LTTP: Outer Wilds is one of the best games I've ever played

[Deleted member 13645]

It's an exceptional game. A masterclass in game design. I love how it empowers the player to progress a story purely from knowledge. The state of the system never changes. You aren't getting inventory items, you're not gaining levels, you just gain understanding. The diorama never changes, but the way you see it and interact with it changes. It's absolutely masterful and amazing. Slowly uncovering the story and understanding of what is going on in a non-linear fashion is wonderful, and it nails the landing and left me with a game I think about pretty often. It might be my #1 of all time, it's just so fucking good.

 

[Dash Kappei]

I've only played on a OG Xbox One and the X - it runs at unstable 30 fps on the former but at rock solid 30 on the X.

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That wasn't my experience at all on OG Xbox (so NOT the S model). Now that I've read this thread I will give it another chance but I'm sorry to say I dropped the game on GP after just 1 hour because of how bad the performance was. Unstable 30? I'd say average of 25fps with plenty of dips would be a more accurate description of what I've experienced.

Glad to have read this thread so that I know I gotta look past it cause it's apparently totally worth it. I'll give it another chance and lower my playability threshold a bit to give it a bit more slack

 

[TheYanger]

25ish sounds accurate enough to me. It doesn't run great on consoles in general, but it's got a LOT of simulation going on at all times. That said, it's also not a game where this really matters. there's 0 action.

 

[MarvelousIntent]

It is, no joke, my Game of the Generation. Every second of this game was filled with wonder, excitement, dread, terror, and/or sorrow and I loved every second of it.

 

[lusca_bueno]

Absolutely, I had never played something like it before, and I'm not going to forget it anytime soon.

 

[Thera]

Fantastic game. It's a bit more survival-ly, but anyone who enjoyed Outer Wilds should check out Subnautica. Without spoiling anything, a lot of the great qualities of Outer Wilds are shared between the two games.

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Everyone who enjoyed / loved it tell me to play Subnautica. I don't know what I am waiting. I need to stop being worried about the survival aspect and jump.

This generation has been absolutely amazing for unique, revolutionary games that rethink a set genre in a very good way.

Outer Wilds is one of them.

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This is definitively an awesome gen, mostly thanks to Indies.
When I see people only playing first party games...

The story execution is really good but man I wish there was like a god mode after beating it to instantly go wherever and read all the text logs. I keep forgetting things like the aliens' names and stuff and who's dating how and who is related

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A journal / log entry at the end could have been great, yes. I will always remembered this game but not its story. And it is a great one, but I just can't remember it reading it in a random order. And I am terrible with names...

The single best exploration-focused game ever made imo. Hope they can make a sequel eventually.

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The main writer left the studio and goes to Obsidian.

I like that it's like a metroid-viena, but instead of getting power-ups to get into locked off areas, you gain knowledge.

I loved the game but i stated to get burnt out near the end of my play-though. One of the mechanics in the game is waiting, and I was annoyed that I had to wait several minutes before I can try to do the thing I wanted to do, and if I messed up I had to do it all over again. I finally broke down and watched a you-tube to finish it.

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Especially one of the puzzle which happened 2 minutes before the end of the loop, yes, you have to wait a loooog time before doing anything. A fast forward would have been great at some point.
EDIT

It's an exceptional game. A masterclass in game design. I love how it empowers the player to progress a story purely from knowledge. The state of the system never changes. You aren't getting inventory items, you're not gaining levels, you just gain understanding. The diorama never changes, but the way you see it and interact with it changes. It's absolutely masterful and amazing. Slowly uncovering the story and understanding of what is going on in a non-linear fashion is wonderful, and it nails the landing and left me with a game I think about pretty often. It might be my #1 of all time, it's just so fucking good.

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I can't rank my best games because most of them are not comparable at all (my "recent" hall of fame included Outer Wilds and Celeste, I can't compare them).

But it is definitely here, yes. And you can recommended it to almost everyone.

 

[TheYanger]

A fast forward would have been great at some point.

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You can take a nap at any campfire now iirc.

 

[Xero grimlock]

you guys realize you can wait at the campfire on timber hearth to make time go back quicker right?

edit: beaten. didn't realize any campfire would work.

 

[PhillyIsh]

After reading the first page of this tread, it convinced me to pull the trigger and purchase it. Good lookin' out everyone... I was looking for something new to play. Thanks for the recommendation.

 

[Eferim]

I had most of the game spoiled for me because I initially was watching a streamer play the game. But the game was so freaking cool that I had to buy it and play through it myself. The experience was still incredible even though I had seen about 75% of the game.

My favorite moment was when I was determined to land on the Sun Station. I hadn't discovered the intended way of getting there, so I just figured I'd land on it manually. After crashing into the star about a dozen times I finally managed to land on it, only to immediately get thrown as soon as I stopped thrusting down onto the station. So I figured I could get the ship to stay on its own if I could land the ship on the underside of the station (so that the ship was situated between the star and the station). In one of the sickest maneuvers I've ever pulled, I managed to land on the underside on my first try. I was ecstatic! "God I'm so good", I thought. I pulled the seat belt off my character and he immediately flew into the back side of the ship. It damn near killed him. To my dismay, my character was stuck to the back of the ship. The g-force was keeping him stuck to the back wall of the ship and I could only move him side-to-side but not forward towards the helm of the ship. So, yeah, I couldn't do anything and had effectively soft-locked my game. I was like "What did you think was going to happen?!"

Moments like that cemented this game as one of my all time favorites. Wonderful game.

 

[Vex]

After about 12 hours of gameplay, I've finally finished my Outer Wilds playthrough. It has surpassed my expectations... by a lot.

It's really hard to describe why this game is as wonderful as it is without going into spoilers territory, but I feel like I've never played anything like this before. I also feel like I'll never play anything like this ever again.

For those who don't know, Outer Wilds is a game about space exploration. You're a rookie astronaut that is finally allowed to leave their planet with a very tiny and flimsy ship. And so you do. And once you do... you can go anywhere. Literally anywhere. There's a whole solar system available to you. Do you want to go to that weird planet first? Go there! The game won't stop you. There's nothing, and I mean literally nothing locked from the beginning. You can beat the game in 30 minutes if you know what you're supposed to do... but that's not the point.

Outer Wilds shines when you're finding new things. New planets, new mechanics, new writings on the wall from that mysterious alien race. You don't unlock anything. You don't upgrade anything. You just learn. You get familiarized with how this universe works, and you play around with it. You find a new piece of information, and that leads you somewhere else where you can use that new piece of information to find yet another piece of information.

Each planet has its own dangers, its own traits and its own way of letting you move around... and you may need to go to a different planet to understand how to move around in this one. It's like a huge, beautiful puzzle that spans a whole solar system, and it works. Oh my god, it really works.

The time loop mechanic is fantastic and I refuse to go into details because the first time you find out when and why the time loops... Well, let's just say it's not something you'll forget easily.

I could go on forever about this game, but I want to let everyone find out by themselves why I felt the need to create a threat talking about it. Please give it a shot. You won't regret it.

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This entire op sounds amazing and I think you have just sold me on the game. I have but one question before I make the leap:

You mention "dangers". I want to know if you can defend yourself against such dangers with weaponry. Or is this game like subnautica (no weapons, just run)?

 

[Kaiken]

Finished this a couple months ago and I agree. What a ride. Love these knowledge-vanias. Up there with The Witness for me as one of those games I wish I could wipe from memory and play again.

 

[Xero grimlock]

This entire op sounds amazing and I think you have just sold me on the game. I have but one question before I make the leap:

You mention "dangers". I want to know if you can defend yourself against such dangers with weaponry. Or is this game like subnautica (no weapons, just run)?

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their is only 1 "creature". the dangers are all enviornmental/ space in general so no weapons, but they wouldn't do you any good really anyways.

also subnautica has weapons and you can kill everything its just not the point or focus.

 

[TheYanger]

This entire op sounds amazing and I think you have just sold me on the game. I have but one question before I make the leap:

You mention "dangers". I want to know if you can defend yourself against such dangers with weaponry. Or is this game like subnautica (no weapons, just run)?

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Its a 0 action game. You'll die a lot, but dangers dont exist in that sense really. its all platforming or puzzle solving

It's hard to elaborate much without spoiling, but you will never feel like you need a weapon.

 

[Net_Wrecker]

This game is beyond exceptional. Transcendental even. I finished it months ago and it's still reverberating through my head no matter what else i play. Aside from Rocket League, nothing else this gen comes anywhere close. The commitment to the looping game design and how they build an atmosphere and narrative around that is incredible from moment 1 and only becomes more impressive all the way up to the ending sequence, which itself is almost indescribably good, paying off all the build up beforehand in a way few games ever manage to.

There is no amount of praise I can throw at Outer Wilds that can be considered hyperbole. This could be gaming's series finale and I'd be satisfied.

 

[hydro94530]

In the end I didn't like it that much. Way too obtuse for me and I ended up using a guide towards the end just to finish the damn thing. Maybe I'm just dumb lol.

 

[Acquiesc3]

I actually feel jealous of anyone that got to play it after the updates as pre-update one of if not THE final puzzle was so obtuse and dumb that I called it quits and looked up the answer after hours of banging my head against a wall.

For the record, aside from that I had solved every other puzzle in the game without any guides.

Post update seems like the issue is fixed, but I'll never really know obviously.

But yeah, it's one of the best games last year. Certainly the most special.

 

[Carn]

ool game, but hitting a wall where you keep falling through the black hole trying to just figure out where to go ruined it for me.

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I ran into the same "problem". I was probably playing it wrong :/ still want to finish it.

 

[Deleted member 2652]

outer wilds, the witness, nier automata... games that are truly an experience that i wish i could forget just so i could play them again

 

[Fabs]

The best game of last year. Just blew me away over and over again. I can't believe MS gave it away.

 

[SlayerSaint]

Meh, I still liked it but the sense of discovery ran out for me at a certain point and from then on I wasn't as enthralled. Still, I won't forget the amazing moments.

 

[FGLS1992]

Outer Wilds is the best game of 2019.

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Yes.

Yes, son. Also one of the scariest, anxiety-inducing games, IMO.

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Yes.

Unbelievably amazing game. Truly a masterpiece.

 

[NeoBob688]

I have not played the game. I still don't quite understand why this game is deemed to be so amazing. I don't get it from gameplay vids either.

 

[KCroxtonJr]

I just recently played through this knowing very little about it, and it truly was amazing. I think it might be the only time I've ever actually felt disoriented playing a game, which made me feel like I was actually exploring the unknown. Actually felt genuine FEAR at times as well.

I pretty much played it over the course of a few days non stop until I beat it, cannot wait to see what this team creates next. I was wishing there was more for me to see and do when I was done with it.

 

[Guru Meditation]

Not sure how I completely missed anything related to this game, it sounds right up my alley. Is it playable on og xbone?

 

[Nahual Amini]

I have not played the game. I still don't quite understand why this game is deemed to be so amazing. I don't get it from gameplay vids either.

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It's not a game with excepcional action-packed gameplay, so a video won't sell it very well.

It's more about the space simulation, the exploration of the mysteries in the solar system, how the knowledge you gain directs you to the important places in the story and, ultimately, leads to a very strong climax.

Maybe some people don't think those elements are very interesting for a game, but it can feel very unique, especially for a generation filled with very big open worlds and a lot of clutter.

 

[Ctrl Alt Del]

That wasn't my experience at all on OG Xbox (so NOT the S model). Now that I've read this thread I will give it another chance but I'm sorry to say I dropped the game on GP after just 1 hour because of how bad the performance was. Unstable 30? I'd say average of 25fps with plenty of dips would be a more accurate description of what I've experienced.

Glad to have read this thread so that I know I gotta look past it cause it's apparently totally worth it. I'll give it another chance and lower my playability threshold a bit to give it a bit more slack

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Yeah, my point was that the experience was less than ideal. But I did finish the game on a OG Xbox One, so it's completely playable, if anything.

 

[diakyu]

It really is incredible. When mind wipe tech gets invented the first thing I'm doing is playing Outer Wilds for the first time again

 

[Alastor3]

I have not played the game. I still don't quite understand why this game is deemed to be so amazing. I don't get it from gameplay vids either.

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Kind of an open world detective game if you like.

One of the few game i wish i forgot about and could play all over again

 

[TheYanger]

Not sure how I completely missed anything related to this game, it sounds right up my alley. Is it playable on og xbone?

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Absolutely. It doesn't run great, but it's not a game that demands precise inputs or anything either. It's a slow paced exploration game.

It really is incredible. When mind wipe tech gets invented the first thing I'm doing is playing Outer Wilds for the first time again

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Outer Wilds, The Witness, Deus Ex, there's a handful on that list. But it's sure up there.

 

[ghibli99]

I almost quit playing this after an hour, but a friend of mine encouraged me to keep at it. I reluctantly did, and man, I'm so glad I took his advice, because once I understood its systems and started peeling back the layers, by the end as the credits rolled, I told my wife, "This is one of the best games I've ever played."

 

[CannonFodder52]

One of the best games of this gen for sure.

 

[fundogmo]

One of very few games that feel like a genuine masterpiece. Any number of moments would be the highlight of other games, but the one-of-a-kind thrills in this one keep on coming right until the end.

 

[Deleted member 2652]

I have not played the game. I still don't quite understand why this game is deemed to be so amazing. I don't get it from gameplay vids either.

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it's literally an experience and any other way you try to absorb this game would be a detriment

 

[Rodney McKay]

Seriously amazing game.

Honestly, it's one of the only games this generation (out of maybe 3-5 games) that has left a real lasting impression on me, and probably the only game I've played with a genuinely quality story.
Absolutely incredible experience.

I had to use a guide for one or two things, but I was happy that I got through the majority of it all on my own, it was so rewarding.

 

[Young Liar]

An awe-inspiring experience of scientific curiosity and discovery that is elevated by its philosophical criticality and grounded by its understanding of personal and collective relationships. I am moved by this game in so many ways.

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it's hands down the best game of 2019, arguably the best game of the generation and the decade, and one of the best games of all time.

i haven't updated my personal top 10 list, but i can easily see myself putting it in there

 

[Deleted member 36578]

I still can't find enjoyment in Outer Wilds for some reason. I love many video games, but there's something about this one that I find so dull. It got so much praise I was excited to play it myself and did so via game pass. I hated it. Played for a couple hours got bored and turned it off. Then the goty talk started happening. I returned to the game and beat it but didn't enjoy my time with it. There's a lot of reasons I think I don't like it, but the big one is I don't feel excited to discover anything because there's no real progression. I just figure it's not the game for me and that's ok.

 

[Tpallidum]

Been waiting for ever for it to leave EGS exclusivity but maybe I'll pull the trigger on the ps4 version. Idk

 

[Phendrana]

It's a masterpiece, and in my top 10 of all time. It was a beautiful, meaningful experience for me.

OP, make sure you play Return of the Obra Dinn if you haven't already. It's very different, but similar in some important ways, and another phenomenal game.

 

[seroun]

I tried it but I kept falling through the black hole and the controls were pretty bad on PC (mostly the camera I think? it was weird) so I gave up. I'd like to give it another chance since the premise was interesting but the first impression really soured me.

 

[flattie]

first mix of outer wilds/worlds of the thread!

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Played and loved Outer Wilds. Have zero interest in The Outer Worlds. I still have trouble recognising which game is being talked about when I see either name.

 

[Kittens McMittens]

I heard the buzz about this, and was surprised it was even named GB GotY. So, I picked it up during the current EGS sale which means I paid less than a tenner for it.

Unfortunately I'm snowed under with work for another week, but after that this is one of the first games I intend on playing 😸

 

[goodretina]

Easily in my top 10 games ever, going back to NES. I played it spoiler free and was absolutely enchanted once I got going.

 

[Papercuts]

Easily one of the best games I've ever played. I'm so happy I experienced and connected with it so well, don't know if there's any game or movie I've seen that hit me so hard.

 

[WhateverItTakes]

It's absolutely wonderful. Awkward in places where you really are a bit lost or trying to brute force some stuff, but you need those moments to feel truly free in working everything else. Some of the big mysteries you solve, like when you finally get to an area that's been referenced super hard in the earlier bits of the run, really feel like an accomplishment.

Spoiler

I spent so long trying to set that up the wrong way. For whatever reason I didn't realize I could just take one picture and be done, I thought that once the moon had moved out of the frame of that picture it would disappear or something. So I tried to stick my probe to the debris from the cannon circling Giant's Deep and get the quantum moon to spawn there so I could constantly take pictures of it. It was a mess lmao.

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Spoiler

Everything about the quantum rocks is so perfect. Because you can maybe work out the rules yourself, but the elements of the puzzle feel so separate you probably need to seek out the 3 towers. And you can visit the quantum moon so many times before realising the tower there has, and always had, everything you need.

Spoiler: Ending

Also I want to shout out the ending sequence because it's really hard to land cosmic trippy shit but it felt so meaningful and in place.

 

[Benzychenz]

Sold.

Yes, son. Also one of the scariest, anxiety-inducing games, IMO.

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And un-sold. Thanks for saving my time and money.

 

[Yam's]

The eureka moments in this game are really something. Its exploration and sense of discovery/understanding of its world are crazy good.

 

[DeckardWintermute]

Gonna be honest, this game intrigued me, and I stuck with it for a while...Until I visited Giant's Deep

Spoiler: Planet Spoilers

I have a terrible phobia of large bodies of water, I went to that planet just kind of looking to see what it was and legitimately panicked (not in a terrible way but I had a moment of "I have to leave here now and I mean RIGHT NOW". Knowing that that is a part of the game I have to complete I haven't touched it again.

 

[upinsmoke]

I still can't find enjoyment in Outer Wilds for some reason. I love many video games, but there's something about this one that I find so dull. It got so much praise I was excited to play it myself and did so via game pass. I hated it. Played for a couple hours got bored and turned it off. Then the goty talk started happening. I returned to the game and beat it but didn't enjoy my time with it. There's a lot of reasons I think I don't like it, but the big one is I don't feel excited to discover anything because there's no real progression. I just figure it's not the game for me and that's ok.

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This is pretty much me.

 

[Genetrik]

I played for 15min and didn't understand the game yet. Any spoiler free tips that help me to enjoy the game?

By the way: I get dizzy very easily and I am worried that I won't be able to play this game in the long run. For example: I ended the game when I landed on the small moon next to the first planet and planet rotation already gave me slight queasiness...