Outer Wilds Reviews

Outer Wilds is an indie space exploration game, with a fascinating and deadly mystery to unravel at the heart of the universe. The experience is both addicting and charming

If there's one game that I would go back and play over again as if it were the first time, it would be Outer Wilds. It's a fantastic space exploration experience that rewards your curiosity to explore and desire for knowledge. The Echoes of the Eye expansion further enhances your journey by introducing horror twists to the classic formula. Now that Mobius Digital has released a 4K60FPS patch on next-gen consoles, there's no reason not to blast off on your spaceship and start your adventure.

The announcement for a DLC to Outer Wilds left many people asking questions about the nature of its story. With Outer Wilds already feeling so complete on its own, players wondered what more a DLC could add to this world. How can you give an answer when there isn't a question?

At its core, Outer Wilds is a game about exploration, knowledge and experimentation. It's the sum of all those parts and more, perfectly blending them together to create one of the most fascinating games of this generation. Outer Wilds proves a micro - as opposed to a macro - take on space exploration works just as well, if not better.

Outer Wilds is a triumphant first-person exploration adventure with innovative (quantum) physics puzzles. More than that, it's a microcosm in itself that pleads to be explored and untangled in its minutiae.

What if The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask took place across an entire alien solar system? That’s essentially the premise of Outer Wilds, a new spacefaring adventure that tosses players into a time loop and asks them to solve an interstellar mystery in the brief 20 minutes before the sun goes supernova. No pressure, right?

Each new discovery or observation brings with it a real sense of joy and wonder and the pleasing notion that you’re the first person to behold each particular oddity. It may not have the grand scale of some other space exploration games but, frequent deaths included, Outer Wilds is such an enthralling excursion that you’d be mad to miss out.

Outer Wilds proves there’s still a sense of genuine adventure to be gained from games that commit to a set, fixed structure and design, rather than the kind of sprawling, endless expanses many contemporary titles set out to become. Playing it brought to mind my favorite bits of Dr. Seuss’ Oh, The Places You’ll Go…except with more of the sun exploding.

I’m just going to get this out of the way from the off. Outer Wilds may well be my favorite game I’ve played so far in 2019. That doesn’t mean it isn’t without its shortcomings, which become particularly prevalent as your space adventure comes to a close, but push through them and keep exploring and you’ve got one of the finest space adventures you can get your hands on.

Outer Wilds’ tricky exploration and puzzle solving is definitely an acquired taste. Its very specific brand of active storytelling differs wildly from highly guided open-worlds that many of us think of when we talk about non-linear gameplay. Though it can be confounding at times when events don’t unfold in precisely the right way, the feeling of discovering something new about the story, or following a couple of facts to something totally unexpected on a faraway planet far outweighs those hiccups.

Explore an exploding solar system in the next great mystery game.

Ultimately, it’s the planets that make this game what it is. Worlds full of mysteries and anomalies. To me they are proof that there is still no substitute for handcrafting your virtual realms. Outer Wilds has more character in its handful of planetoids than No Man’s Sky had in 70 squinjillion. I have loved my time trekking across the dust or ice of these distant dirtballs, seeing the curvature on the horizon and wondering “what’s over there?” This is a solar system in miniature, full of secrets and marvels. And if there is any reason you are holding out on this because it is an Epic exclusive, I want you to fire that sentiment into the sun. You would be a silly space explorer to miss something this bright and big-hearted.

A tale straight from our childhood tree forts—Outer Wilds will reawaken the passion for exploration that you thought you lost.