No Man’s Sky has promised an procedurally-generated universe to explore, a variety of interstellar career options to choose from and an infinite amount of planets to investigate. But it won’t all be funny plants and funky dinosaurs: No Man’s Sky will have a variety of NPC races, and with those races comes a lot to consider .
“With NPCs in No Man’s Sky , you actually have to learn their language; they speak to you in their native tongue. The more you travel around the universe, the more you learn their language, and the more you can communicate with them,” said creator Sean Murray in a PlayStation Blog post .
How these races look and what they say will be procedurally generated, like everything else in No Man’s Sky . You’ll be able to trade with them, gain upgrades from them, learn about game lore from them and even forge alliances.
It takes hours to learn the NPC languages, and while none of them are Elvish or even Klingon in complexity, Murray still says the languages will be a challenge for players. He hopes players will band together to help each other learn: “ I think it will probably only be possible for people to decipher some of the dialogue by working together online,” he says.
Different races have different strengths, oriented towards a variety of potential playstyles. Learning the language of a race will help you to gain their esteem and utilize their resources. Ultimately, developing a relationship with a race will lead to preferential treatment, such as reduced prices at their traders or better equipment, which helps you get ahead in your own personal space race.
“ One race is perhaps more focused on exploration and science, and knowing that helps you decide how to best interact with them,” says Murray. “If you’re playing the game for exploration’s sake, you might want to focus on that race. But if you’re playing the game and all you want to do is kill things, there are more military-based races, so you might want to try and become friends with them.”
Of course, if you don’t know what you’re saying (or reading), things can go terribly awry. You can cause an attack from a potential ally or press the big red button those inscrutable alien scratchings were warning you not to press. But unpredictability is all part of the fun, says Murray. “It’s more about creating a really interesting reason for people to explore the game and get some really emergent results.”
No Man’s Sky releases for PC and PS4 on June 21. There will be two different special editions available for No Man’s Sky : the Limited Edition for PS4 and the Explorer’s Edition for PC. More details on No Man’s Sky ’s release here .
