Sprawling ship battles against a drone army await
It's the Death Star! Well, sort of. It's a big robo-eye invading the galaxy with a swarm of killer drones, as No Man's Sky goes a bit Helldivers 2-ish in its latest update. Dubbed The Swarm, it'll see folks filed away from their not quite Pokemon battles to join three factions who'll need to work together in ship battles to fend off a big Robo-eye with a space station-scorching laser.
"Something new, huge and foreboding is hanging in the sky above planets. Unlike anything we've seen before," Hello Games boss Sean Murray warned in The Swarm's reveal. So, you'll be bunged into a faction via personality test and asked to chip in as the fight against "an existential threat to the universe" dubbed the Hive of Glass. That's the big robo-eye, which sends out brigades of drones and charges up its eye laser to take out freighter fleets. Naturally, that sort of behaviour can't be taken lying down.
"A war effort is being launched from the Nexus, with defenses rapidly being constructed, and a new bulletin page tracking progress," Murray's call to arms declared. "Your contribution to the face-off with the Hive is being logged for all to see in both the Anomaly and the Galactic Atlas. Travellers will want to keep a constant eye on which squad is contributing the most to the war effort. The most effective faction will be memorialised in the Space Anomaly for all time!"
As for how you fight back, the answer's taking part in spaceship battles, investigating crashed drones, defeating miniature planetary swarms, and researching how to mess with The Swarm's comms. New gear awaits those who do the best job of poking the Hive of Glass in its robo-iris.
As someone who typically just wanders around looking at the colourful scenery and building little bases amid said scenery when I fire up NMS, I'm not sure I'll dig it doing its best impression of an offensive similar to Helldivers 2's ever-raging galactic war. That said, the comparative lack of shootering helps set the two apart, as does No Man's Sky's emphasis on staging its big battles far above the surface of planets.
If nothing else, there'll be something Star Warsy to the adrenaline rush of joining in a ship fight and taking down some killer drones. Plus, if players aren't quick enough to get on top of things, that eye-laser sounds like it could cause some real trouble throughout the procedurally-generated galaxy for however long it sticks around.