Outer Wilds is an exploration based game created by Mobius Digital. In this game, the player controls an unnamed astronaut trapped inside a 22 minutes time loop. When the last grain of sand falls, the sun will explode and you wake up again, in your campfire side bed, to start all over again. Outer wilds is a meditative experience about death and the universe, about exploration, discovery, history. It is also a technical wonder of a videogame. It’s a simple concept wrapped with a tremendous amount of love and precision that I simply think this game is a masterpiece.

• Unbound freedom of space voyage inside a carefully built and simulated solar system. The game evokes such a tremendous feeling of discovery in most parts of the game.
• Spaceship and Zero G controls that feels authentic, but doesn’t get bogged down by obsession with realism that it becomes cumbersome.
• Great story told masterfully. The game never tells you any objectives at all, but the exposition is created no matter which planet you start with, the trails of plot and mystery can be followed naturally.

• Brittle Hollow can be annoying to traverse
• Auto-pilot can be dumb and launch straight into the sun sometimes

The whole game is a race against time from discovering a clue about a location and actually discovering them. Your time will be spent mostly on flying, walking and figuring out a way to some point. Spaceship control is tight, without being too arcadey nor obsessed with realism that made it a clunky death trap. Auto-pilot is decent as long the sun isn’t directly between you and your destination. Zero-G control also feels good and very authentic. Gravity changes depend on the size of objects, your distance from it and experimenting with how physics works is always fun. There are quite some wonderful navigation puzzles like delving into underground labyrinths that are slowly being filled with sand, or figuring a way into a frozen comet. The exploration is almost player motivated. While it has a goal, the game doesn’t tell you about it at all, but the player's own curiosity will propel them to the end.The most unique aspect of Outer Wilds is that physics is simulated. Gravitational pull of the planets, their orbits, even events that are happening during the 22 minutes loop. Using this, the astronaut is forced to take everything into consideration. The planets aren’t stationery, so even using autopilot, to land, the planet still moves below you so you must adjust your velocity. Time’s flow, the celestial’s body relative location to the sun, etc can be a crucial part in solving puzzles.You are also given several tools to help with your adventure. The first and your best friend is the scout. It’s a wireless camera that you can shoot and will stick on the surface of things. The scout can take monochrome photos and this will help you survey a distant landmark whether it’s safe or not. It also can detect deadly ghost particles that will kill any living being that enters its vicinity. On top of that function, it can also be used as a lightsource. The second one is Nomai translator, an extinct race central to the background of the solar system’s history and the mystery of the exploding sun. their writings are your main source of information and plot exposition. The last one is the radio receiver that lets you listen to radio signals from quite a distance. Specs: GTX 1080, Ryzen 3700x, 16GB RAM, 1440p 60HzThe game is well-polished for me. I didn’t encounter any bugs or crashes/ freezes. With my decent rig, it ran at 60 FPS with some drops to 50s in some more intense locations. Beware that this game has pretty demanding CPU requirements due to the simulation it is doing at a time.You are an unnamed rookie astronaut, the latest recruit from The Outer Wilds Ventures. All your seniors have spread their wings and visit other planets. The hearthian species’ hope lies upon you, as you are the first recruit to be armed with Nomai translator. Hearthians have studied this enigmatic race. Who are they? Where did they come from? What is the secret of their advanced technology? How did they die? With endless curiosity and presumably years of training, you’re ready to take off to solve this mystery once and for all. Just before the launch, a Nomai artifact activated on you that send your memories back in time for 22 minutes. As you travel the solar system, you find out that the sun is exploding, just for you to be sent back at the beginning, beside the campfire with your buddy roasting marshmallows. With the central mystery established, you trek along the planets for clues and information, buried deep within the skeleton of an ancient civilization. I enjoyed every discovery, and texts in the outer wilds. Each clue leads you to otherworldly vistas, or answers to questions lingering in your mind. Most of the story in the game is conveyed with the background text or environmental storytelling. The strength of Outer Wild’s visual lies in the art direction and how masterfully each location is put together. The solar system is an expansive and beautiful diorama waiting to be explored. Each planet is an otherworldly panorama that invokes a sense of wonder and excitement. Floating through space feels pretty much like you are the main character from David Bowie’s famous song ‘Space Oddities’. My favorite example are the Ash Twins, the first planets from the sun. They are engaged in an endless ballet of sands and gravity. Sand from one planet flows into the other, as one loses their mass, and one gains mass. The gravitational seesaw is reversed, and the sand goes back. Witnessing this celestial dance was such a marvel it made me say “wow” audibly while playing. The other twin rises from the horizon, bringing an enormous pillar of sand with it, as one reveals its secret buried beneath the sand, the other loses it getting buried. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2231269830The endless vast space of Outer Wilds is carefully designed to be scarce. The void of space, is of course empty. Inside a planet though, it can range from happy and calm to a violent rage depending on where you are. Each planet has a distinct sound that their identities can be distinguished not only from what you see, but also what you hear. The Ash Twins have this constant rumbling of sands rising to the sky (or falling from), Giant’s Deep, an ocean planet with constant raging tornadoes to calming nature sounds of Timber Hearth’s pine forest.The music is also scarce, but what plays usually are catchy or at least appropriate to the situation. The crew members of The Outer Wilds Ventures each broadcast their own instrument. When listened simultaneously through your radio receiver, you get a band playing cosy campfire tune. They are the reason I mostly keep the receiver on, not just to help navigate but also to feel the feeling of companionship while drifting through the empty space. Outer Wilds is personally my undisputed king of exploration game. The joy it gave me while exploring its universe was immense. It tried to do many things and successfully triumphant over its many ambitions. The lack of meta direction from the game might leave some players clueless, it is ultimately intended to be driven by the player’s inner curiosity. I don’t think the game is difficult but it should still be said for players who might prefer a traditional narrative instead of this type of exploration.

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[h1]Overview[/h1][i]Outer Wilds[/i] is an exploration based game created by Mobius Digital. In this game, the player controls an unnamed astronaut trapped inside a 22 minutes time loop. When the last grain of sand falls, the sun will explode and you wake up again, in your campfire side bed, to start all over again. Outer wilds is a meditative experience about death and the universe, about exploration, discovery, history. It is also a technical wonder of a videogame. It’s a simple concept wrapped with a tremendous amount of love and precision that I simply think this game is a masterpiece. [h1][/h1][h1]The Good[/h1][list][*]Unbound freedom of space voyage inside a carefully built and simulated solar system. The game evokes such a tremendous feeling of discovery in most parts of the game.[*]Spaceship and Zero G controls that feels authentic, but doesn’t get bogged down by obsession with realism that it becomes cumbersome. [*]Great story told masterfully. The game never tells you any objectives at all, but the exposition is created no matter which planet you start with, the trails of plot and mystery can be followed naturally.[/list][h1][/h1][h1]The Bad[/H1][list][*]Brittle Hollow can be annoying to traverse[*]Auto-pilot can be dumb and launch straight into the sun sometimes[/list][h1]Gameplay[/H1]The whole game is a race against time from discovering a clue about a location and actually discovering them. Your time will be spent mostly on flying, walking and figuring out a way to some point. Spaceship control is tight, without being too arcadey nor obsessed with realism that made it a clunky death trap. Auto-pilot is decent as long the sun isn’t directly between you and your destination. Zero-G control also feels good and very authentic. Gravity changes depend on the size of objects, your distance from it and experimenting with how physics works is always fun. [h1][/h1]There are quite some wonderful navigation puzzles like delving into underground labyrinths that are slowly being filled with sand, or figuring a way into a frozen comet. The exploration is almost player motivated. While it has a goal, the game doesn’t tell you about it at all, but the player's own curiosity will propel them to the end.[h1][/h1]The most unique aspect of [i]Outer Wilds[/i] is that physics is simulated. Gravitational pull of the planets, their orbits, even events that are happening during the 22 minutes loop. Using this, the astronaut is forced to take everything into consideration. The planets aren’t stationery, so even using autopilot, to land, the planet still moves below you so you must adjust your velocity. Time’s flow, the celestial’s body relative location to the sun, etc can be a crucial part in solving puzzles.[h1][/h1]You are also given several tools to help with your adventure. The first and your best friend is the scout. It’s a wireless camera that you can shoot and will stick on the surface of things. The scout can take monochrome photos and this will help you survey a distant landmark whether it’s safe or not. It also can detect deadly ghost particles that will kill any living being that enters its vicinity. On top of that function, it can also be used as a lightsource. The second one is Nomai translator, an extinct race central to the background of the solar system’s history and the mystery of the exploding sun. their writings are your main source of information and plot exposition. The last one is the radio receiver that lets you listen to radio signals from quite a distance. [h1]Bugs and Technical Issues[/H1][b][u]Specs: GTX 1080, Ryzen 3700x, 16GB RAM, 1440p 60Hz[/u][/b]The game is well-polished for me. I didn’t encounter any bugs or crashes/ freezes. With my decent rig, it ran at 60 FPS with some drops to 50s in some more intense locations. Beware that this game has pretty demanding CPU requirements due to the simulation it is doing at a time.[h1]Story[/H1]You are an unnamed rookie astronaut, the latest recruit from The Outer Wilds Ventures. All your seniors have spread their wings and visit other planets. The hearthian species’ hope lies upon you, as you are the first recruit to be armed with Nomai translator. Hearthians have studied this enigmatic race. Who are they? Where did they come from? What is the secret of their advanced technology? How did they die? With endless curiosity and presumably years of training, you’re ready to take off to solve this mystery once and for all. [h1][/h1]Just before the launch, a Nomai artifact activated on you that send your memories back in time for 22 minutes. As you travel the solar system, you find out that the sun is exploding, just for you to be sent back at the beginning, beside the campfire with your buddy roasting marshmallows. With the central mystery established, you trek along the planets for clues and information, buried deep within the skeleton of an ancient civilization. I enjoyed every discovery, and texts in the outer wilds. Each clue leads you to otherworldly vistas, or answers to questions lingering in your mind. Most of the story in the game is conveyed with the background text or environmental storytelling. [h1]Graphics and visuals[/H1]The strength of Outer Wild’s visual lies in the art direction and how masterfully each location is put together. The solar system is an expansive and beautiful diorama waiting to be explored. Each planet is an otherworldly panorama that invokes a sense of wonder and excitement. Floating through space feels pretty much like you are the main character from David Bowie’s famous song ‘Space Oddities’. [h1][/h1]My favorite example are the Ash Twins, the first planets from the sun. They are engaged in an endless ballet of sands and gravity. Sand from one planet flows into the other, as one loses their mass, and one gains mass. The gravitational seesaw is reversed, and the sand goes back. Witnessing this celestial dance was such a marvel it made me say “wow” audibly while playing. The other twin rises from the horizon, bringing an enormous pillar of sand with it, as one reveals its secret buried beneath the sand, the other loses it getting buried. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2231269830[h1]Audio and music[/H1]The endless vast space of [i]Outer Wilds[/i] is carefully designed to be scarce. The void of space, is of course empty. Inside a planet though, it can range from happy and calm to a violent rage depending on where you are. Each planet has a distinct sound that their identities can be distinguished not only from what you see, but also what you hear. The Ash Twins have this constant rumbling of sands rising to the sky (or falling from), Giant’s Deep, an ocean planet with constant raging tornadoes to calming nature sounds of Timber Hearth’s pine forest.[h1][/h1]The music is also scarce, but what plays usually are catchy or at least appropriate to the situation. The crew members of The Outer Wilds Ventures each broadcast their own instrument. When listened simultaneously through your radio receiver, you get a band playing cosy campfire tune. They are the reason I mostly keep the receiver on, not just to help navigate but also to feel the feeling of companionship while drifting through the empty space. [h1]Conclusion[/H1][i]Outer Wilds[/i] is personally my undisputed king of exploration game. The joy it gave me while exploring its universe was immense. It tried to do many things and successfully triumphant over its many ambitions. The lack of meta direction from the game might leave some players clueless, it is ultimately intended to be driven by the player’s inner curiosity. I don’t think the game is difficult but it should still be said for players who might prefer a traditional narrative instead of this type of exploration. [quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/7871885/]Follow our curator page,[b] OCG-Curations[/b], if you like and want to see more reviews like this one.[/url]