Look, if you haven’t heard about Outer Wilds yet, just go play the game, please. It’s the kind of game where, the less you know about it, the more you’ll enjoy it. The main mechanic of the game is knowledge, i.e., in order to progress through the game, you need to learn how to do things. There are no upgrades to unlock or skills to purchase, everything that you need to beat the game is available to you at the start, you just need to learn how to beat it. Therefore, anything that I tell you about Outer Wilds is technically a spoiler. I’ve heard these types of games being referred to as “Metroidbrainias”, which is not a term that I would personally come up with, but it’s one that most people will understand, so I’ll go with that one.

If you’re still not sure whether you’ll like Outer Wilds or not, just look at my other recommendations. If we appear to have similar tastes, you’ll love this game too! It’s one of my favorite pieces of visual media of all time.

One thing to keep in mind is that the game can be a bit confusing and overwhelming at first. Don’t worry about it, it’s normal, just keep playing, after two or three hours you should get a sense of how the game works, and remember that there is no timer, you can do things at your own pace. Well, technically there is a timer of sorts, and I’ll try not to spoil anything, but it doesn’t penalize you for failing to do anything. You only have two currencies in Outer Wilds, knowledge and time, and since you can’t really lose knowledge (unless you have dementia, in which case I’m sorry), you only ever lose time, which just means you have to try again.

Okay, have I convinced you yet? The next paragraphs will have spoilers, so please don’t read further if you haven’t played the game yet. Even if you don’t plan on playing Outer Wilds for now, you may want to play it eventually. You have been warned.

The first time that I died in Outer Wilds, I wasn’t surprised by the time loop mechanic, since I already knew about that before playing (yes, I spoiled myself 😔). Regardless, when it happened I felt frustrated, it felt like I had just lost a bunch of progress. However, what I came to realize later, and I’ve already touched on this earlier, is that you never really lose progress in this game. By dying, I was able to go back to my ship and review all the clues that I had collected during my first “run”. From there, I was able to piece together a bit of the story and make a plan to explore other planets. Eventually I returned to that planet where I had died in my first run, but by that time I had gained so much more knowledge that I was able to “clear” it without dying. It felt like a huge achievement!

When you collect the last piece of knowledge, the code required to “beat” the game, the weirdest feeling washes over you. You think “wait, that’s all I needed?”, then you think “so I could just play this game again from the beginning, and by knowing this code I can beat it in like 20 minutes?”. And yeah, you could, that’s why I said that this is a knowledge-based game. As soon as you acquire the needed knowledge, the challenge disappears. Outer Wilds is probably one of the best uses for the term “it’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey”. While the ending is amazing (a real tearjerker, if you ask me), its impact is only felt after going through the incredible journey that the game puts you through. Replaying Outer Wilds, while still loads of fun (and an opportunity to uncover some secrets that you may have missed on your first playthrough), is not and will never be the same thing as playing it for the first time. While this can initially feel like a bad thing, it doesn’t take away from the great experience that you had. Just because you can’t relive it, it doesn’t mean that it wasn’t worthwhile, many of life’s moments are like this, but your memories of them live on and allow you to reminisce on them with fondness.

I’m glad that I played Outer Wilds. It’s a unique experience that I won’t forget anytime soon. I’d love too, so I could play the game again without remembering anything, but since that’s not happening (unless, as aforementioned, I start to lose my memory, but hopefully not 😅) I’m at least able to tell you all to go play it. I sincerely hope that you love it just as much as I did. 💖