30 hours later, I’m done with Outer Wilds. I’m blown away by this game what a timeless masterpiece that elevates the medium.
I’ve been going through some hard times this year and haven’t been able to enjoy games as much as I used to. Everything felt empty. I finally decided to start Outer Wilds, since it’s been sitting on my wish list for five years now, and from my first flight into orbit to the very end, I was completely hypnotized. I played it religiously for a week and just WOW this is truly what i consider to be a modern masterpiece.
I want to go over the few points that make this game phenomenal for me.
1/ EXPLORATION: This is the best exploration I’ve seen in a video game, hands down. To me, great exploration was always associated with RPGs with rich worlds and meaningful content like Fallout: New Vegas, Baldur’s Gate 2, Souls games, or Zelda. I would have never thought you could have this level of exploration with no RPG elements, no combat system, and no rewards, not even traditional puzzles. Outer Wilds is not really a puzzle game. You just explore for the sake of exploring, and nothing else.
Another crazy aspect is how 100% non-linear the exploration is. I think everyone is going to have a different experience depending on the order in which they explore the planets. For example, the first planet I explored was the Hourglass Twins, and I’m sure my experience would have been different if I had started somewhere else because this planet gave me a lot of context straight at the beginning.
2/ THE WORLD AND STORY: Both are utterly fascinating and easy to follow. A lot of games like this tend to be hard to follow. In Outer Wilds, you don’t really need to watch a YouTube video to understand what’s going on. Everything makes sense eventually. Everything is intertwined, so depending on the order you choose, you start forming your own theories and its just so fun. The story is just beautiful. I cried at the end.
3/ GAME DESIGN: This one is a no-brainer. The most fascinating thing about Outer Wilds is how knowledge-based it is. I could now finish this 30-hour game in 20 minutes if I wanted to, because I know what to do. That’s a stellar achievement in game design. I don’t believe this has been done at this level before. The game is so full of content it’s ridiculous. A lot of the time, it felt eerie realizing that the answer had been in front of me the whole time.
4/ LACK OF INTERNET USE AND NO BS: This is a special one for me. I didn’t have to use the internet a single time to solve any of the game’s mysteries. I honestly hate it when I have to look things up to progress in a game. Outer Wilds always rewarded my experimentation. Everything clicked. Nothing felt unfair. The ship log was also a brilliant idea. The game has a lot of information, so instead of alt-tabbing and writing everything in a notepad, you can just focus on playing.
5/ PRODUCTION VALUE: Despite being a Unity game, Outer Wilds feels more polished than most AAA productions. They really pushed the engine to the next level. The cartoonish art style is gorgeous, the real-time physics simulation is mind-blowing, and both the spaceship and jetpack feel amazing to use. The game also has an excellent UI and a beautiful OST and sound design. I can’t count the number of times I just sat in awe of what was on my screen.
6/ GAME LENGTH AND CONTENT: Outer Wilds is huge. It took me 33 hours to complete everything. I explored all the planets also done a lot of wandering lol, and each one felt just as dense as the others. One of the game’s biggest achievements is its length. Most experiences like this, which rely heavily on design, tend to be shorter, like Obra Dinn, Portal, talos and we could go on, usually under 10 hours. Outer Wilds is, I believe, the only game that manages to sustain this kind of experience for so long.