Regardless of a load of nice video games in 2025, No Man’s Sky is the glad place that retains drawing me again in once more

If we’re plotting out the yr based mostly on sudden obsessions, mine have been (in no explicit order) bizarre Italian style cinema of the 60s and 70s, an unhealthy urge for food for unnecessarily elaborate bodily media collector’s editions, people horror in actually any type I may eat, and, apparently, No Man’s Sky. According to Steam’s ordinary end-of-year factor, the exploratory area sim is by far my most performed recreation of 2025, accounting for – considerably extremely – practically 20 % of my whole playtime.

That’d look like quite a bit for any recreation, however it feels particularly shocking given No Man’s Sky is on the cusp of its tenth anniversary, which means I’ve in some way been tootling away in its procedural universe for the perfect a part of a decade. That’s fairly an achievement; I genuinely can not consider a single different factor that is held my curiosity for therefore lengthy – aside from possibly Carl Poppa, however that is a bizarre musical anomaly even I am unable to adequately clarify.

Carl Grimes’ rhymes apart, it actually has been a banner yr for No Man’s Sky, with developer Hello Games persevering with to let its fancy run wild because it fills within the universe-sized gaps round its area sim’s ambulatory core. Back in January, the glad wanderers and sightseers amongst us received considerably extra dramatic, reasonable terrain era to admire, in addition to gasoline giants and ocean worlds. And practically 12 months on, I nonetheless do not discover these fathomless, watery depths of suffocating darkness and unseen horrors any much less terrifying – which I very a lot contemplate a win.

And issues solely received wilder from there. Never in one million years would I’ve anticipated ‘with the ability to dig up prehistoric fossils and switch them into skeletal museum shows’ to be on my 2025 No Man’s Sky bingo card, however that is precisely what March’s paleontology replace introduced. Even now, I discover myself making a fast stop-off after I spy a fossil mattress, decided to gather ’em all. Then, in fact, got here the true banger: the flexibility to create totally customisable multi-crew spaceships. People went wild for this one, constructing all the things from spacefaring Homer Simpsons to flyable floating cities – and No Man’s Sky celebrated its highest Steam participant depend since launch because of this. My ship constructing efforts, when you’re curious, stalled at ‘unwieldy toaster’ however it’s my unwieldy toaster and I adore it all the identical.

All these items’s been nice – and No Man’s Sky’s current The Game Awards win for Best Ongoing Game feels greater than deserved – however after I assume again throughout my yr in area, it is not the flashy new options that instantly leap to thoughts. Rather, my reminiscences all concertina right down to a single glad second, repeated many times: cresting over a hill and discovering the procedural stars have aligned to create a vista of good undulations; of tree-pocked hills and swaying meadows, of oceans lapping in opposition to mountains misplaced within the fog – a stretch of untouched sci-fi magnificence to understand in a short second of tranquility earlier than transferring on.

Somewhere alongside the way in which, No Man’s Sky has, I feel, turn into my consolation recreation, a relaxing digital respite – with its peaceable seclusion and ambient procedural beats – from no matter bullshit the world’s received in retailer for us subsequent. And as a lot as I benefit from the busy buzzing of Hello Games’ peripheral additions, I really like the actual fact the straightforward, soothing act of wandering – of mild traipsing and languid laser pointing – has, if you actually break it down, stayed at No Man’s Sky’s coronary heart. I’m presently working by means of the Expedition occasions I missed earlier this yr, and squished so shut collectively, there’s little hiding that they are basically the identical factor repeated many times. But I do not care; it is one other excuse to go online and amble with obscure objective, so I fireplace the following one up and I’m in my glad place once more.

Recently, I had a stunning time placing the ending touches to my long-in-the-works desert base, mooching round planets and gathering assets earlier than heading dwelling to unleash the total power of my adorning prowess, fortunately misplaced in a revery of rug placement (the bottom seems to be nice, by the way in which, however I would not advocate visiting in a storm when you worth your framerate). And nonetheless Hello Games continues to fill within the areas round me in splendidly sudden methods. The studio’s subsequent massive factor, Light No Fire, attracts tantalisingly nearer, however no matter which means for No Man’s Sky, this is to a different yr of wandering by means of this most unpredictable of area sims.

This article is a part of our end-of-year sequence, Games of 2025, the place we speak about nice moments, nice video games, and our private favourites of the yr. You can learn extra in our Games of 2025 hub. Thank you for studying, and glad holidays!