As August draws near, one of the most hotly-anticipated games of the year–if not the past few years, — grows ever closer to release. No Man’s Sky by Hello Games is scheduled to be released on August 9th, and Sony is currently whetting the appetite of eager gamers with a series of four short trailers called “guides to the galaxy.”
The first trailer covered exploration, and the second, released today, is all about the different types of combat players can engage in if they so desire.
The video is tantalizingly short at only 65 seconds long, but it starts with space combat. Promising “epic space battles,” the trailer showcases a number of dogfights in action, as well as an attack run on a much larger freighter. According to the description for the video, players can encounter a number of threats in space, warning that “pirates will swoop on the unwary, requiring you to evade and escape or fight back to defend your cargo.”
Sean Murray and company have suggested in the past that players can choose to befriend freighters or pirates if they want to get involved. Part of the trailer appears to show this intervention in action, as the player vessel defends freighters while a small part of the HUD indicates how many enemy vessels remain:
The second half of the trailer showcases ground combat against the deadly robotic Sentinels. The Sentinels seek to preserve the natural order of each planet, and every action the player takes to disturb it — attacking creatures or excessively mining resources — will attract their hostility. Similar to the Grand Theft Auto series, their strength is measured by a Wanted meter, which increases the more you fight back. The reach of the Sentinels extends even into space, so taking them on isn’t for the lighthearted.
Planets also feature hostile predators, so players looking for opportunities to engage in combat shouldn’t be disappointed.
No Man’s Sky looks more and more promising with every gameplay video. There are two more trailers in the series, focusing on trading and survival, and then the hugely ambitious game should finally be on shelves. There’s been a lot of hype surrounding this game for years, and Hello Games has given every indication that they have done their best to live up to everyone’s expectations. We’ll know if they were successful very soon.
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