"No Man’s Sky" provides a soulful antidote to our anxious times

What’s the plot of No Man’s Sky? The simple answer: you’re a space explorer who wakes up on an alien planet, without any memory of how you got there. You’ve got to repair your ship, take off into space, and explore the galaxy for answers. Along the way, you’ll discover endless new species of flora and fauna, fight enemies on land and in space, make connections with likeminded explorers, and more, as you search for the answers to the universe’s mysteries and your own.The more accurate, less simple answer? The plot is whatever you want it to be. This is the largest, most complex open world game of all time.“Open world” games invite players to wander their environments, free from the rigid, linear maps of old-school video games. Maybe you’re a knight crossing the hills of a medieval fantasy world to find magical artifacts, or a bad-seed gunslinger, ruthlessly galloping through the West in search of infamy and fortune. These games have primary missions, or “stories,” that players spend vas...