No Man's Sky lets us witness its wonders (pictures)

Earlier this week, I had the chance to play the game for about 30 minutes, exploring a solar system with an advanced ecosystem. The transitions between space, atmosphere and land were impressively seamless as I zipped from planet to planet in my spaceship.

The addition of alien characters made the game feel much more immersive than previous demos I've seen. They made me feel like I was an astro-archaeologist truly exploring living planets.

While on one planet, I discovered and renamed various animals, gathered resources, protected myself from the elements, and died after encountering a large nocturnal predator.

The biggest "problem" with No Man's Sky is that the universe is so large, the developers themselves don't even know what's on most planets. That makes it almost impossible to gauge how many interesting vs. desolate planets there might be.

Half an hour wasn't enough. I can't wait for June 21, when it's out on PlayStation 4 and PC.