![]() Unlike the endless universe of the procedurally generated No Man’s Sky, Outer Wilds ’ solar system is handcrafted. Outer Wilds is a roguelite where the only permanent upgrades you’ll gain are to your stock of knowledge a run-based Metroidvania where rather than acquiring a screw attack or charge beam, you, instead, learn some stuff. ![]() But, it’s a testament to the mystery of this dioramic galaxy that, in the early hours, at least, I felt as if anything was possible that this virtual world was so well-realized that I was prompted to abandon the logical shortcuts I’ve learned across two decades of playing games and be taken in by its ineffable strangeness.Īs my journey stretched on, that initial sense of wonder was replaced with understanding. Would it have appeared in the foggy depths of Dark Bramble if I had ventured out into the darkest corners of the galaxy on my initial blast-off? Would it have materialized on Timber Hearth if I had opted to hopscotch my spaceship a few kilometers over into the verdant plains of my home planet? In fact, I begin to wonder if it exists in the world, at all, or if developer Mobius Digital somehow shoehorned it into Giant’s Deep to tutorialize me on one of the finer points of their clockwork world during my first 22-minute run. I don’t see that tower again for another 10 hours. Turns out the tower is a skyscraping classroom offering a crash course on the principles of quantum physics. Once I reach the top, I spot a hole in the floor and drop through. I hop out of my angrily beeping vessel and ascend the tower. Somehow, I avoid the half-dozen smallish twisters, crash-landing instead into the gaping mouth of the massive tornado encircling one of the tiny islands that dot the ocean surface, whacking into a tower carved out of space limestone, and doing quite a bit of damage to my ship in the process. On my first lift-off, I opted to fly to Giant’s Deep, a watery Gobstopper of a world where the planet’s core is protected by a vicious current and the green surface is constantly stirred up by teal waterspouts that shoot unwary travelers back into the cozy cold of space, should they come too close. That said, if you want to go into Outer Wilds completely blind-and we don’t blame you!- you should stop reading now. This review contains no story spoilers and avoids going into too much detail on the interesting anecdotes waiting to be found in the world. The greatest joy Outer Wilds has to offer is the process of slowly discovering the secrets of its galaxy-in-miniature.
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