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one of my top favourite games of all time! And one of the two narrative experiences on that list that I can't talk about with the "uninitiated" (other is Inscryption)
if you like space, and you like thinking - don't look up anything about this game. Watch maybe 5 minutes of some gameplay if you're hesitant.
Though a word of warning, this is a game that'll take all of your focus, it's very hard to play it with a YouTube video or a movie in playing the background. And yes the ship movement can feel clunky at first, you'll get used to it don't worry - the story is worth it
In my experience, if people are going to bounce off the game it’ll come down to one (or more) of three reasons:
- They hate the flight controls
- They hate the feeling of being on a constant timer
- They hate the lack of explicit direction in what to do next
It’s one of my favourite games of all time, and it has good reasons for all of the above, but it’s definitely not for everyone!
And for anyone wondering, my counterpoints to the above would be:
- Learn to use the autopilot but don’t trust it; learning to manoeuvre precisely will come over time
- Don’t overthink the timer element; pick just one thing to investigate and focus on that, anything else is a bonus
- Use the ship’s computer and follow the unknowns; avoid walkthroughs unless you’re absolutely 100% stumped on what to do next
in my experience as a impatient person you simply need to make peace with the timer, it stings at first but then- i think thanks to Outer Wilds i can play souls likes now
because it shows clearly how death is simply a part of the learning experience, it's not a failure
i have no idea if this spoiler is working
It is working for me, at least. The spoilered text is a good summary of the idea too
Whether or not it’s a failure, it’s a waste of time. Imagine if a relaxed open world game constantly interrupted you with cutscenes of your character falling over, slowly waking up, and trudging back to where they fell.
it's not supposed to be a relaxing open world game though?
it's the mystery of the entire game, why is this happening? how do i stop it? It's also the basis of all main mechanics in the game, the entire world is on the clock, some things aren't available at the start or become unavailable as the clock ticks. It's not a pointless gimmick, it serves both a narrative and a mechanical purpose
But there HAVE been other games based around time loops that manage to avoid that frustration, for instance by letting you manually restart the loop yourself in a quick way, or giving other starting points.
Famous examples include Majora's Mask, The Sexy Brutale, and others. I understand Outer Wilds tries to hold the trappings of its story around the loop being more sci-fi than magic/fantasy in nature, but that's still a goal of the writers to wrap the rules of the world around mechanics that are fun to play.
I can even think of many games that gave themselves minor plotholes and odd exceptions to the "world rules" just so that the player could get through it more conveniently.
You can manually restart in OW - it’s an ability you can learn from one of the characters you meet.
I have a friend who stopped for a whole other reason. But I can't talk about it without revealing too much. But basically had to do with bramble and deep, things that don't bother most people much, triggering some actual phobias.
I dealt with that too, sadly. Thankfully there is a mod that can alleviate it. (I'd link it but it'd also reveal spoilers...)
Nice, I'll have to look those up for him. I keep trying to talk him into trying again.