Games like Outer Wilds

[supamat]

Had such a fun time im looking for similar games if they exist. or is this game one of a kind?

[MeatShake]

The game instantly reminded me of Myst for what it's worth. Exploring a weird land trying to figure it out and navigate it.

Off Peak/The Norwood Suite might also be good for that dreamlike atmosphere and weird setting you explore.

[mello]

Try Subnautica

[Mr. Luck]

Majora's Mask...?

[Nert]

Subnautica for exploration (but with crafting and resource grinding)
Return of the Obra Dinn for lateral thinking puzzles (but it hurts your eyes and brain!)
The Witness for non linear learning and puzzles (but no story)
The Sexy Brutale for timeloop shenanigans (but not much exploration)
Minit for timelooping (but you get 1 minute not 22)
Paradise Killer for non-linear storytelling and exploration (but everything is vaporwave)

[supamat]

Some good recomendations. Ive heard of some. ive thought about Subnautica but i dont care about crafting.

The feel i like about this game that i want to find in another:

1. Hand-crafted world where every place is interesting to explore (visually) and the objects around help tell the story and add to the ambionce, not just random objects to fill space. No procidial generation, its borning and uninteresting

2. I love how the environment changes as time passes. some puzzles can only be solved when the environment changes. puzzels are for story information not just progressing through that one part of the level.

3. its casual. no enemies to kill, no stress to complete or feel like racing against ticking clock. can pick up and play.

4. That space western feel. Love the soundtrack and the music played by the NPC's. spend an hour just finding a location where i could listen to all the npc's music and found out its the title screen theme song. also the space flight part of the game is fun, like that. expecially the artstyle, how its like steampunk, but with wood. its a ship made from wood , almost primitive tribal-punk visual to the technology

5. the zero-g, low-g, and high-g, space flight exploration/platforming with jetpack is great too

[MeatShake]

Nothing really has all of those sadly.

1. Myst definitely or any ol' clone of Myst or any of its "sequels" all have funky sci-fi settings juxtaposed with natural or classical environments and architecture, Norwood Suite and everything else that guy's made, oldschool point + click's in general might be up your alley. Observer (getting a remaster soon).

2. Infinifactory (90% puzzles but they're all relevant to the story, space themed, western tones), Return of the Obra Dinn, Talos Principle

4. Steamworld Heist (straight up breaks #3 unfortunately)

5. Hellion (abandoned game but fantastic zero-G game premise), Prey (has combat but it can be toned down to babymode), Hardspace Shipbreaker (has a timer you can disable, cowboy music while you work!).

Totally random one unrelated to your criteria mostly but Sea of Thieves has a lot of puzzles that depend on location, time of day, specific situations, and all relate to the story heavily. It's fairly casual but it's multiplayer so you might run into people who wanna fight.

I will say it's a losing game to try and find more of something you loved with a really strict criteria. Space cowboy theme alone narrows you down to like 20 games ever and most aren't the rest of what you're looking for. I always fall into this trap too and it helps to isolate the big thing you loved that drew you into the game rather than trying to find exact clones of it. For me tone's what I gravitate towards in a game and it helps me find other games I end up loving dearly despite them being totally different from the initial games I enjoyed. Don't be afraid to tread unfamiliar water with "hardcore" games if they offer something you like. Tackling genres I hated to experience what I love was my foot in the door for a lot of stuff I used to despise but now actively play for fun.

[[Lethalvriend]]

I'd recommend Obduction, not sure if it is also on steam. I got it for free on GoG a long time ago and it was a lot of fun. That game has some interesting puzzles and there is no time stress in it at all. It does have a couple tough puzzles and makes use of altering your surroundings to solve them.

[NegentropicNomad]

Check out Antichamber if you want a first person mind bending puzzle game. It's pure puzzle with no real story but if you liked the puzzle aspects of Outer Wilds it's a good choice. It doesn't look flashy or anything but it's a top tier puzzle game. Like Myst or The Witness with the setting stripped out.

[IchBinEinStein]

No love for Firewatch? Just walking around, enjoying the scenery and solving a mysterie.

[wrOngplanet]

This might be a bit of a stretch, but i'd recommend checking out Scavenger SV-4

It's not the same though, but it has the exploration thing going on. But you are stuck in your spaceship, managing its systems and remote controlling a drone of your configuration (via sensors and cameras). There might be some enemies involved, so a bit more action (but it varies). The point is to find stuff on the planet surface that's either worth something, and / or can be used as equipment on the rover.

There's a time limit (which I'm normally not too fond of), it's not fixed but depends partly on how you play. Each game is pretty short, but it's different on each play through (procedural generation). The next time you start a new game it's a different one (but similar). You kind of have to play it several times to get a feel for it (in a way similar to the time loop of this game).

https://store.steampowered.com/app/779590/Scavenger_SV4/

[Skissors_]

I'd also recommend Heaven's Vault.

The game world is essentially a bunch of islands connected by rivers, but the islands are actually floating around in space, so water and/or breathable air is an issue in some places.

As you explore, you find artifacts that have ancient writing on them that you slowly decipher over time, and also direct you to the places they were crafted. Between the artifacts, ancient language, and interacting with the people you meet, you slowly piece together how the world has ended up where it's at.

The decisions you make and the order you make them in matters, so every playthrough is a little different, but the words you've deciphered carry over so each loop you get to learn a little bit more.

[Odahviing]

Hollow Knight, Plague Tale, Dishonored 2 are all very immersive with great worldbuilding and atmosphere.

[tenshi_a]

Heaven's Vault does sound good.

I'll throw in a few:

1) Observation - it's a mystery game set aboard a space station, and you play as it's computer. You mostly investigate via cameras, though there's a bit of zero g flying in it too. It's a bit dark feeling. It's pretty linear storytelling, though.

2) Hypnospace Outlaw - ok this is a bit of a ridiculous suggestion (it's a comedy 1990s internet simulator, 100% reading) but the parallels are : you do explore a whole world (web), you aren't out to kill anyone, stuff changes over time, there are puzzles to solve.

[löyly]

Heaven's Vault is definitely the one it's reminded me most of - space archaeology in an otherwise pretty old-fashioned, low-tech world, steering a vehicle that's more ship than spaceship, exploring and trying to find out more about a lost civilisation.

HOWEVER, I think a lot of people would be disappointed by Heaven's Vault, especially coming from Outer Wilds. It doesn't look nearly as good, that's probably the main difference as far as I can tell so far. IIRC it's also kind of glitchy, and moving around can be a bit tedious. On the plus side, you can have conversations with your robot companion while moving, and there's a whole "ancient" language to decipher for those who are into that - it's optional and contributes to the huge amounts of lore that are neatly organised in timelines. It took me an hour or so to get used to the game, but then I found it really immersive and fascinating.

[Eidoryan]

Deathloop (Arkane studio), coming in 2021 will be close to outer wilds, but without space. Exploration with timelooping and puzzles to understand how to break the loop i think.
Otherwise, subnautica is the closest one with great atmosphere, immersion, exploration and mysteries.