Outer Wilds is a game of intense originality, charm and beauty. I stand among the stars gazing at lovely planets as they roll above me, while perplexing secrets moan and rumble below. I’m also less-than thrilled at the prospect of hunting for keys, and backtracking to gated puzzles, which is Outer Wilds’ singular concession to game design cliché.īut these moments quickly phase into new thrills. Sometimes, I hard-quit because I make a mistake that I know can’t be rectified in a single turn. There are imperfections in this game, such as occasions when I feel a flash of frustration because I’ve died cheaply. (How few are the games, set in space, that absent themselves from combat.) Yet, the worlds I visit can be hostile, releasing their secrets with the greatest reluctance. I am never required to fire a laser gun or grapple with enemies. They are bizarre, likable clue-givers who provide moments of comic relief. I encounter other space explorers of my own kind. I gaze at lovely planets as they roll above me At the most, I’m discovering new stuff within three or four minutes of beginning each expedition. There’s a thrill in mastering how to get back to a place within a couple of minutes where it previously took much, much longer. Yes, this is repetitive, but it’s mitigated by superb level design which challenges, at first, and then yields. Once the universe ends, I have to begin again, climbing into my spaceship, blasting off, heading back to the place where I just died. I grapple with the differing surfaces and gravitational fields unique to each planet.Īlways, I face the knowledge of a very hard deadline, a constant tick-tock of peril. I become adept at marshaling my limited resources of propulsion power, oxygen, time and health. I figure out how to use my spacesuit boosters to elevate cliff faces and descend rickety platforms. I learn to master my space-craft’s jets and propulsion, the better to find advantageous landing spots. With each expedition, I search further and deeper, gradually piecing together a picture of a lost species that came before one that held the secrets of the universe Afterwards, I awaken at home, back at T-minus 22-minutes, ready to sally forth again. The twist is that I only have 22 minutes before the sun goes supernova, destroying everything, including poor old me. I take control of a ramshackle spacecraft and set off for nearby planets, moons, satellites, and other heavenly bodies. Outer Wilds’ narrative centers on an alien space explorer who sets out to solve the riddle of a lost civilization. If you want curated lists of our favorite media, check out What to Play and What to Watch. When we award the Polygon Recommends badge, it’s because we believe the recipient is uniquely thought-provoking, entertaining, inventive, or fun - and worth fitting into your schedule. Polygon Recommends is our way of endorsing our favorite games, movies, TV shows, comics, tabletop books, and entertainment experiences.
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