E3: No Man's Sky gameplay trailer shows an infinite universe with space travel and dinosaurs

During Sony’s E3 revelations, one of the games that caught our attention was No Man’s Sky, a shooter, flyer, exploratory game set, well, everywhere and in, possibly, every time. There are dinosaurs here, after all. The game will debut on PS4, though the exclusivity has not been made clear, so it could make the jump over to Xbox at a later date.

Developed by Hello Games, NMS is set in an infinite universe created by procedural generation and the game mainly revolves around exploration and survival. Being an open world game, there are literally hours to kill while hopping from planet to asteroid and other celestial bodies.

The video shows a player surveying an alien terrain infested by giant dinosaur-like creatures. The stylised artwork is quite unlike the real world design we see in many games nowadays, and breathes a unique life into the settings. As the video shows, you could hop on a spacecraft and take off in to space to engage in what seems like Star Wars-like space combat.

The game features a open universe where you can fly seamlessly from the surface of one planet to another. Every star featured in the game is a star that can be visited. The procedural generation within the game helps every creature, geological formation, plant and spaceship to be unique.

The game builds on the concept of being alone and vulnerable in a massive universe. Players can face threat in deep space or thick forests, barren deserts or dark oceans. The game requires the player to collect precious material and trade them for upgrading spacecraft, suit and equipment.

The game also features parallel universes where the player can choose to share their discoveries with others. The other players are never visible during play but players can leave marks for other players to see. Consider this to imagine the scale of the universe: No two players will start on the same planet or star, which almost guarantees a different experience for each player.

All in allm it looks like a brilliant take on the open-universe model, with elements of fighting and flying thrown in with some existential commentary. It is one of the most visually impressive launches this E3.