Remember the terrifying Y2K? it was a torrid time. Back when Noah was busy knocking up an ark for the animals to hide in after God threatened to rid the earth of all the evil hard drives. Electronics were to destroy all humans they said. In 2020 all we have is a standard, friendly neighbourhood, difficult to diagnose, widespread, easily transferable, deadly disease that forces you to wash your hands semi regularly. But never mind that, what did I play in the wake of surviving absolute certain death in the year 2000? I hear you ask. Well a game about a creepy moon crashing into the earth and wiping all life away of course.
Like I suspect it was for many others; The Legend of Zelda: Majoras Mask was the first game I played involving a time loop. It’s a novel, easily graspable concept nowadays but back then I could not wrap my head around it at all. I mostly sat staring blankly at the screen confused. For one why Link was hiding more mask’s than a scooby doo villain. Secondly why every three days the moon came down to kiss Termina goodnight in the most literal manner possible. And thirdly why I was asked to repeat the whole thing over again every time. So, twenty years later when I recently watched a review for Outer Wilds and saw its core concept was a 22-minute time loop, I had a score to settle.
Apocalypse Wow
Avoiding all major spoilers, the game thrusts you into the space boots of a budding alien astronaut with four eyes but no glasses. He is part of his home planets clearly underfunded space program; one which aims to discover details of an ancient race of nomadic know it all’s. You are shown all the games basic mechanics and quirks before you clock in for the worlds least boring twenty-two-minute shift ever. Your happily dangerous job will take you across an entire, hand-built star system that contains several unique and interesting planets and moons. Thankfully none of which will try to headbutt you in this game. The design of the star system genuinely never wears thin and is a real joy to explore. The environments of the planets are nearly all incredibly tenuous and will attempt to kill you in a myriad of ways while always offering a rewarding challenge that’s fresh and different every time. Not only that the planets feel like spherical Rubiks cubes. Each development brings new characteristics, environmental storytelling and beautiful vistas. By the way the game is outstanding to look at thanks to a wonderful cartoonish art style and meticulous attention to detail given to absolutely everything in it.
22 degrees of freedom
The gameplay in Outer Wilds is simple but crucially fun and responsive. It feels like a vassal to tell the story of those nomads I mentioned earlier; which is the true star of the game. But all actions performed during gameplay feel grounded in the worlds your exploring and no element of gameplay is ever overused. Flying your wonderfully rickety space ship feels powerful but fragile at the same time; as it should when you look at how the ship’s put together; something that makes landing successfully feel like an achievement. The gameplay is not for everyone however; you won’t be ripping and tearing through these planets. Exploration and reading character dialog move the story forward and is what most of the game encompasses. However, if you approach it in the right way this one of the most engaging games in recent memory. The soundtrack is outstanding as well; in fact, I heavily suggest having it play in the background while in game. It just seems to fit any semblance of gameplay effortlessly.
An impressively long, very short tale
Holy hell the story in this game is awesome. So awesome that it joined The Witcher 3 and Red Dead Redemption 2 on the tiny list of single player games that were engaging enough for me to complete in recent years. There is irony in it totally distracting me from the potential apocalypse on the horizon in the real world but I’m thankful nonetheless. Again, without spoilers it is just very well executed. The fact that this story is largely told through text boxes does nothing to hinder the emotional and thematical impact of the plight of the races involved. Given that most games can’t achieve this with fully voice acted characters I believe it’s a huge achievement. That said the cast of your home planet could do with some fleshing out; possibly in the form of further conversation upon discoveries; just to make it seem more valuable to the universes most dangerous space program.
Conclusion
I love time loop games now. All thanks to how Mobius Digital tell a very emotional story here, one with a brilliantly devised conclusion. All while building a fun and unique looking solar system to explore. One that is all based on physics of the real solar system; scaled down. It’s a very interesting game and one that should be a full priced release. Twenty pounds on Epic games is an absolute steal and they deserve your money.
GO BUY IT !!!!!
