Hello Games and The End

This article contains spoilers for No Man’s Sky’s deep lore and the story of The Last Campfire.

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To many, No Man’s Sky is That Big Space Game Wot Is Basically Infinite. 18,000,000,000,000,000,000 planets. Exploration. Space ships. resource collection. Upgrades on upgrades. 80’s space novel aesthetics, wrapped up in otherworldly soundscapes and enormous procedurally generation.

Hardcore fans of Hello Games largest endeavor see hundreds, if not thousands of hours of existence. Possibility is exponential; potential is limitless. A single human lifetime can not possibly lay eyes on even one one-millionth of the physical space of No Man’s Sky.

Underneath everything No Man’s Sky presents as, a layered narrative of AI’s, heady sci-fi concepts and the end of everything, also exists. Everything that takes place in the game, despite it’s enormity, does so in just 16 real-world minutes. 

According to the lore of NMS, the entire game is a simulation run by an AI. The player character is a representation of the creator of this AI - the Traveler. Said AI has created this representation 16 minutes before the end of the simulation - 16 minutes before the point in time the AI can no longer predict passed. 

This AI, known as “The Atlas”, seeds five messages throughout it’s in game-universe, meant for the Traveler to find. 

The ATLAS witnesses the final sixteen minutes, simulating the future with perfect accuracy.
The walls between worlds fall, each simulation collapsing into the other.
Ten minutes left
The Travelers are no longer separated, no longer kept apart. They stand side by side at the end of days, traversing the remnants of creation, laughing, dying.
Five minutes left
It witnesses its own self, the black hole ripping apart its world, its core systems almost destroyed.
One minute left
And as it watches the moments leading up to its own death, towards completion of sixteen, something happens.
Someone walks towards the ATLAS, a figure in the darkness and in the light. It places its hand against the glass of the ATLAS, and the vision ends
The ATLAS attempts to see past this moment, but it cannot. It cannot see its own death. It cannot determine who this figure is.
But whatever happens... whatever may occur beyond the sixteen... something will arrive. Something will be there beside it.
At the end of all things, it will no longer be alone.

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To many, The Last Campfire is the next project from Hello Games, the creator of the now infamous No Man’s Sky. It is a 3D physics based puzzle game. Straightforward in it’s approach, essentially linear. It’s cuteness is off the scale, with it’s vibrant colours and adorable animation. It is a purely guided experience. It stand’s in polar opposite to Hello Games’ previous title.

Players who experience this game won’t find endless entertainment. This experience is finite, with your play time determined by your puzzle solving skills and curiosity to poke at the edges. A few hours at most will see you through every nook and cranny of the game.

Underneath everything The Last Campfire presents as, exists a journey of lost Embers, beings making their way along the Path, working through their existential crises before reaching their destination: the end.

Though the player exists as their own Ember, another character is the focal complexity of The Last Campfire. Their story is intertwined with this world, and determines why other lost embers have become trapped by it. Hidden messages throughout the game weave the tale of their adventure; one of erecting barriers and devising disruptions on the path, delaying what is to come for all who walk it.

This character, known as “The Wanderer”, created the elaborate lie of The Forest King, the being centered around almost every area you’ve puzzled your way through. They speak to you in the final game’s final sequence.

Behind The Forest King’s puppetry was the Wanderer in the red cloak.
The stranger spoke: “Why didn’t you stop? Why not stay safe in the next I made?"
“Don’t you see? This is all there is. Just… the end."
“What hope can there be in that?"
The stranger had dropped their mask.
Ember knew they spoke the truth.
“The path goes nowhere, but we sail on regardless!"
“Slipping beyond the horizon, one after the other… I couldn’t bear it…"
"In the end I destroyed the boats."
“What have I done?"
Slowly the stranger withdrew.
“I wanted to be a lighthouse for others."
“How do you save others once your light has gone out?"

The Wanderers thoughts had become twisted,
Hiding every day behind a mask.
Watching hopeful ones arrive endlessly.
Knowing the empty path that lay ahead,
Inside their dim light was a hidden pain.
They had watched those they cared for turn forlorn...
They had locked their hope away, tried to protect it.
And Embers actions had seemed a distorted mirror.

The Wanderer searched for words...
“When I reached this place, I could see the truth."
“This is all that there is. There is nothing that comes after."
“How do you face that? I’m not ready."
[You pass your hope to others…] / [You just keep going…]
“I turned back, tried to stop the others."
”Built a little nest, what a mess that was."
“You hope, you try, you fail, and then nothing more."
[It matters that we hope…] / [It matters that we try…] / [It matters that we fail…]
“I thought I was saving them. That they would lose hope if they knew."
“But without an end, they lost hope anyway…"
The Wanderer took a breath.
"I thought…"
“I thought it would lead somewhere. Mean something."
Ember paused.
So many places the path had taken them,
so many others whose paths had crossed their own.
[It’s okay to be scared…] / [The path is what matters…]
”After everything I’ve done, I don’t deserve to move on."
"Only my boat remains. Take my oar."
“Finish your journey, leave this place."
Ember knew the end lay ahead...
Were they any more ready than the Wanderer?
[We will go together…]

*

The question of what comes at the end is unanswerable.

It is a question that will exist until the end of all who might ask it, for it is not a question that can be quantified. 

An unimaginable endless void eighteen quintillion planets wide; a handcrafted afternoon with a definitive outcome.

Both search in hope for what might be, yet come to a singular conclusion.

The end is unknowable. 

We all face it, one way or another.

All we can do is hope to not face it alone.