Light No Fire’s Winter Reveal

As 2024 keeps rolling, it’s easy to forget about games announced mere months ago. Every day there’s something new to play or talk about, and non-AAA products can have a hard time grabbing headlines. The controversial 2023 Game Awards show previewed Light No Fire, the next release from Hello Games. The media coverage of Light No Fire’s reveal was lacking, to say the least.

Yes, I know Hello Games’ overpromising and subsequent under-delivering of No Man’s Sky was disappointing. And yes, creator Sean Murray’s claim of an earth-sized world for Light No Fire is mighty ambitious. However true these criticisms may be, I have faith in Hello Games to deliver here. Analyzing the development journey of No Man’s Sky (NMS), I’ll explain why I feel this way.

A Rocky Start

Leading up to its August 2016 release on PC and PlayStation 4, No Man’s Sky was an object of mass hype. A precursor to Starfield, it boasted a nigh-infinite number of planets and moons to explore. It showcased spaceship travel, base building, and crafting mechanics as well. As mentioned previously, these lauded promises fell flat on launch day.

The planets were barren and boring. Traversal felt like a chore, combat was unengaging, and crafting was tedious. Base building wasn’t even an included feature upon launch! Even as someone who thoroughly enjoys the game today, its debut was a major letdown.

I wasn’t alone in feeling this, either. When the game failed to meet the public’s expectations, review scores, particularly on Steam, plummeted. Granted, these unmet expectations were partially the fault of gamers themselves. As with any release that promises the moon and the stars (pun intended), anything short of perfection can be seen as a flop.

The Long and Winding Road

Okay, so No Man’s Sky’s release was less than stellar. And yes, that was yet another pun. As a tidal wave of negative reviews began to flow in, Hello Games easily could’ve thrown in the towel. Maybe the scope of what was promised was too ambitious to deliver on. Nevertheless, the team decided to stay the course and build out from the foundation they built.

After missing the mark on a game’s release, studios sometimes try to pile on free updates/DLC to get back into the good graces of their fans. Cyberpunk: 2077 immediately comes to mind as an example of this practice. But free content as a means of damage control doesn’t last forever. After fixing their mess, CD Projekt Red would release paid DLC in the form of Phantom Liberty. Hello Games released so many pro bono updates for No Man’s Sky, that they basically created an entirely new game. Yet, as of the writing of this article, they have yet to charge for a single one.

Sincerest of Apologies

Starting in Fall of 2016, Hello Games began a massive update campaign to flesh out the NMS experience. Each installment usually focused on a game-changing feature. New ships, new stations, more planetary diversity, settlement management. Hindsight is always 20/20, and of course, people could say NMS should’ve had all of this at launch. However, Hello Games fell flat on their face and continued to build anyway. Free of charge. For what will soon be eight years.

The constant stream of free content has evidently worked its magic. The poor Steam reviews I mentioned previously have now, after a long and arduous process, turned mostly positive. I know plenty of people personally who once openly hated NMS, and now love it. 2021’s Frontiers update, which added the aforementioned settlements, was what really reinvigorated the game experience for me. I’ve always enjoyed games that let you act as “mayor” or “overseer” of a town. Plus, urban centers like the ones added here made the limitless galaxy seem that much more alive. Previously, life had to be found in sporadic space stations, or singular buildings scattered across a planet’s surface.

Turning the Tide

Unless Hello Games enjoys having the odds stacked against them, Light No Fire should fare much better upon release. I mean, their team are now grizzled veterans of an eight-year free update campaign. They have systems developed for these updates that will easily slot into Light No Fire, like settlement management. No developer, much less a micro-team like this, wants to work for free, forever.

This clean slate means that, yes, Hello Games likely will charge for Light No Fire DLC/updates. Maybe this will upset some of their fanbase, but it really shouldn’t. The truth is, they could’ve started charging for their No Man’s Sky updates ages ago. Cyberpunk: 2077’s turnaround and cap-off with Phantom Liberty was questioned by nobody, and rightfully so. Monetization isn’t inherently an evil thing, it just has to be earned. If Light No Fire releases in a solid, playable state from day one, Hello Games’ history should afford them some leeway for microtransactions.

My Hopes for Light No Fire

With little announced around the game so far, Light No Fire is a bit of a mystery. Judging by their reveal trailer, it looks and feels similar to NMS – just in a fantasy setting. Personally, I hope they improve the survival mode mechanics for this release. This game will surely be less of a survival-focused endeavor, but improvements are needed nonetheless.

Almost every survival playthrough of NMS has pushed me into completing what is essentially a cookie-cutter, relentlessly grindy tutorial. You’re always tasked with rebuilding a crashed spaceship by resource farming, usually on a hazardous planet. Your memory is lost, and so you seek answers in the stars. I want to enjoy a fresh survival playthrough, but I loathe going through this introduction every time. Light No Fire should offer either more variation in starting conditions, or a more compelling story to latch onto. Perhaps both.

More Focus on Story?

Further to my point about a compelling story, I think the fantasy setting provides this game a great opportunity. No Man’s Sky had little to no story to speak of. Fantasy worlds are heavily reliant on lore and legends to make people invested. The world might be procedurally generated, but adventurers need to feel a sense of purpose. Let me be clear: Hello Games doesn’t need to create a fully-functioning RPG here. However, some voiced, narrative-driven quests would be warmly welcomed.

Settlements should be a feature at launch, perhaps larger than in NMS. Micro-fiefdoms with castles, markets, houses, and farms scattered around the world would be awesome. Without space stations of the sci-fi genre to use as places of rest, settlements will need more breadth.

Feelin’ Punchy?

Lastly, combat, specifically ground combat in Light No Fire, should be improved upon from its predecessor. As a space survival sim, No Man’s Sky was focused more on exploration from launch. Updates added tools to improve and enhance combat, but this mostly focused on starfighters. If we’re (presumably) going to be slaying trolls and dragons, I need a sword to feel good. The fantasy genre is also never complete without magic and potions. NMS’s elaborate crafting system could easily create spells and elixirs.

If they can hit on all or most of these conceptual features from launch, Light No Fire will be in good shape to grow and succeed. People will gladly traipse through this fantasy world with friends, so long as it doesn’t feel like a chore.

A Final Word on Light No Fire

I’m really hoping we hear more about Light No Fire and its gameplay soon. I have doubts that this will release by the end of 2024, but it could definitely be slated for Q1 2025. This title could also benefit from a resurgence in fantasy games and media as of late. Baldur’s Gate III, the upcoming Fable, a new Lord of the Rings movie dropping Holiday 2024. Fans of fantasy are eating good right now, no matter how you slice it. Light No Fire should be able to offer their own unique flavor to this slew of releases.

This article was as much about No Man’s Sky as it was about Light No Fire. Hello Games needs a win out of the gate here. Unless they’re incredibly negligent, I think the Hello Games team has learned from their mistakes. They know the consequences of overpromising before launch. The repair work done to a failed launch should propel this release to a good spot from Day one.

Author Credit: Jacob MacDonald