You can pilot a huge mech in No Man's Sky starting today

[Cal Jeffrey]

Editor's take: Not many people would argue that Hello Games has redeemed itself after No Man's Sky's abysmal launch. Not only has the studio delivered what it initially promised, but it has also continued on with a long string of very well received DLC updates. And to make it all the better, all of this content has been free from day one. No season passes, no extra payout, just free. Kudos to HG for going above and beyond to bring such a beautiful and fun game to fans.

The latest major update to No Man's Sky dropped on Tuesday. The DLC, titled Exo Mech, is version 2.4 of the rags to riches sci-fi sandbox. As the name suggests, the most exciting feature is a new exocraft that is a colossal walking robot for you to pilot.

The mech is called the Minotaur Heavy and joins the line up of exocraft already in the game — the Nomad (light hovercraft), the Roamer (mid-range buggy), the Colossus (heavy supply carrier), the Pilgrim (fast bike), and the Nautilon (mini-sub).

The Minotaur is relatively slow, but traversing terrain is a cakewalk (no pun intended). It can leap with a boosted jump that can speed things up and overcome obstacles like wide crevasses. While I have not gotten to pilot one yet (possibly tonight), the boosted jump is likely limited in a similar way as the jetpack with a certain amount of power before having to rest for a recharge.

What really stands out is the cockpit of the Minotaur when in first-person mode or VR. It looks like a lot of attention to detail went into designing the controls and instrument panels in the mech. The only drawback is the more limited visibility while viewing from inside. However, it does add an extra layer of immersion, especially in VR.

The mech also provides a better way to collect materials than other exocraft. It is immune to all planetary hazards and can gather mats directly without having to leave the cockpit. It is also equipped with a terrain manipulator, so mining and other tasks that require physically exiting the vehicle are not a problem.

The 2.4 update also adds a variety of new exocraft technologies. Vehicles can now be outfitted with solar panels to recharge engines as long as there is daylight. The scanning capabilities have been expanded as well. Now Travelers can scan for nearby points of interest without having to get out and use the Analysis Visor.

A new piece of equipment called the "Orbital Exocraft Materialiser" has been added to the freighter loadout. This device allows players to summon exocraft from anywhere as long as the freighter is equipped with the tech and is in the same star system.

Several other minor features are also available, including exocraft decals, overall visual improvements, GTAO performance optimization, and resolution scaling that does not affect the user interface (PC version only).

Two other changes that are considered minor but were highly needed and requested are the Electrical Cloaking Unit (ECU) and a base complexity toggle. After installing the ECU, your base's power lines will be hidden unless you are in construction mode, so no more messy crisscrossing wires. Although I have to admit, I kind of enjoy figuring out creative ways to hide power lines.

Additionally, console players can now disable the base complexity limit. If massive complexes are your bag, then have at it. But be warned: The bigger the base, the more hits to performance you will take. Get too expansive, and stability issues will likely arise, which is why the limit was put in place to begin with.

The patch is available as of today for consoles and PC, and as always, this is a free DLC. If you haven't played it yet, purchasing links can be found at the No Man's Sky website.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/84729-you-can-pilot-huge-mech-no-man-sky.html

 

[m4a4]

I mean, this is pretty cool. But still not enough to bump it up on my long list of games to play...

 

[Cal Jeffrey]

I mean, this is pretty cool. But still not enough to bump it up on my long list of games to play...

Good. More for me! J/K

In all seriousness, I bought this game on day one. I was really hyped about it and ended up disappointed. I got bored with it in about 3-4 days. I put it down and left it be. I picked it up after Atlas Rises and was delighted with the changes. Played for hours and hours (146 if you must know). But I eventually got sidetracked by something else. Picked it up again after abyss just to check out the underwater bases because I had been building underwater anyways albeit glitchy. That was neat but didn't hold me attention long. Took it up again after Beyond and started fresh. Played that for another 200 hours or so. Put it away again and had not touched it since. The Synthesis update sounded intriguing but I wasn't about to break my streak of skipping every other major release. Then living ship came out and I figured it was time again, but was too busy with other stuff to get to it until three days ago (another fresh save file). So here I am playing just as another major release comes. So much for my streak. But I am intrigued to try out the mech. I better get busy though, I have not even gotten an exo-station built in my new save yet.

 

[Eldritch]

Good. More for me! J/K

In all seriousness, I bought this game on day one. I was really hyped about it and ended up disappointed. I got bored with it in about 3-4 days. I put it down and left it be. I picked it up after Atlas Rises and was delighted with the changes. Played for hours and hours (146 if you must know). But I eventually got sidetracked by something else. Picked it up again after abyss just to check out the underwater bases because I had been building underwater anyways albeit glitchy. That was neat but didn't hold me attention long. Took it up again after Beyond and started fresh. Played that for another 200 hours or so. Put it away again and had not touched it since. The Synthesis update sounded intriguing but I wasn't about to break my streak of skipping every other major release. Then living ship came out and I figured it was time again, but was too busy with other stuff to get to it until three days ago (another fresh save file). So here I am playing just as another major release comes. So much for my streak. But I am intrigued to try out the mech. I better get busy though, I have not even gotten an exo-station built in my new save yet.

Good for you. Even for those of us who didn't play the game for such long hours, I am still impressed by the repenting done by Hello games over years and massive numbers of free updates, dlc and contents launched as sorry for under delivering at launch. They made mistake but they owned it up and that shows character.

 

[Cal Jeffrey]

Good for you. Even for those of us who didn't play the game for such long hours, I am still impressed by the repenting done by Hello games over years and massive numbers of free updates, dlc and contents launched as sorry for under delivering at launch. They made mistake but they owned it up and that shows character.

Agrred, But it wasn't entirely HG's fault. As I understand it Sony rushed the launch. These things happen in the industry all the time, where the developers want more time to complete the game but the publishers want the game out before the next shareholders meeting. Devs can protest about it all they want but as they say, "Sh-- rolls downhill." This is a huge problem with certain publishers including EA that rush games out the door as buggy POS with seemingly half of the functionality that you would expect from the title.

That said, HG had a vision for the game and regardless of the crumby launch, It did finally deliver that vision and more that has been worthy of literally hundreds of hours of play for me. Well worth my $60 IMO.