It is no wonder I love No Man’s Sky, the space game that had an embattled start and has long since gone beyond original design specs, and into the realm of content that was never included in the promise of the first iteration. It’s been one of those journeys, which in essence mirrors that of No Man’s Sky’s own rise to prominence in the space game field.

Now Hello Games are on the 20th update and it’s been out since April 13th this year. I’ve taken a while to get to it, mix of illness, real life, and other things have kept me out of the game here – not to mention the whole ongoing pandemic (don’t get me started) and people in general.

No Man’s Sky then has been my go-to space game for a while, and this latest update just goes to show how Sean Murray and his dedicated (small) team of developers have passion and vision for a project which as I said, has gone well beyond the original design when it launched in 2016.

Outlaws is update 3.85 and represents the team’s next step in a longer journey, with more features to come, and more quality of life changes to follow. Outlaws adds pirate stations, a new class of ship: Solar, to the mix and revamps space combat, adds squadron members (and much more) – once again – Hello Games packs in a whole smorgasbord of things and changes into the game for free.

Space combat has improved massively, it feels much more accessible too, and this is partly due to the addition of a new way to approach combat for people who might not have the reflexes (me) or ability to get a decent lock onto an enemy vessel (again me).

Starship Combat Auto-Follow is a target-locking feature, which can be toggled to hold/toggle or turned off in the options, and provides an auto lock to track enemy ships once you have one targeted. Hold down the Left Trigger and your ship will try and keep the enemy in view, enough to get a shot or two off… whilst still allowing you to adjust for slight variations.

This feature has allowed friends of mine to finally play.

There’s a lot more too, capes (soft cloth physics are now in), a new 5th Expedition, and a slew of improvements across the board (9 ships in your personal storage now). There are enemy shields and shield effects, with a complete rebalance. Pirates can be fought in atmosphere, and you can even take a flight with members of your squadron into the planet’s atmosphere now as well.

They can be summoned to join you at any time, and auto warp in if you get into combat.

Outlaws is a fantastic update, and you can see it here on YouTube with the release video.