Outer Wilds is a well thought out rougelite exploration game, with a great soundtrack and plenty of things to keep you immersed as you try and figure out what is happening and unravel the mystery of your universe. I highly recommend it, and while some areas can be a bit nerve wracking its generally fairly relaxing to play. I’m highly tempted to put it in an educational grouping, as it covers enough science topics while actually being fun to play.

Story
You play the part of a newly qualified Hearthian astronaut, ready to explore the mysteries of your solar system like those before you. But that ends after 22 minutes and you find yourself stuck in a time loop. As the only person who remembers anything from each loop, it’s up to you to continue exploring, figure out what’s going on and see if there’s a way to escape it. The story itself is actually quite involved and your understanding will hinge on what information you find (and how well you understand quantum physics). Important story related information is coloured differently, so there is a good visual clue when exploring if you need to sit and read text (time doesn’t stop when reading)! My only gripe is after a loop all items go back to being marked as unread, so if you are looking for a missing piece of information you need to re-read everything.

Gameplay
The game itself is a excellent tool to teach younger players about the basics of quantum physics, drift, gravity, the solar system and black holes (even if simplified). Gameplay is all about exploration and reading transcripts from a long extinct race on the experiments they performed and chasing up rumours and leads from all the different planets in your solar system. How you go about this is up to you which is great (there’s no right way to play), and many of the planets environments change over the time loop, adding events that you might have missed previously. As you explore more, the rumours and hints join together, weaving a larger picture of what’s happening across the solar system.

Flying the spaceship was interesting, it doesn’t hold your hand when working out vectors, you can easily drift way past planets if you don’t start to slow down in time, or slam into them which ends up marooning you there. Your ship doesn’t like hitting anything at speed, and neither do you when you are planet side in your space suit. It’s fairly easy to build up speed on lower gravity worlds and either shoot into space (you sometimes have a chance to have a controlled decent back to the planet you exited from), or most likely slam into the ground and instant game over, or end up with very little health left. Damaging the space suit is fatal (your remaining air escapes quickly), and constantly using your jump jets depletes your fuel (backup fuel is air).

Graphics
While the graphics aren’t super taxing or detailed each world’s environment is unique, and all look great. While you won’t see specks of dirt on the sand world, or foam in the waves on the water world each planet has enough detail to get its concept across, and help you in your exploration. The use of fog in the bramble world was great to hide the hidden dangers lurking in its murky environment (it’s the only world where there is something other than the environment that’s dangerous to the player). The end of each time loop is interesting to watch if you are close enough to the source and the game has a few different endings depending on certain actions performed in a loop. Breaking space time was particularly funny.

Each planet is completely different to the others (you have 2 planets where the sand from one is transported to the other, a planet where it’s insides (and all the structures you want to explore) are slowly being sucked into a black hole that’s the planets core, one where it has cyclonic activity that shoots structures into space, and one where it’s insides are much larger than it’s outside to name a few. There is no liner path through the game, each area has multiple notes of importance about other areas that help you progress, truly giving you the freedom to explore how you want (in a 22-minute block).

Music
The music and sound effects stand out in the other wilds, with each planet having its own track. While you won’t likely sit and listen to it as the sound effects from your breathing, jump pack and interactions with the environment taking priority as you race through each loop (other than in the bramble world so you can hear the snarls and noises hidden in the fog) each adds atmosphere to each area. A companion is located on each world, and they play a different instrument that forms part of a tune that sounds great when all the planets line up and you can hear the full track. The game isn’t voiced, so if reading text isn’t your thing then you will likely want to play a different game.

DLC
There are 2 DLC options for the game, purchasing the soundtrack (which only includes music from the main game), and purchasing Echoes of the Eye, as newer story that weaves into the main game but is played in a separate area. I thought the soundtrack was good, though can’t comment on the Echoes of the Eye content.

Achievements
If you are aiming for 100% achievements, then there is a bit to do as you need to complete a full speed run of the game in 22 mins, as well as collect all information from each planet. Most of the other random achievements require special actions that you wouldn’t like do, but some are quite humorous. You also need to purchase the DLC Echoes of the Eye and complete all its achievements as well.

For more reviews please visit https://store.steampowered.com/curator/31327216/

Outer Wilds is a well thought out rougelite exploration game, with a great soundtrack and plenty of things to keep you immersed as you try and figure out what is happening and unravel the mystery of your universe. I highly recommend it, and while some areas can be a bit nerve wracking its generally fairly relaxing to play. I’m highly tempted to put it in an educational grouping, as it covers enough science topics while actually being fun to play. [b]Story[/b] You play the part of a newly qualified Hearthian astronaut, ready to explore the mysteries of your solar system like those before you. But that ends after 22 minutes and you find yourself stuck in a time loop. As the only person who remembers anything from each loop, it’s up to you to continue exploring, figure out what’s going on and see if there’s a way to escape it. The story itself is actually quite involved and your understanding will hinge on what information you find (and how well you understand quantum physics). Important story related information is coloured differently, so there is a good visual clue when exploring if you need to sit and read text (time doesn’t stop when reading)! My only gripe is after a loop all items go back to being marked as unread, so if you are looking for a missing piece of information you need to re-read everything. [b]Gameplay[/b] The game itself is a excellent tool to teach younger players about the basics of quantum physics, drift, gravity, the solar system and black holes (even if simplified). Gameplay is all about exploration and reading transcripts from a long extinct race on the experiments they performed and chasing up rumours and leads from all the different planets in your solar system. How you go about this is up to you which is great (there’s no right way to play), and many of the planets environments change over the time loop, adding events that you might have missed previously. As you explore more, the rumours and hints join together, weaving a larger picture of what’s happening across the solar system. Flying the spaceship was interesting, it doesn’t hold your hand when working out vectors, you can easily drift way past planets if you don’t start to slow down in time, or slam into them which ends up marooning you there. Your ship doesn’t like hitting anything at speed, and neither do you when you are planet side in your space suit. It’s fairly easy to build up speed on lower gravity worlds and either shoot into space (you sometimes have a chance to have a controlled decent back to the planet you exited from), or most likely slam into the ground and instant game over, or end up with very little health left. Damaging the space suit is fatal (your remaining air escapes quickly), and constantly using your jump jets depletes your fuel (backup fuel is air). [b]Graphics[/b] While the graphics aren’t super taxing or detailed each world’s environment is unique, and all look great. While you won’t see specks of dirt on the sand world, or foam in the waves on the water world each planet has enough detail to get its concept across, and help you in your exploration. The use of fog in the bramble world was great to hide the hidden dangers lurking in its murky environment (it’s the only world where there is something other than the environment that’s dangerous to the player). The end of each time loop is interesting to watch if you are close enough to the source and the game has a few different endings depending on certain actions performed in a loop. Breaking space time was particularly funny. Each planet is completely different to the others (you have 2 planets where the sand from one is transported to the other, a planet where it’s insides (and all the structures you want to explore) are slowly being sucked into a black hole that’s the planets core, one where it has cyclonic activity that shoots structures into space, and one where it’s insides are much larger than it’s outside to name a few. There is no liner path through the game, each area has multiple notes of importance about other areas that help you progress, truly giving you the freedom to explore how you want (in a 22-minute block). [b]Music[/b] The music and sound effects stand out in the other wilds, with each planet having its own track. While you won’t likely sit and listen to it as the sound effects from your breathing, jump pack and interactions with the environment taking priority as you race through each loop (other than in the bramble world so you can hear the snarls and noises hidden in the fog) each adds atmosphere to each area. A companion is located on each world, and they play a different instrument that forms part of a tune that sounds great when all the planets line up and you can hear the full track. The game isn’t voiced, so if reading text isn’t your thing then you will likely want to play a different game. [b]DLC[/b] There are 2 DLC options for the game, purchasing the soundtrack (which only includes music from the main game), and purchasing Echoes of the Eye, as newer story that weaves into the main game but is played in a separate area. I thought the soundtrack was good, though can’t comment on the Echoes of the Eye content. [b]Achievements[/b] If you are aiming for 100% achievements, then there is a bit to do as you need to complete a full speed run of the game in 22 mins, as well as collect all information from each planet. Most of the other random achievements require special actions that you wouldn’t like do, but some are quite humorous. You also need to purchase the DLC Echoes of the Eye and complete all its achievements as well. For more reviews please visit https://store.steampowered.com/curator/31327216/