Summary
Ten years after wowing audiences at VGX with the debut trailer for its sprawling sci-fi title,No Man’s Sky, Hello Games’ head Sean Murray took to the stage at The Game Awards 2023 to raise the bar for open-world games once again. But rather than announcing aNo Man’s Skysequel as many had anticipated, Murray instead unveiled the studio’s wildly ambitious fantasy title,Light No Fire. Moving the action away from the infinite reaches of space and down to the surface of a single planet,Light No Fireis a massive tonal shift from the planet-hopping gameplay of its predecessor.
But even though they differ wildly at first glance,Light No FireandNo Man’s Skyshare some striking similarities. The most obvious of these is their size, with each presenting players with a truly massive game world to explore. Both also take a decidedly freeform approach to their mechanics, with the fewdetails aboutLight No Firerevealed so far hinting at gameplay that echoes the player-directed fun found inNo Man’s Sky. Although they occupy different genres, both represent an attempt by Hello Games to reimagine the concept of what an open-world game can be.
The Sheer Size of No Man’s Sky and Light No Fire’s Worlds Are Practically Unrivaled
When it comes to the size of its game worlds, Hello Games tends to take things to extremes. ForNo Man’s Sky,this meant letting players roam through an expansive cosmos populated with countless worlds, whereasLight No Fireappears to be giving gamers a single, Earth-sized planet to explore.
It is in this distinction thatLight No Firemakes maybe its biggest distinction, having one continuous, ever-expanding world. To deliver these sorts of sprawling experiences, Hello Games has relied heavily onprocedural generation, with the planetLight No Firetakes place on likely serving as the culmination of lessons learned from the procedurally generated planets populatingNo Man’s Sky.
Though neither title necessarily breaks new ground in terms of gameplay, with thetrailer forLight No Fireshowcasing seemingly the same sort of survival and exploration mechanics found inNo Man’s Sky, their sheer scale and focus on player-driven action set them apart from competitors. Like its predecessor,Light No Fireseems designed to give players an unimaginably immense sandbox in which to create their own adventures rather than whisking them through a traditional campaign.
This willingness to let players write their own stories servedNo Man’s Skywell, and it could prove to be even more crucial toLight No Fire’s success.
Light No Fire Represents an Evolution of a Winning Formula
Outside of the curatedExpeditions inNo Man’s Skyplayers are largely left to their own devices, and this freeform approach to gameplay has helped it develop a loyal fanbase over the years. With the addition of cooperative multiplayer to this already successful formula,Light No Firecould represent a bold step forward for Hello Games and the open-world genre overall.
Hello Games hasn’t yet revealed the scope of these multiplayer mechanics, but letting players work together to reshape an Earth-sized world iswildly ambitious forLight No Fire. Though finding a way to let gamers leave their mark on the world in a meaningful way could prove difficult regardless of whetherLight No Firefeatures a single, massive instance or relies on the smaller servers familiar to MMO players, Hello Games seems to believe it’s up to the challenge. If it succeeds,Light No Firewill likely have an influence on open-world games for years to come.
WhileLight No Fire’s solitary planet may seem limiting compared to the endless space ofNo Man’s Sky, the pair are two sides of the same coin in terms of their scope and scale. And if it can deliver the sort of expansive, exploration-based multiplayer experience that many players hopedNo Man’s Skywould be when it was first announced,Light No Firecould be Hello Games’ most impressive release yet.
