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No Man's Sky
Accessibility Report
23 Accessibility Features
We've documented 23 accessibility features for No Man's Sky, including Guaranteed Progress, Low Pressure, Select Difficulty, No Button Combos and No Repeated Pressing. Its accessibility is strongest in Controls and Getting Started but it also has features in Reading, Audio, Communication, Difficulty, Navigation and Visual to reduce unintended barriers.
This report is created with input from accessibility experts and the player community to help people find games that have the accessibility features they require. Once you have found potential games on the database, there are excellent specialist accessibility sites that offer in-depth reviews to guide your purchasing decisions.
No Man's Sky is a space simulation about exploring endless planets and galaxies. It invites you to take your spaceship to explore and colonise a universe rich with diverse planets, creatures and fauna. Facing so vast a space is daunting at first, but a rhythm of survival, combat and trading draws you into a space drama of your own making. Choose a home planet and join other players to subdue the wilds of this breathtaking universe.
External examiner, Angela Hickman Newnham, first checked No Man's Sky accessibility 2 years ago. It was re-examined by Angela Hickman Newnham and updated 2 years ago.
Accessibility Notes
Accessibility NotesCreative Mode offers you an opportunity to explore the game in a low-pressure setting, with unlimited life and resources and no building costs. Multiplayer mode is cooperative, you work together with other players to complete missions, so the difficulty depends on the team composition and the mission selected. A new Relaxed mode was added with the WayPoint update. This, and the improved tutorial guides new players to become familiar with exploring the universe on their own.
The option to manually save anytime isn't available to you until they can build a portable save point, before that you are only able to autosave by exiting your ship or activating a beacon.
Game Details
Game DetailsRelease Date: 10/08/2016, updated in 2022
Price: 60% off
Out Now: Mac, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox X|S
Skill Rating: 12+ year-olds
Players: 1 (4 online)
Genres: Adventure (Creative, Role-Play, Simulation and Traversal)
Accessibility: 23 features
Components: 3D First-Person, Day and Night, Open World, Persistant World and Weather
Developer: Hello Games (@HelloGames)
Costs: Purchase cost
Controls
We've documented 7 accessibility features for Controls in No Man's Sky which deal with how you control the game, different options for alternative inputs and whether you can remap these settings to suit your needs.
Gamepad
Can play with the following:
Can play with multiple buttons and two sticks.
Remap Controls
Can customise the controls for the game as follows:
Invert X/Y Axis: Can invert the direction required to control looking and aiming. This enables you to match your instinctive orientation when looking.
Button Combinations
Specific button operation required to play
Rapid Repeated Pressing Optional: Quick, repeated button pressing (more than 2 times a second) is not required, can be skipped or switched to holding a button to trigger a repeated action.
No Simultaneous Buttons: Only one button or key required at a time, in addition to direction stick(s).
Controller Vibration
Vibration Optional: Controller vibration not used in the game or you can disable it.
Informative Vibration: Controller vibration indicates events or interactions in the game, echoing visual and audio cues. This can provide additional information about progress, approaching enemies or hitting a target.
Sensitivity
You can adjust
Adjust Mouse/Stick/Touch Sensitivity: Adjust how sensitive touch/mouse/stick controls are.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Controls
If you want to play No Man's Sky, but it doesn't offer the Controls accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Controls accessibility:
- Sail Forth (16 Controls Features)
- Outer Wilds (12 Controls Features)
- Minecraft (11 Controls Features)
- Astroneer (10 Controls Features)
Difficulty
We've documented 1 accessibility feature for Difficulty in No Man's Sky which deals with how you can adjust the challenge of play, and whether this is locked once chosen or can be adjusted as you play.
Difficulty Options
Select Difficulty: Select the level of difficulty from a range of presets. This not only offers a way to adjust the challenge of a game but enables you to do so without dealing with individual criteria.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Difficulty
If you want to play No Man's Sky, but it doesn't offer the Difficulty accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Difficulty accessibility:
- Haven (3 Difficulty Features)
- Minecraft (3 Difficulty Features)
- Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown (2 Difficulty Features)
- Star Wars: Squadrons (2 Difficulty Features)
Getting Started
We've documented 6 accessibility features for Getting Started in No Man's Sky which deal with what support is offered to get started with the game. This includes customising the experience when you first open the game via any onboarding processes it provides as well as tutorials and other assistance when you first start playing.
Assistance Getting Starting
These features aid your play of the game in terms of cognitive load on learning controls, dealing with pressure and coping with the environment and challenges.
Tutorials: There are helpful tutorials and instructions on how to play. Information is provided in a timely manner, with appropriate level of detail.
View Control Mapping: You can view a map of controls during play. This clearly displays the mappings of actions to buttons/keys/mouse/keyboard without having to leave the game. This includes games that always display buttons to press during play.
Low Pressure: Game tasks aren't time-limited or there's a low-pressure mode. This avoids the pressure of being put on the clock for overarching missions, or failing tasks because you didn't reach a destination in time.
Assistance For Progressing
These features aid your progress through the game offering different ways of maintaining your progression.
Guaranteed Progress With God Mode: There is no fail state for any game level, where you lose progress or have to start again. Or there are options to make failing impossible: infinite health or lives, unlimited time. Sometimes called God Mode or Unfailable.
Assisted Progress With Boosts: If you fail frequently the game automatically gets easier to ease the likelihood of failure. Or there’s an option to start this happening, like giving more health, lives or power each time you fail. Sometimes called Rubber Banding.
Save Progress Anytime: The game automatically saves progress or you can save any time. This doesn’t mean you never lose progress, but it does mean you can stop whenever you want (without having to get to a save point) without losing progress.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Getting Started
If you want to play No Man's Sky, but it doesn't offer the Getting Started accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Getting Started accessibility:
- Wilderless (10 Getting Started Features)
- Minecraft (7 Getting Started Features)
Reading
We've documented 3 accessibility features for Reading in No Man's Sky which deal with how much reading or listening comprehension is required, how well the game provides visual and audible access to the text and whether subtitles and captions are a good fit for purpose.
Reading Level
How much reading is required to play the game's main path or story and how complex the language is. The presence of voiced characters doesn't reduce this requirement, as it's recorded as a separate datapoint.
Extensive Complex Reading: Extensive reading required. The quantity and complexity of reading is suitable for someone who loves long books and enjoys extended dialogue or narrative descriptions.
Subtitles
Some Speech Subtitled: Some spoken content has subtitles. This reduces the pressure on interpreting all the spoken content, although not everything is captured textually.
Voice Acted
Some Dialogue is Voice Acted: Some of the game dialogue and narrative is voice acted. This reduces the pressure on reading all the dialogue text, although not everything is provided audibly.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Reading
If you want to play No Man's Sky, but it doesn't offer the Reading accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Reading accessibility:
- Star Wars: Squadrons (6 Reading Features)
- Subnautica Below Zero (5 Reading Features)
- Sea of Thieves (5 Reading Features)
- Minecraft (5 Reading Features)
Navigation
We've documented 1 accessibility feature for Navigation in No Man's Sky which deals with how the game provides guidance and assistance to navigate its worlds. These are only for games that have traversal and exploration in 2D and 3D spaces.
Clarity
Visual Directional Cues: Additional in-game visual cues that signpost where to go next and how close you are to arriving. This can be with camera movement to focus on your destination or important items. It can use light, breadcrumb trails, in-world pointers to identify your mission's target location.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Navigation
If you want to play No Man's Sky, but it doesn't offer the Navigation accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Navigation accessibility:
- Sable (7 Navigation Features)
- Minecraft (7 Navigation Features)
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild (7 Navigation Features)
- Sail Forth (6 Navigation Features)
Visual
We've documented 1 accessibility feature for Visual in No Man's Sky which deals with how you can adjust the visuals to suit your needs, and offer additional information if you can't hear the game.
Interactive Elements
Large Game Elements: Game characters and other elements are large and distinguishable. Enemies and player characters are at least 1/6 of the height of the screen. Or there is a zoom feature to make them larger.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Visual
If you want to play No Man's Sky, but it doesn't offer the Visual accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Visual accessibility:
- One Hour One Life (8 Visual Features)
- Sable (7 Visual Features)
- Terraria (6 Visual Features)
- Minecraft (6 Visual Features)
Audio
We've documented 2 accessibility features for Audio in No Man's Sky which deal with how you can adjust the audio of the game and whether audio cues compensate for aspects of the game that are hard to see.
Adjustable Audio
Balance Audio Levels: Set music and game sound effects separately. This enables you to select your preference as well as ensure critical game sounds aren't obscured by other audio.
Play Without Hearing
Play Without Hearing: No audio cues are necessary to play the game well.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Audio
If you want to play No Man's Sky, but it doesn't offer the Audio accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Audio accessibility:
- Star Wars: Squadrons (4 Audio Features)
- One Hour One Life (4 Audio Features)
- Minecraft (4 Audio Features)
- Genshin Impact (3 Audio Features)
Communication
We've documented 2 accessibility features for Communication in No Man's Sky which deal with how you can communicate with other players in the game and what options are available to customise and control this interaction.
Player-to-Player Online Communication
This is how players communicate with each other in online games. This can be to plan strategy, chat as they play or co-ordinate resources.
Voice Chat: Chat to other players on your team or friends list by speaking with headset.
Online Communication Assistance
Speech-to-text: Convert voice from other players to text messages. Transcribes incoming speech from other players into text onscreen in real time. Players who can't hear voice chat can read what other players have said aloud on their screen.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Communication
If you want to play No Man's Sky, but it doesn't offer the Communication accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Communication accessibility:
- Sea of Thieves (6 Communication Features)
- Star Wars: Squadrons (5 Communication Features)
- Minecraft (3 Communication Features)
System Accessibility Settings
In addition to the accessibility features provided in the game, you can also use system-wide accessibility settings:
Nintendo Switch
Nintendo Switch has some built-in features, including a lockable zoom, that can be used on all games.
PC
Windows has extensive accessibility features. Some, like colour correction, work with games. Lots of accessibility software can be used with PC games, from voice recognition to input device emulators.
PlayStation 4
PlayStation 4 has a range of accessibility settings. Some are system only, some work in games (invert colours and button mapping).
PlayStation 5
PlayStation 5 has a range of system-wide accessibility settings.
Xbox One
Xbox One has a system features, the excellent co-pilot share controls mode and adaptive controller support for all games.
Xbox Series X|S
Xbox One has a system features, the excellent co-pilot share controls mode and adaptive controller support for all games.
Read more about system accessibility settings.
Accessibility Report supported by VSC Rating Board, PlayabilityInitiative and accessibility contributors @growingupgamers
