No Man’s Sky just got a creepy Lovecraftian update in time for Halloween

There is no greater advertisement for the virtues of patience than No Man’s Sky. The game was an underwhelming fart when it first released back in 2016. Now it’s one of the best titles around, thanks to continuing support by developer Hello Games. The company just dropped a surprise Halloween-themed update and it’s pretty darned cool.

The latest release is called The Cursed and it’s filled to the brim with creepy stuff to experience. There’s a whole new “twilight universe” where “players will fight to keep a grip on reality while haunted by visions and voices from another dimension.” Time can shift unexpectedly and players could encounter “spectral anomalies.” There’s also no FTL in this twisted realm, forcing players to strategically use the ancient portal network.

This kind of reality-bending nonsense seems plucked straight out of the Gamecube classic Eternal Darkness or, more recently, the horror fishing sim Dredge. I’m very much here for it.

To navigate this cursed space, there’s a new ship to pilot. The Boundary Herald Starship is a legitimate flying saucer, made from a “Giger-esque coil of tubes, pipeworks and engines.” It’s a real beauty and the developer’s first attempt at designing a retro-style spaceship. The update also includes bioluminescent pets and a new exosuit.

This is a limited-time event, as players will only have around three weeks to explore this twilight universe. However, the glow-in-the-dark pets, updated exosuit and, thankfully, the flying saucer are here to stay.

This is just the latest gameplay update for No Man’s Sky. So far, there have been over 35 major named updates and many more medium-sized patches and the like. In recent months, the developers added the ability to fish and integrated new weather systems.