Outer Wilds

[fragglerock]

 

 

Once you know something you know it forever!

 

Just do what you want and go where looks interesting.

[milko]

ok cool. I was worried I had to play it to a certain point before it'd start saving my progress at all, the 'quit' confirmation message was very ominous.

[JoeK]

Actually, I'm not sure whether you don't have to witness the first sun explosion before things are remembered? Could be wrong though.

[Ketchup]

2 minutes ago, JoeK said:

Actually, I'm not sure whether you don't have to witness the first sun explosion before things are remembered? Could be wrong though.

 

You have to visit the statue in the observatory, which you have to pass to even be able to take off. Of course you could still die some how before even that point.

[Alan Stock]

I'm pretty sure the game autosaves whenever you find something that updates your ship log. But as for the start of the game, that's a good question. I would imagine it saves the observatory codes so you don't have to go up there again - so you can just get to flying when the game loads. If it didn't save the codes, just go straight to the observatory, get the codes and come back, it'll take about a minute.

[keptbybees]

Being bunged up with a cold was actually useful today as I'd been waiting until I knew I had a decent block of time free to finish this and being off work gave me that. Thoughts on the ending and other bits below:

 

Spoiler

That was a great ending with lots to think about, most people have given their thoughts earlier in the thread so I don't have much to add other than having looked up the alternative endings, I like how there a couple of things that have an impact on the post credit sequence to reflect the impact you have on the creation of the new universe. Or that's how I read it anyway. I wish it forced you to talk to everyone again before the end as there is some great dialogue in there that really adds to the impact of the narrative, I guess though the fact it is missable also fits in with the idea of different journeys through the game and how you should take time to see everything. The ending made me reflect a lot on the way I played through the game.

 

Finally cracked Dark Bramble so I had no issues for the final run, however I had a few terrible runs on my first visit to the vessel as I tried to go straight to the red light. This made it very hard to get up the boost needed as it has to be done prior to entry, else the fish the other side pretty much insta-kill you and the fish outside the seed made lining up and accelerating hard. If you go the escape pod rote each time then you can take much more time lining up and boosting for the final run, plus you can launch the probe through the seed by the graveyard to give you more information. I very much appreciated the sign in the Observatory concerning the Anglerfish during the end section.

 

I'm glad you can reload from just before the end so I can try and finish off the rumours map as well.

 

 

Overall I'm really glad I stuck with it. I also hope they make another exploration game with the similar flight and jetpack controls as I loved them by the end and I'd love to do more with that mechanic.

[matt0]

Spoiler

Just heard Patrick Klepek allude to using the Quantum Moon as a fast travel system on the Waypoint podcast, which for all I know might be something everyone did, but it never occurred to me and it's incredible.

 

EDIT: left that unspoilered in my excitement to post about it... massive apologies if anyone who didn't want to see it saw it.

[Wroth]

Spoiler

Seems like overkill? It takes less than a minute to fly to any planet in the system.

 

[marsh]

I will get this on the PS4 at some point, I can't help but wonder how they're going to get this running on the switch?

[matt0]

37 minutes ago, Wroth said:

  Hide contents

Seems like overkill? It takes less than a minute to fly to any planet in the system.

 

 

Spoiler

It's probably not practical in any way, just the idea of it and how it might work blew my mind.

 

[PeteJ]

I have reached the end of one of my favourite adventure games of all time. A favourite - brilliantly clever and inventive - but not flawless. 

 

Initially frustrating and confusing, but once that adventurous stride is hit the game maintains a delightfully clockwork puzzle design, with creativity and smarts at a level I've perhaps never seen before. Amazingly, this intelligent design is maintained until the end despite the game presenting itself in a non-linear way. 

 

My issues are a product to that inventive and wild creativity. I couldn't escape the frustration of falling into the black hole yet again, or being caught by the games only real adversary through some overly harsh penalties when braking the games very specific ruleset. Whilst I rarely blamed the game, there was frustration from having to start the run again and again through messing up in some fairly minor ways.

 

I also got stuck all too often on the environment and as the pressure mounts when exploring the more complex areas, this can lead to some unfair aborted runs. 

 

The games opening is also fairly weak. The chance to practice with the drone nearly put me off the game, though the actual ship controls were much easier to grasp. The initial village in hindsight cleverly teaches everything you need to know, but the experience on the first run through aren't particularly inspiring. 

 

As time passes these issues will fade in the memory however. I will instead remember those glorious, jaw-dropping discoveries where the mysteries of this small solar-system are slowly revealed. The time I worked out how to get underwater when in giants deep, or when I realised just what was happening with the hour-glass twins, or when...there are so many, so wonderfully embedded and revealed in a non-linear fashion that it genuinely leaves me astonished that they managed to pull some of it off.

 

Then there's the incidental moments, incredible space vistas that appear before your eyes such as the giant sun coming over the horizon whilst you explore the Ash Twin or how the sun's light slowly comes into the centre of Brittle Hollow as the planet slowly falls apart. Those rare moments where you crash the ship so hard the front rips off, leaving you stranded in space - a moment that I experienced on the final challenging moment on my final run, leaving me to travel a long way without a ship in rather dangerous territory, all the while the clock ticked down to the conclusion for once I was trying to avoid. My final run was seriously a great, against the odds, gaming moment. 

 

The game has its fair share of problems, but they are insignificant to the brilliance of one of the best detective/ adventure games I've ever played. 

 

I liked it/10. 

[Stevie]

I got this today and I really want to like this game, but I dont have a clue about whats going on. I landed on a planet near someones ship and found a log talking about an entrance near the equator, so I went there and ended up going through a black hole. There are lots of stuff floating around in space but I'm not sure if I'm supposed to interact with it or not. 

[fragglerock]

You cannot do anything wrong. Poke about everywhere, follow leads from the log or just head off to an interesting looking thing.

[JPL]

My advice would be what some kind folks told me earlier in the thread when I was in a similar position to you. Poke about on your home planet first, then head off to the Attlerock. Use the ship’s log all the time as well, as this will show what clues you’ve uncovered and give you pointers on where to head next.

[mogawoods]

I've been doing a couple of loops a night for the last, what, two weeks now and it is just as enthralling as it was at the beginning. Almost every loop I make some revelation, or something fascinating happens.

 

There've been lots of games over the years that have given the opportunity to piece stories together through exploration and puzzle-solving (from early 90s Myst to recent stuff like Gone Home), and there've been just as many games with fascinating worlds to explore, solid physics systems to play with and fun mechanics and controls to use in your travels. But it's very rare to play a game that does both so brilliantly.

 

For my most recent loop, I indulged myself by 

Spoiler

standing on the starting spot on Timber Hearth and looking up at the sky for the entirety of the loop, from the moment the spacecraft explodes above Giant's Deep far, far in the distance, to the moment I and my fellow Hearthians are obliterated by supernova, picking out the Hourglass Twins, the Interloper, the quantum moon, everywhere I've been over the last few weeks. A particular highlight was watching, from home's solid ground, as Brittle Hollow's volcanic moon erupted lava into space while its orbit overtook ours.

 

I still have lots to discover. Savouring every moment.

 

[Alan Stock]

About the start of the game, I also think it's a very poor introduction, and I'm sure it puts a lot of people off. It's kind of like Kakariko village in Zelda Ocarina of Time, a kind of lame experience where you chat to people and play around with a few toys before you get to anything exciting. Of course the contrast and excitement when you finally take off in your ship would be less if it was faster paced, but I wonder how many people didn't give the game a chance due to its boring opener. I don't have any real suggestions on how you'd improve it, maybe just let the player loose in the ship faster and teach zero g mechanics in another way.

 

I guess the problem for the devs is they want to tell you about the world and make connections with the Hearthians so you A: understand what's going on, and B: care about the Hearthians and the travellers. If you could just go off into space right away you would be even more helmless than the game already is. Any thoughts how they could have improved the opening?

[Len]

Improve the controls on that bloody toy ship. I literally smashed it which way and that for a few minutes then gave up and moved on. Was happily surprised once I got in the real thing! 

[PeteJ]

8 hours ago, Len said:

Improve the controls on that bloody toy ship. I literally smashed it which way and that for a few minutes then gave up and moved on. Was happily surprised once I got in the real thing! 

I think the toy ship should be removed entirely, or you get to fly it in first person mode. It's virtually impossible to fly as is and very off putting!

 

To make the opening easier to grasp they could have done a better job walking you through the ships log, and then hand held you through the moon points of interest as well. 

[JPL]

I agree with the ship’s log. Is it even shown to you? Maybe I missed it, but I didn’t even know about it until someone mentioned it in here. Without it the game would be practically impossible, as I was finding on my first attempt to play it.

 

I agree with they should have taken you through the Attlerock as well. I mean, it’s great that it’s so hands off, but without people in here telling me to go there first, I would have never got going.

[Ketchup]

The toy ship was intended to be difficult to control. They wanted you to feel scared to fly the real thing after seeing how bad the toy was but when you got inside you found it easier. Clearly it doesn’t come across as they intended.

 

Theres lots of that in the game and you can clearly tell it was designed by a team doing things cos they thought they were fun rather than a team of designers who knew the limitations of making games.

[Pob]

I liked the toy ship but then I love wrestling with sensitive and complex control schemes. They should've let you pilot the Little Scout like that, after you've fired it. Purely optional, of course.

[Alan Stock]

Talking of the toy ship, did you know there's a hidden achievement for 

flying it into the sun or lantern hollow! That's mad but great! How can you even see where it is from that camera angle?

[mogawoods]

Fucking hell. Dark Bramble. Massive spoilers.

 

Spoiler

Scared the fucking shit out of me. I realised the anglerfish was alive just as it turned and ate me. I should have known there'd be a living one after seeing the exhibit in the observatory. This one was huge!

 

[mogawoods]

On 19/02/2020 at 12:16, Alan Stock said:

Talking of the toy ship, did you know there's a hidden achievement for 

  Reveal hidden contents

flying it into the sun or lantern hollow! That's mad but great! How can you even see where it is from that camera angle?

 

 

Also, just did this after you mentioned it. Any idea who or what is 'Mica' the achievement refers to?

[Vemsie]

 

[NecroMorrius]

Outer Wilds has won the BAFTAs for best game, best design, and best original property. Rightly so. 

[NecroMorrius]

Outer Wilds is now out on Steam in case anyone hasn’t bought the official best game ever yet. 

[Unofficial Who]

And I bought it day one. And now it's one sale.

 

Get it.

 

Someone here named dropped Damocles and it is the modern Paul Woakes Damocles experience I've been waiting for except they've made it so much better by making it smaller and denser rather than massive.

 

Over the last week I've played 18 hours of this, I didn't look at any spoilers or hints for the first twelve, just poked and prodded.

 

I do have to agree with some of the naysayers here about Dark Bramble and the end run, I had loads of issues and dropped down my playtime to one run a day over the past few days. I just could not get on with it and it felt like it was more down to luck (it wasn't, it just felt like it.)

 

But what an amazing game. The first time I...well ran out of time

I was on the Attlerock talking to Esker and there was this low boom and the light from the sun on the horizon shrunk before the tops of the trees caught the blue light

 

I must of died dozens of times, sometimes within feet of my goal that run, sometimes out of stupidity or clumsiness. It's the most beautiful and terrifying game I've ever played

 

I didn't feel bad for using a guide at the end to either nudge me towards a planet or to to confirm I was doing the right thing but needed to do it faster or better. The satisfaction though from flipping the ship or clipping the trees to waking up, running to the ship, suiting up, taking off and flying and landing on Ash Twin with nary a nudge was incredibly satisfying (early runs had the other planet knocking me into the sun).

 

Game of the decade despite my issues. (One stretch of the end game simply isn't fun.)

 

Here's a long play of Damocles for those who've never seen it for comparison.

 

 

[Vorgot]

I started this last weekend and struggled with it a bit but I hot it hard yesterday and now my ships log is full of stuff that I need to go and see and investigate, one world has so much for me to do in there it seems that I need to just pick one thing to get done in a run and get there as fast as I can. 

 

It's very different and good fun though. My son played it a lot last weekend and we were trying to talk about it yesterday without any spoilers, and it sounds like we have done completely different things so far.

[chris on the moon]

Can someone offer me a spoiler free hint? I haven't made any progress for a good 6 or so hours and I'm starting to get upset . I can't find any spoiler free hint guides online.

 

I've found the vessel. It has a broken warp core. I have the co-ordinates for the eye of the universe. There was a warp core crafted in the black hole forge, but i can't do anything there. I can see that one was created and was in the ash twin project, so I think I need to take it from there. And then get to the vessel quickly because I'd die permanently otherwise. But how do I get to the ash twin project? someone earlier in this thread suggested that you use what you've learned about getting to other planets.

 Because I know the ash twin project is completely sealed, I'm going to get there through a warp tower or quantum entanglement. There aren't any quantum objects on ash twin. The cave shard in ember twin definitely didn't take me there. So it's probably a tower. But all the black hole towers are on ash twin. Except for the white hole station, which only warps to brittle hollow, and I can't recalibrate it.

 There's the twin warp towers on the ash twin, which obviously correspond to the ash and ember twins. The ember twin one works, the ash twin one doesn't. I've tried standing on it just before and just after the ash cloud comes - based on the knowledge that ash and ember twin act as one warp point - but nothing happens. I've also tried standing on it with a black hole core I took from the high energy lab on ember twin, but  nothing happens. I haven't found anything to do with those cores other than the experiment.

 

could someone gently nudge me in the right direction?