That task is even more daunting when you start talking 18 quintillion worlds, as is the case with NO MAN SKY, an ambitious project from developer Hello Games.

But that’s exactly what Hello Games says is featured in No Man Sky – a universe designed specifically for explorers.

There’s a fair chance you won’t have enough spare time in a hundred lifetimes to travel to half of those 18 quintillion planets, but for the sake of this review let’s just pretend that during your time playing this space crusading action-adventure game, you’re going to find quite a few.

Unfortunately, one thing you won’t discover is a great deal of variety between any of the planets to happen to land on, which is pretty much what you’ll do for most of the time – travel from one planet to the next in the search for resources.

Occasionally, you’ll shoot some robotic sentry droids that shoot back at you (not very accurately or intelligently though), while even more occasionally, you’ll spend time dogfighting in space against enemies that registered as nothing more than a small dot on your screen.

Needless to say, the graphics are uninspiring – it’s obvious they’ve gone for quantity over quality here.

The gist of the game is to travel to the centre of the known galaxy in the search for the meaning of life. It’s all very surreal and existential and one can only wonder if gamers really care about those things – or do they simply want to be entertained and have fun.

You will spend time mining resources with your multi-tool (or your spaceship if you’re actually in space) as you gather what you need to complete your upgrades.

There are NPCs you’ll discover but they have no bearing or reason to be in the game whatsoever. 

Most of the time will be spent on your own as you travel endlessly your pursuit of resources, leaving you to wonder if it would have been better to buy a more popular shooter like Gears of War.

WE RATE IT

Graphics: 5

Gameplay: 5

Playability: 8

OVERALL: 60%