Outer Wilds Review - No Progress, Only Exploration.

I just rolled The Good Credits on Outer Wilds, and I find myself…having some feelings about it.

It’s a common refrain from this game’s boosters to “go into it not knowing anything about it”. Aside from the game being both highly recommended and critically acclaimed, that’s what I did. And honestly, that was bad. I had an okay time with it, and I see how I could have had a better time. There are a few things I’d wish I’d known; that’s what this post is about.

The Steam store page describes Outer Wilds as an “open world mystery about a solar system trapped in an endless time loop.” And this is true. But this suggests that this game is about solving this mystery. It’s not. And if you try to make it about that, you’ll probably Have A Bad Time.

It’s not even a game about the journey of solving this mystery. That suggests “something building on something”, which kinda happens, but not in any thorough or cohesive way. You learn some things, they sorta connect together, but drawing together a full story never really happens. If you want to understand everything, I suggest you beat the game, then read the wiki. Then it will almost make sense.

No - what I ultimately came to is: this game is about exploration.

The solar system is neat. You start every loop with your own plan, and you are in complete control of your experience throughout - the game never pushes you in one direction or another. Flying between the planets is a mix of fun and frustrating. The space ship feels like a wooden Kerbal rocket; you’ll spend a lot of your time fighting it, and it will never be your friend. When you land, there’s lots of little nooks and crannies to explore on every planet, many of which change over the course of the time loop. There’s things to find, things that can be found, and things you’ll never find. Some are cool, some are boring. That’s okay. If you want to play this game, just accept that now.

You arrive at places too early. You arrive at places too late. Sometimes you’ll luck out and find a piece of interesting information along the way. The fun is had in exploring these places - not because they relate to each other or advance the story, but because they are, in and of themselves, kind of interesting. There’s no way to discern if what you find is important to progress or not - it is simply another piece of information that may connect with other pieces you’ve already found. There’s few markers guiding you, and the game doesn’t help you along. The only thing you can do is explore, haphazardly, through trial and error. If you want to play this game, just accept that now.

I harp on this for two reasons.

The first - and biggest - is that you can’t save the game. Saving only occurs either at the end of the time loop or when you die. You can’t trigger a save manually, and dying is remarkably hard. If you decide to quit early, you will just end up at the start of the time loop anyway. If you screw up (and you will, a lot), your only sensible options are either to wait until the end of the time loop, try to launch yourself into the sun, or explore something else. This mechanic means, if you try to accomplish any specific thing, you’ll usually end up wasting a colossal amount of time. This is simply how the game works. If you want to play this game, just accept that now.

The second reason is that this game doesn’t care about your progress. There’s no skill or expertise you develop. You don’t find any loot, and there are no upgrades. Solving one puzzle doesn’t help you solve another. You have a couple of tools, which you’ll use once or twice, at times you don’t expect, and in ways you don’t anticipate. The learning curve is a brick wall. The only achievements are for things that are completely irrelevant to the story. If you want to play this game, just accept that now.

I make it sound like this game isn’t fun. It can be fun! But the fun is in the exploring - nothing else. This game is lovingly-crafted, and there is a lot to find. The characters are cute and fun. Each planet has it’s own unique dynamics, challenges, and experiences. This is the one place I agree with the boosters: it will be better for you if I don’t say any more about it. Is anything here you’ll find deeply insightful? Unique? Life changing? No, in the same way a lot of games don’t have these things. But it can be fun.

What I will say is: if you can’t solve a puzzle in one or two tries, look up the solution, then move on. Maybe put the game down, play another for a while, then come back to it, just to spend a little time in it’s cute little universe. Outer Wilds isn’t about achieving anything or solving anything - it’s about simply being in the moment, in an interesting place, and wanting to see what’s out there.

Now that I’ve played the game, I wish I would have known that earlier. If you haven’t played it and still want to, just accept that now…then give it a try.