resolution, handing you more options for improving performance while keeping the UI crisp.
Also, hoo boy, you can construct an Electrical Cloaking Unit, a new base part that hides the power lines across your base; though they're still visible when in construction mode. And a few more base-building quality of life issues have been addressed, like giving you the ability to quickly return to the Space Anomaly (and your previous system) after visiting a base.
If you're still hungry, check out the latest patch notes here. I was under the impression that this would be some insignificant update, but, as usual, there's seemingly stuff across the board. This update comes less than two months after Update 2.3 added living alien-like spaceships to the mix. No Man's Sky will never die.
