Interceptor Is EXACTLY What No Man's Sky Needed | Update Thoughts

howdy friends major bugs aside Interceptor is actually an almost perfect update to No Man's Sky it adds variation to the game expands gameplay loops and almost covertly continues the story players have been waiting on for years it's more than just new starships and enemies it demonstrates a more intentional approach to game design on Hello Games part that I just have to talk about I'm kanaju and this is why no man's Sky Interceptor is exactly what this game needed since 2016. no man's sky has been improving through the addition of dozens of free content updates and patches while the first two years saw dramatic of sporadic overhauls to the game 2020 is when the more regular updates we've grown accustomed to solidified themselves as hello game strategy moving forward these more regular updates have tended to focus on adding new features to the game however while each update would add new stuff a lot of it felt pretty shallow new features often felt disconnected from the rest of the game or in some cases underdeveloped this strategy changed once again though in 2022 the regular Cadence we'd grown accustomed to remained but the updates were different this time instead of adding potentially shallow new features hello games instead began focusing on improving and expanding existing features each of 2022's updates took what was already in the game made it bigger and better more robust and while 2023 kicked off with a bundle of quality of life updates and fractal its Interceptor that feels like it's really kicking off the next chapter of core feature improvements the Interceptor update is a beefy one gives us an all-new Starship type The Sentinel Interceptor complete with a brand spanking new cockpit and more variation than we've ever seen before and I'm not just saying that it's hello game is that saying that it gave us not one but two incredible new multi-tools gave us two new enemy types and reworked two existing enemies it gave us a new planet type new resources new tech new Nexus Mission and a new point of Interest all of this on top of plenty of other cool bonuses I can earnestly say it's been a ton of fun to play and may just be my favorite update since Origins next to Sentinel that is why is that what makes Interceptor better than say Frontiers or companions well I have a theory Interceptor is focused on interconnected gameplay loops but what does that mean well for example how do you get the new Sentinel Starships well you could just stumble upon them like any other crashed ship however there are three other ways to locate them if you engage the new corrupted Sentinels in combat defeating all five waves will automatically locate a new starship for you you can harvest the Dreadnought AI fragment from a destroyed Sentinel Dreadnought in space and that will ping one for you and you can also locate a Starship from the terminal at the new harmonic camps how do you find those new harmonic camps well the new enemies will sometimes drop something called an echolocator that can be used to find a camp or if you begin the new Nexus Mission you'll be guided to one at the beginning these interlocking gameplay features are what make the new Interceptor content so engaging to me you can begin a Nexus mission that will lead you to a new point of Interest which can then give you a new backpack and multi-tool in addition to leading you to a new starship plus point you in the direction of new enemies and resources or you could land on a dissonant world on your own pick a fight with some Sentinels and be given a new starship as a reward or maybe you fight a couple receive an echolocator and then flee the scene to the new cap in other words these features aren't just new options in a menu or a single new place to visit their interconnected features that lead to and from each other and can be connected in differing orders this is what I meant by intentional game design this inner connectivity also extends to the new corrupted planets themselves they're not these generic static worlds like previous anomalous planets they don't replace planets as previous infected worlds did instead they uh quote unquote corrupt existing worlds that means a corrupted world could be a low gravity moonscape or lush tropical rainforest we could be hunting dissonance resonators across Frozen wastes or beneath erupting volcanoes according to the patch notes these worlds were previously home to extreme Sentinels which often included extreme weather as well anomalous storms which were previously almost impossible to experience now reward explorers of these new worlds some of them of course seriously though I spent like two hours this week before the update was announced just getting this storm to spawn for a video I was working on and now it's an actual proper part of the game which makes me happy and again that seems to be what Interceptor and indeed 2022's updates in general seem to be doing expanding the game itself not just adding things to it the last element Interceptor expands is the story when Sean listed all of the main features of the new update in his announcement tweet I was surprised to see the second item was evolving story if you read the patch notes there's a brief mention of a robotic Anatomy littering the new planets these robotic remains seem to be teasing a new race they could be NPCs enemies or both they appear to be humanoid robots constructive Parts similar to Sentinels now I'm not going to dive into all my theories for what this could be leading to let me know in the comments if you'd be interested in that kind of video but the mystery introduced in this update is stemming from lore that players have been banging hello games to revisit for years the abyss and it's not just the autophages the new Crystal resource atlantidium seems to be related to the Atlantic another name for the abyss not to mention the world of glass the corrupted Sentinels and dissonance resonators also tied directly into the abyss methods of gaining influence and power however instead of being relegated to weekend Mission dialogue and other text entries the influence of the Void mother has been given new form technically this corruption could already be seen throughout the game since launch but it's now more prevalent than ever and it gives the impression that Hill games actually have a game plan moving forward the codes that the autophages leave us are t are teasing what's to come and all of this is wrapped in new content and gameplay it's a winning combination so when I say that Interceptor is exactly the update that no man's Sky needed I'm not just talking about the game's need for more combat variety or more exploration opportunities or more ships and multi-tools all of which it did need by the way and I'm not even just talking about needing to pay off all the awesome lore that's been building up for years which it also needed to do of course what I mean is that no man's Sky needs updates that connect multiple gameplay Loops together no man's sky has a lot of features it has a lot of planets heck it even has a lot of variation if we know where to look its main problem is that players often lack motivation to engage with all of these separate features sure you can cook right but why would you yeah you can build up a settlement but what good does it do you these gameplay Loops exist for their own sake whereas the new content justifies its existence relative to the rest of the game why should you fight a sentinel freighter well now you can force Sentinel fighters in space to retreat instead of just fleeing plus you can get a new ship out of it why would you collect a new atlantidium well it's required to interact with the autophages which give you little bits of lore why should you visit the new camps well they give you new multi-tools and Starships not to mention other random loot which can be very useful and come on they look super cool but why attack dissonance resonators well besides the fact that the new combat is incredibly engaging on par if not better than the updated Sentinels you can gain coordinates to camps and crashed interceptors from fighting them but then why would you want an Interceptor you might ask well of course besides the fact that they look badass and have cool new cockpits they also come with the ability to hover above the ground which is pretty neat and heck once you get a new Interceptor you'll need to recharge its Tech with the materials found on corrupted planets ensuring that you return to them periodically it all combines to form one big gameplay Loop you know intentional game design which is something that unfortunately has sort of been lacking the last few years prior to 2022. top of all that though the planets themselves are also relatively rare which helps them remain novel by stretching out variation among less planets which I'm sure explorers will appreciate however they're also very accessible being found in existing systems and once you land the new tougher combat is actually optional you can explore the new camps and Salvage the new Starships without having to fight if you'd prefer not to in other words this update isn't just a one and done kind of deal and it's not linear content you don't just play through an expedition and then log out just like the new Sentinel types and pillars that affected gameplay on all worlds just like the new solar ships that now populate the universe just like the new Outlaw space stations that give us new missions and vendors or the addition of Titan warm nests to infested planets that gives those worlds their own unique gameplay the additions in the Interceptor update expand upon the game's core gameplay loops and fun and surprising new ways they fit into the larger game not just on top of it I personally believe it's more content like this that will keep no man's Sky engaging for years to come in other words that's exactly what the game needs thanks for watching and let me know what you think of the update in the comments below I know this was a bit of an odd video to be honest I wasn't really sure how I wanted to cover this update there's so many clever but subtle aspects to it that are worth highlighting however I had a hard time organizing those thoughts into something coherent so if you enjoyed my monologue though please let me know by liking the video or leaving a comment and tell me what you think of Hello Games approach to updates over the last year yeah I know Waypoint wasn't flashy and fractal mostly overhauled VR features but Sentinel Outlaws and endurance were three of my favorite updates each one expanding core features and addressing long time player complaints Interceptor seems to be continuing on this path and I'm genuinely excited for the game's future in a way I haven't been since like Origins probably it's really exciting anyways I have a lot of non-youtube work to do to pay the bills so I must go but thanks again for all of your support I should have another video out within a week of this one so be sure to subscribe if you haven't already you never know what's cooking next and I don't want you to miss it until then I'll see you in the next video bye

Channel: Kanaju

Views: 47,315

Keywords: no man's sky, no mans sky, nms, no man's sky interceptor, no mans sky intercepter, no man's sky 4.2, no man's sky update, nms interceptor update, no man's sky interceptor gameplay, no man's sky interceptor impressions, no man's sky gameplay, no man's sky gameplay 2023, no man's sky interceptor review, no man's sky 2023 review

Id: TaEhJVB8skk

Length: 11min 28sec (688 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 09 2023