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“And on far-off Earth, Dr. Carlisle Perera had as yet told no one how he had wakened from a restless sleep with the message from his subconscious still echoing in his brain: The Ramans do everything in threes.”
–Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
That’s classic science fiction there. And I dare say this is some classic science fiction right here.
I confused the Outer Wilds with The Outer Worlds for the longest time – both space games, both releasing around the same time. But while The Outer Worlds mildly interested me as a sci-fi RPG from Obsidian, Outer Wilds’ hook captivated me: Groundhog Day (or, I suppose, Edge of Tomorrow) in a solar system – I mean, it’s basically my favorite Stargate episode in game form. I waited for both to release, and while The Outer Worlds ended up sounding like yet another mediocre Bioware RPG from reviews, Outer Wilds had a number of extremely positive review essentially saying the same thing you tell people about Doki Doki Literature Club – go play it, don’t read anything about it.
In that spirit, I’ll be keeping my review to things that happen in your first go around. Similar to Heaven’s Vault, you’re an alien living in a strange system where technology is both primitive and advanced, and you’re out to go translate some alien language. Unlike Heaven’s Vault, you are quite clearly not human and the sci-fi elements are front and center. Hard sci-fi is difficult to pull off in a video game, so most go for very soft and this one is no different. However, it strikes a brilliant balance between fantastical elements that don’t make a whole lot of sense from a scientific standpoint and the more mundane questions that people living on an asteroid with artifacts from a dead alien civilization might ponder: Fermi’s Paradox (or lack thereof), gravity, etc..
Perhaps because of the grounding the game has in reasonable questions, the fantastical elements are easier to accept (though realizing the “solar system” is about 60 km total across was a bit of a shock). It also helps that the fantastical elements have wonderful cohesion with the worldbuilding. There were many times I found myself amazed at how I could read the history of this alien culture by the way things were placed or used in the game world.
Once you get past that, the game is mostly a walking simulator with a healthy amount of puzzle/platforming thrown in. You are given a few tools for your expedition, all of which have a variety of uses and blend with the world marvelously. The marvelous wonders and utter terror of the solar system (and your few means of interacting with it) are fantastic and feel akin to the worlds of Interstellar. The loop is short enough to make you feel pressure, but long enough that you could relax and cook some marshmallows if you wanted. At least in the first hour, mysteries abound and I can’t wait to solve them. I wish I could say more, but it’s truly best if you experience it firsthand. Even if the end doesn’t live up to my first hour, it was one of the best first hours I’ve had in any video game. Live. Die. Repeat.