Space, the final frontier, and for videogames, one that often makes for quite an immersive and engaging experience.
Two of the biggest games to deal with space areStarfieldandNo Man’s Sky, which offer different looks at what it’s like to be living in the infinite reaches of the universe.
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While they are different in many ways, they are also similar, so if you’re choosing one space game to play, it can be tough to know which one makes the most sense for you.
We’re going to help you figure that out by comparing the two space-faring giants in a variety of ways.
This is a matter of preference honestly, but Starfield has some absolutely jaw-dropping vistas and environments to explore. The tons of planets, interiors and unique attire you may find throughout the game effectively create another genre of art style.
Nasa punk, as it was coined when the game came out, gives this sort of retro-futuristic vibe that is something all its own.
No Man’s Sky, on the other hand, is a color-soaked fever dream graphically. It’s a far more fantastical take on what other planets and aliens might look like, and it’s a mesmerizing experience whenever you land on a far-away planet.
There is an overly cartoonish look to a lot of it, though that might not sit well with everyone, and while I find it to be an incredible visual journey, the aesthetics of Starfield and obviously higher quality are a bit more my speed, but just barely.
7Exploration
No Man’s Sky
No Man’s Sky has thebest explorationin any game period, so Starfield never really had a chance. If you’d like, you’re able to fly through the depths of space endlessly, and doing so is among one of the more eye-opening experiences in all of gaming.
You have to manually land on planets and structures too, which adds to the immersion. There is never a certainty of what you’ll find on a particular planet. Discovering new aliens, new structures, new enemies, new ships, bases and so on is an unreal experience that stands alone in the gaming world.
Starfield, on the other hand, does a decent job, but exploring space is far more structured. There is no seamless space travel, there are repeated bases to find and the things you can discover on your own are rather mundane, with nothing that really feels all that alien or special to your playthrough.
6Narrative
The narrative of Starfield, while not exactly groundbreaking, is very engaging and, most importantly, lasts a good while. The search for the artifacts and the consequences that come from them are not exactly what you’d expect.
It leads to some very interesting and unique ideas that feed into the new game plus in a way we haven’t really seen before. There are also several side quests that last for hours on end with interesting plot threads, like the Crimson Fleet or my personal favorite, the UC Vanguard questline.
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No Man’s Sky has a much more open-ended narrative that plays out underneath your exploration of the universe. It’s interesting, but not all that well told, and while there have been expansions to the storyline, they clearly lack the budget to hit big narrative beats that Bethesda was able to do rather well with Starfield.
The focused narrative of Starfield just makes it a far more engaging plot and the open-ended nature of No Man’s Sky’s investigation into various artifacts and what’s the meaning of it all makes it a little bit less interesting than what Starfield has going on.
5Gameplay Loop
No Man’s Sky has one of the most addictive gameplay loops out there. From searching for materials, to discovering derelict ships, recruiting a fleet, discovering new aliens, taking aliens as pets, taking down space pirates,building your own settlements, exploring others' settlements online and fighting sand worms. It’s definitely one of the most immersive space games out there.
You can easily find yourself entertained for hundreds and hundreds of hours here because the way the game is designed allows for endless variety with its procedurally generated universe.
There is a reason that10 years into its play cycle, No Man’s Sky is stronger than everand the never-ending drip feed of new content and updates from Hello Games ensures that players are never bored or left without something cool to do.
Starfield, on the other hand, is a much less engaging formula. You’ll have to talk to people in various cities to get sent on quests that involve a handful of loading screens and a lot of the time, you’re just going to be in menus clicking on places to go.
The majority of these quests involve you killing something or talking to someone and the variety just isn’t there to support the grandeur of the setting the game takes place in.
The settlements in Starfield are also far less engaging and interesting than what you can build in No Man’s Sky, and it is a much less interesting activity to engage in because of it.
Starfield has the clear edge here, as it involves far more combat than No Man’s Sky. The shooting is sharp, the gun types are varied and interesting and the Starborn powers are great once you get them upgraded to showcase ton of different effects that can change combat in significant ways.
The melee combat is pretty weak, but that was clearly not a focus and the punchiness of each of the weapons is significant and brutal and enemies react accordingly when getting hit. There is no cover system, which is a bit of a bummer as itdefinitely would’ve felt better to play, but what’s there is solid enough for me.
In space, you have a variety of ships and the combat is much more bombastic, with missiles and lasers and parts of ships blowing up all over the place. The control here never felt that great, but it has to do with the size of the ship and that’s a huge part of how you perform in combat.
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Man’s Sky, on the other hand, is far less combat-focused, with exploration being the main focus of the game. There is combat though, but the weapon variety is incredibly low. The on-foot combat is just not that great, and lastly, we have ship-to-ship battles.
This is where No Man’s Sky really shines, as the dogfights in space are lightning-fast and incredibly intense and Starfield doesn’t have moments like narrowly dodging a sand worm on the approach to a planet.
But Starfield gets the nod, as the on-foot combat is far better and the space combat is at least serviceable.
3Enemy Variety
No Man’s Sky may not be combat-focused, but despite that, the enemy variety is pretty huge. There are biological horrors, space pirates, hostile NPCs, Sentinels, Abyssal Horrors and so much more that you can encounter throughout your journey across the universe.
The encounters also feel spaced out properly and each time you land on a new planet, you can never be too sure about what you’re going to encounter and that mystery makes the game even more intriguing.
The Abyssal Horrors in particular are some of the most terrifying encounters in gaming, and it’s always a memorable experience when you find them.
Starfield, on the other hand, is just seriously lacking in enemy variety. This is the space we’re talking about and yet, the majority of the time, we’re fighting human Spacer and Crimson Fleet enemies.
There are occasional robot enemies that switch things up, but the real highlight is the Terrormorph enemies, which sadly barely appear throughout the game, but are clearly the most intriguing and terrifying creature in the game.
The majority of the time you’re just fighting people, and it doesn’t feel all that interesting. They should’ve leaned into the alien aspect of being in space, but instead, Bethesda opted for the humans being the star of the show.
2Soundtrack/Music
No Man’s Sky has a soundtrack that reflects the mystery and wonder of traveling alone through space. There is so much variety here and the vibe is a wild mix that often reflects the situations you’re in.
It’s so peaceful and weird one moment and then wildly up-tempo and intense the next. Few soundtracks have tapped into their gameplay, like No Man’s Sky, but here it’s done beautifully.
From the ambient music to battle music, to the incredible burst of energy in the music when you’re flying through space, it’s an absolute sound feast for anyone playing.
For Starfield, it’s not bad by any means, but I could predict what the music was going to be for the game before it came out, and I was right. It’s Bethesda music. It’s grand, it’s epic, it’s incredibly high quality, but with Starfield, I feel like it kind of just goes by the numbers.
It’s your somewhat expected space music. The orchestra is heavy with some great ambient exploration music, but it doesn’t really do anything that you haven’t seen before.
No Man’s Sky explores outside the box here in a truly wonderful and transformative way, and it gets the nod for that.
1The Winner
The winner is No Man’s Sky. Just look at that picture. That is everything a space game should be and when I think of the two games, I ask myself which is going to have me coming back for years on end?
It’s No Man’s Sky because flying through space in that game is endlessly enjoyable and is completely seamless where Starfield forces loading screen after loading screen to explore.
Hello Games constantly updates the game with free updates, and it’s one of the most content-packed pieces of media to ever exist, while Starfield feels like it’sbeen all but abandonedat this point after one very lackluster DLC in Shattered Space.
When it comes to exploring space and being consistently rewarded for doing so, No Man’s Sky wins the battle, if only by a little bit, and it will be the space game that I return to time and time again.
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