This brings me to the next brilliant thing about the game: knowledge is its form of progression. Indeed, the more I knew with this loop, the better I could make decisions for the next. Not only because there was the stakes of actually getting back there again (which in some cases wasn't so trivial), but because I was excited to learn as much about the world as possible. Once I had found something new, or figured out something I hadn't known before, it was a mad dash to explore it as effeciently as possible. Not only was it beautiful narratively, and a huge part of the mystery to begin with, but from a gameplay perspective, it added some stakes and adrenaline to exploration. You'd think that the timeloop would make exploration feel rushed, but it's actually the masterstroke that keeps the whole game together. I think the 22 minute timeloop ended up being a perfect constraint for the devs in this regard: every area can be seen in a loop or two, and you can travel to every relevant area from Timber Hearth in less than a minute. The planets and curiosities strewn around the solar system are just bite sized enough that there is no wasted space, but also big enough to still give you that sense of wonder and amazement. It's a little overwhelming (this is a especially true with The Stranger the first time you step into that ringworld you're actually blown away), but not so much that it's indigestible.

At first, you're blown away by the exploration. It just knocks it out of the park in everything it tries to do. The remainder of my review will be filled with spoilers for the base game and its DLC, so fair warning: It's one of the best and maybe more importantly, unique, games of all time. I recommend anyone who is reading this and hasn't already played it to stop reading reviews now, and just buy it and its DLC and start playing already. I have never played a game even remotely similar to Outer Wilds. I'm an old gamer I've been around the block. Some might say Adventure or Puzzle but I balk at those labels too. Wikipedia says Action Adventure but uh, that's not quite right. All I'll say is that it's so different that I even have a hard time even discerning what genre I'd call it.

Even talking about the core gameplay loop and basic features of the game sullies the majesty of it all. Outer Wilds is a 10/10 masterpiece that is best enjoyed blind. Really makes me appreciate its impact on gaming. Having said that, I think Unity as an engine deserves a lot of credit for allowing small teams like this to make such complex sandboxes. This game was a student project! I mean, I guess Einstein was changing our understanding of the universe at the young age of 26, so genius can come young, but that's Einstein we're talking about! Usually in game dev you have to fail dozens of times before pulling off something like this! Maybe it's because the team is so young that they're able to look at games differently, I don't know. What this game pulls off is so revolutionary and innovative that I can't even fathom how this can be the first commercial project for most of the team.

Outer wilds the stranger