I don’t think ever played a game like Outer Wilds before. It’s truly special. The central conceit is that you’re a member of alien NASA on a mission to do space-archeaology in your solar system. The entire thing is one big puzzle, so I don’t feel like I should describe it any more than that. Putting the pieces together and realizing things about the plot and lore is where all the fun is. No other game has made me go “…oh.” so frequently as I gained new understanding about what was going on or what the game was trying to do. The story itself is really gripping and touching. It’s tied enough to actual science that it really made me think about the fate of the universe and our place in it as humans. The game as a whole is really tight in terms of how it’s put together, there aren’t any extraneous systems like a fishing minigame or a romance system (unless you count marshmallow roasting). Everything is tuned towards your space exploration goals. Another thing that blew me away was the physics system - some of the planets are destructable and dynamically change as the game progresses in ways that you can interact with while its happening. Between that and the fact that you blast off -> travel -> land on planets with no perceptible loading screens it’s an incredibly immersive experience.
I will say, before I realized what you had to “do”, I had a bit of trouble getting into it. If you feel the same way, I’d say focus on filling out the collection of info and rumors in your ship’s computer. It’s worth it. You’ll warm up to the controls eventually (I used a keyboard+mouse and it was fine). All in all, absolute 10/10, go play this immediately.
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