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No Man's Sky Ventures Into Uncharted Territory With Worlds II Update Release

The developer also overhauled its lighting system to deepen players' immersion when on land or exploring the underwater areas in the Worlds II update.

By Ashleigh Klein |

First Published January 30, 2025, 09:32

No Man's Sky Ventures Into Uncharted Territory With Worlds II Update Release — (Picture: Hello Games)

Hello Games founder Sean Murray unveiled the latest update that arrived to the open-world exploration survival game No Man's Sky, which is available on consoles and PCs and Xbox Game Pass on 29th January 2025. The Worlds Part II is the direct follow-up to 2024's Worlds update and is touted by Murray as the game's largest update they’ve ever released.

This latest update was detailed in a recent Deep Dive video uploaded to the developer's YouTube channel and in the official announcement post, in which Murray stated that it allowed the team "to push the boundaries of our engine with new technology." Additionally, a preview of some of the new content, features, and more included in the Worlds II update, the full contents of which are explained in the latest patch notes.

According to Murray, the Worlds II update adds "billions of new solar systems and trillions of new planets, and introducing new biomes and terrains without changing what people already love about the game." The terrain system adds vast mountain ranges, canyons, and unique features that were previously impossible due to the new engine technology they're using in development for their forthcoming game, Light No More.

😅 pic.twitter.com/NLMN18DDeH
— Sean Murray (@NoMansSky) January 29, 2025

Another new addition is gas giants, which Murray described as "truly epic, ten times bigger than our biggest planet. It’s truly end-game stuff to explore them with huge storms that rage across the surface."

This new engine technology also allowed it to generate new water-covered planets with unique biomes and oceans "that can be several kilometers deep." This also introduces underwater gameplay, in which players can enjoy exploring the depths of these oceans and discover new lifeforms and interesting features like water responsiveness when traveling through them, creating "ripples and foams as spaceships skirt above them."

Thus, this technology makes these surfaces quite hyper-realistic and reflective of the "ever-changing" volumetric clouds and the vast nighttime skies, making for some spectacular photos through Photo Mode. The update also welcomes a new lighting system featuring "new caustics, light shafts and the deeper that you explore, the darker it gets," which, on land, shadows create more details while underwater exploration can send chills when discovering any lifeforms that reside within the waters' depths.

Finally, new gameplay content will give players the best opportunity to engage with these new additions and optimizations, including a "huge quest that ties together some strands that we’ve been building for years. We’ve got an expedition that takes you on a tour of all the new worlds that we’re building, and it’s got some incredible rewards."