Outer Wilds

[mfnick]

Well that’s a turnaround. As some of you know I just could not get into this at all before. But because of all the GoTY lists and wins I thought I better give it another go. I’ve just spent 3 solid ours on it and enjoyed every minute. I’m not saying it’s the best game of all time or even this year (yet) but I’ve done a complete U-turn on my opinion.

I will say what helped me this time though was reading a couple “getting started” guides and reading a few posts on just how to play it really. They’ve made all the difference, I now know how to use the ship log thing and can actually play it more like a game where I’ve got “objectives”, not just wandering about aimlessly fighting poor controls- which I’m also getting more used to. Think I came into it with a different mind set too where I was willing to explore and read a bit more whereas before I just wanted to know what the hell to do. 

 

Defo recommend people give it another go if they bounced off it like I did. A couple of pointers:

Just spend the first 15 minutes or so properly exploring, reading, chatting and doing all the stuff at least once on the opening planet. This will give you a idea how things work and help you partly get used to the controls. 
Next go to the moon, use the translator on there and speak to the loner. Then go to your ship log and you’ll see blocks and descriptions start filling out with pointers on what to do and where to go next. Follow these, translate, explore and just keep checking the log. That’s basically all I’m doing and it’s giving me a route and objective list to go at which I find has helped me massively in enjoying this game. 

@Maf Was correct regarding the Giants Deep planet too. It’s incredible. 
 

 

[one-armed dwarf]

Yeah, it's basically just that. Wander around reading a really interesting story.

 

It's done so well, even if some parts are just way too hard and frustrating imo

 

It's also like an open ended set piece and just being in the right spot to witness something amazing is rewarding by itself.

[Maf]

I’ve largely forgotten the story at this point. For me the game is all gameplay. Well, not moment to moment gameplay, though I don’t seem as bothered by controls as others do, but the eureka moments are the key. No other game, in my experience, has really done those like this before. Even Breath of the Wild, which is a vast game with so many surprises, none of them really do it like this. The only thing that really springs to mind is Super Metroid. When you fall down the pit and then learn you can wall jump, and then your mind is blown you could do that all along. Outer Wilds does stuff like that over and over, but even then the times it explicitly shows you that is rare. I always felt like I was putting the pieces together myself and multiple times learnt something that made me rethink everything.

 

The game for me is genuinely profound, but achieves emotion in such a unique video game way. There’s a sense of smallness and loneliness that the game accomplishes through tone and writing, but beyond that the game is just a series of plot twists but it isn’t the plot that’s twisting. It’s the understanding of it’s own little universe. My favourite thing about games are surprises, but I don’t think I’ve ever played a game where the surprises are this changing. I say it’s like plot twists without the plot, but the realisation of the gameplay elements still hit me like story moments in film. Sometimes it made me feel small by me learning something so huge, sometimes it made me feel helpless by observing something so out of my control, sometimes it made me feel melancholy with the way it ends the runs. But for me it earns it all and almost singularly through gameplay. Mostly games operate on gameplay makes you feel big and strong, story cutscenes fill in the rest. But this game is magnificently bold and even if not perfect, there are definite frustrations with the game, the rest of video games have so much to learn from this. I really feel like it’s a whole new level to maturity in game design.

[Maf]

Won Eurogamer GotY as well

 

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019-12-31-outer-wilds-goty-2019

 

Knew I wasn’t out of my mind when I played this 

[radiofloyd]

Also voted Game of the Year by RockPaperShotgun. 

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2019/12/24/the-rps-advent-calendar-2019-dec-24th/

[one-armed dwarf]

Danny's doc, which I've watched exactly 22 minutes of, in it the creator says that OW was sort if a reaction to two Zelda titles. One was Wind Waker, how there is an NPC in it who takes pictures of the world and you can go look for the locations

 

The other was Skyward Sword, and apparently Alex Beechum (lead design) hates that game and wanted to make something that wasnt like that ?

 

I havent played either of these but found it interesting, especially given the BOTW-ness of OW which is probably coincidence more than anything

[Maf]

One only for the real G’s

 

[one-armed dwarf]

This is out on steam now. I picked up 33 percent reduced. It's unlikely I'll play through the whole game again given the kind of game it is but I'm looking forward to maybe revisiting and re-reading parts of the story and lore I forgot, because that is the most rewarding part of it I feel.

 

I went to brittle hollow and called back a space shuttle. I very cleverly moved the control ball into the right and blasted myself directly into the firey moon orbitting. I obviously did this on purpose with impeccable timing, it definitely wasn't a thing I did by accident or anything like that. Pretty skillful, shame I didn't clip it

[radiofloyd]

5 hours into this, I love it.

 

Spoiler

Currently exploring Brittle Hollow which is really cool. And also at times, fucking terrifying. There’s something kind of terrifying about falling into that black hole, or when the game blasts you off to the farthest reaches of space with just your spacesuit. In my last run I made it to the Eye of the Universe thing in the snowy area. I’m gonna keep exploring Brittle Hollow for a while as it’s just amazing.

 

[radiofloyd]

This game is so cool.

 

Spoiler

I had a few fun falls through the black hole. One of which led me to travel to Giant’s Deep - on foot - which was absolutely terrifying. Another time I latched onto roaming spaceship which turned out to be a warp tower back to Brittle Hollow. “Cool” doesn’t even begin to describe it. I’m going to continue exploring the Hanging City and the Black Hole Forge area.

 

[one-armed dwarf]

When people say 2019 was a weak year it blows my mind tbh, it really had some of the best games of the generation in my opinion.

[Jimboxy]

12 hours ago, one-armed dwarf said:

When people say 2019 was a weak year it blows my mind tbh, it really had some of the best games of the generation in my opinion.

Didn't you say that...?

 

EDIT, remembered you where talking about 2020 being a weak year.

[radiofloyd]

This game continues to be wonderful.

 

Spoiler

I had missed it before but I discovered the giant bridge connecting the Black Hole Forge area and the Crossroads (in Brittle Hollow). I realised that all the areas I discovered I could have found coming from the opposite direction (or numerous directions). I found the shuttle that links Brittle Hollow with the Quantum Moon but unfortunately I don’t have the know-how to get there. It would appear that the information I need is in the Tower of Quantum Knowledge but I haven’t figured out how to get in there. Also I haven’t found the entrance to the Southern Observatory, or how to gain access to the Black Hole Forge, the highest area of the Hanging City. I can raise it and lower it, I tried jumping on it as it goes up. I did manage to stay on it briefly but I fell off, it doesn’t seem like it’s intended to be ridden. Lots of mysteries to solve!

 

Edit: I figured out how to gain access to the Southern Observatory. The warp thingy that leads to it is blocked by the cave roof, if you want until the roof above has collapsed, you can then warp to the other side. The Obervatory still eludes me though.

 

[radiofloyd]

This game started to crash today for some reason which is a pain because the stuff I’m doing involves waiting.

 

Re: Brittle Hollow

 

Spoiler

I was right about the method of getting over to the South Observatory but it’s easier said than done. It takes quite a long time for the rock above that is blocking the warp path to fall, and the order areas collapse in seems to have an element of randomisation. I’ve had the island I’m jumping off fall before the ceiling fell, I’ve had both islands I want to jump to fall before the ceiling fell...and so on. Twice I’ve waited and made the jump but there’s a little bit of finessing required to land in the warp path on the opposite side, and I’ve managed to mess that up and fall into the black hole. An hour ago I made it over on practically my first attempt. I progressed quite far in a snowy area and must have been basically there, but I didn’t give a simple jump enough gas and somehow fell to my death. I’ll try again later and hopefully the game will stop crashing.

 

I’m none the wiser as to how to gain entry to the Tower of Quantum Knowledge though. I haven’t figured out how to get from the base of the tower to the top. It may involve something that I have to do somewhere else first but I suspect it doesn’t.

 

[radiofloyd]

Spoiler

Ok, I made it to the Southern Observatory, so I can sleep tonight. I haven’t solved the mystery of the Black Hole Forge or The Tower of Quantum Knowledge.

I think that’s enough Brittle Hollow for now. I’ll go explore somewhere else.

[one-armed dwarf]

Brittle Hollow is amazing but also imo maybe the second most frustrating planet to explore

 

Spoiler

The most frustrating one is dark bramble, fuck that place

 

[one-armed dwarf]

Yeah it is confusing, just remember that 'Wilds' is the good one

[Craymen Edge]

I fizzled out on this after about 8 hours. I thought about going back to it in the last couple of months, but at this point I think I'd have to start all over again.

[Jimboxy]

2 hours ago, Nag said:

Pretty much every time I open this thread and read @radiofloyd posts i think what the fuck is he talking about.. then twig that it isn't Outer Worlds.?

Until you pointed it out, I thought he was talking about Outer World's...

[radiofloyd]

I said I would take a break but I was straight back on it today exploring the Hourglass Twin planets, fascinating stuff. This game is incredibly addictive. I seem to be basically attempting to solve two mysteries - the mystery of the quantum moon, and the mystery of the Nomai and their research into the Eye of the Universe or whatever it’s called. Well, I suspect it will all coalesce into one thing at the end.