After boggling fans' minds with cryptic bee emoji posts, No Man's Sky lead Sean Murray is finally ready to unveil what Hello Games has up its sleeve: The Swarm.
The new No Man's Sky update – out today, by the way – adds a bit of Helldivers 2 pizazz to the survival game with the Hive of Glass… a "huge and forboding" structure hanging above the planets' atmospheres, waiting for folks to conquer it.
As Murray describes it, "Players are going to need a combined community effort to figure out what is going on." We'll be split into one of three factions and then work from there in competition against the Hive of Glass.
According to the lead, the Hive of Glass is "an existential threat to the universe" – which, of course, means action-packed new space combat.
"Epic space battles are at the core of science fiction, and The Swarm update brings our biggest and most epic space battles to date. The Hive of Glass protects itself by releasing swarms of robotic drones, creating an awesome spectacle of battles with hundreds of ships."
That's not all, though.
The Hive of Glass is a weapon itself – "the largest weapon we've ever seen in No Man's Sky," apparently. It features a laser that can take down everything from freighter fleets to entire space stations.
As for the faction system, the one that contributes the most to destroying this threat will be "memorialized in the Space Anomaly for all time!" In other words, you'll want to really put in the work to be remembered as one of the players who took the Hive down.
There's more to look forward to, too, and not just a spot in the Hall of Fame. "As well as saving the universe," as Murray says, "there are a host of rewards, including a full suit of armor that has a retro sci-fi feel, a new rifle, huge new jetpack, and much more."
I'm ready to see what that "retro" vibe appears as in-game myself, and, yes, I may or may not be hoping for something a little Star Trek-esque.
No Man's Sky: The Swarm offers a nice change of pace from smaller updates like the recent Xeno Arena – let's just hope we fare well against the Hive of Glass.
