Veredito: Vai direto pro pódio dos favoritos.

Eu gosto muito de falar sobre jogos, às vezes até mais do que gosto de jogá-los. Foram pouquíssimas as vezes que um jogo me deixou sem palavras, que hesitei em tentar explicar por que gostei dele, com medo de não fazer jus ao tamanho da foderosidade do que tinha acabado de jogar. Mas vou fazer um esforço aqui.

Outer Wilds é um jogo de exploração espacial - você é um astronauta alienígena conhecendo os planetas, luas e tals do seu sistema solar - mas é principalmente um jogo sobre o deslumbre com a descoberta. Sobre ir lá e ver o que tem depois da curva com seus próprios olhos, compreender como as coisas funcionam e ficar maravilhado com a sensação de 'ahá, agora eu entendi!'.

Ao mesmo tempo, é um jogo sobre sair da zona de conforto. Não só porque nunca joguei nada parecido antes, inclusive morrendo várias vezes até me acostumar com a física e controles esquisitos ('para onde fica a frente?' é o tipo de dúvida constante no começo) nem só porque ele jamais te pega pela mão: como disse o Errant Signal o jogo é uma via de mão única e jamais irá em sua direção, você é que tem que ter o trabalho de ir até ele. Mas porque você nunca vai resolver os puzzles e jamais vai entender a trama se não estiver disposto a pisar onde ninguém nunca pisou e ir onde você jamais iria normalmente. Pensar fora da caixa, ser curioso e querer de verdade entender o universo à sua volta são pré-requisitos pra se aproveitar Outer Wilds, tanto os puzzles e mecânicas quanto a história.

Antes da 1ª decolagem vários amigos da sua vizinhança te contam anetodas sobre o sistema solar: uma corrente marítima esquisita e criaturas assustadoras em um planeta, um colega astronauta que desapareceu, uma estátua e uma pedra que agem de um jeito que ninguém entende. Tudo pra te deixar intrigado e curioso pra explorar. Se a exploração pela exploração e a descoberta pela descoberta não te enchem os olhos, se na escola você não gostava daquela sensação de entender algo que não entendia antes, talvez passe algumas horinhas com Outer Wilds, enjoe e resolva ir jogar algo melhor. Mas se te atrai a ideia de descobrir o que aconteceu com povos e espécies extintas, compreender como funcionam tecnologias que antes eram confusas, e principalmente ter um envolvimento emocional com o mundo à sua volta a tal ponto que você vai ousar fazer coisas por ele que jamais ousaria antes... Garanto que a viagem vai ser inesquecível. ❤️

Outer Wilds is the only game I can think of where within its first moments, I knew I was in for something very, very special without really understanding why. The title screen is already so inviting, with its gentle acoustic glow fading in over a collage of shimmering stars. The game opens, I wake up on my back, looking up into the sky to see something explode in the distant orbit of a giant, green planet deep in space, and my imagination is immediately captured. I feel an intangible warmth as I speak to my fellow Hearthians and wander our village, a sense of wonder and anticipation as I walk through our peoples' museum, learning about things that I realize I will inevitably have to face or utilize in the adventures ahead. All this before even seeing my ship, let alone blasting off with it into the far reaches of space.

The expectations and tone of Outer Wilds are set up pitch perfectly in this opening. On the whole, the game captures the innate desire we all have to learn more, to reach out for what's next, even if we have no idea what it is we are searching for or why we seek it. It's the only thing Outer Wilds relies on to lead players forward. There are no objectives or goals, no waypoints to show you where to go next; there only those which you create for yourself. What drives us forward is the need to understand the world(s) around us, or at least attempt to understand. Is there a more human desire than that?

Outer Wilds is a masterpiece for its many balances: of warmth and intimacy with the melancholic loneliness of space; a constant sense of wonder with an equally constant fear of the unknown; its charming, colorful art style with its hard, scientific approach; its reverence for the teachings of both classical and quantum physics; its personal, micro-level character stories set against the fate of the universe. The list goes on. And that's without even mentioning the game's emotional linchpin: Andrew Prahlow's incredible score, a healthy mix of folk, ambient and post-rock that is a delicate tight-wire act in and of itself, managing to capture both the vastness of space and the intimate glow of a campfire without compromise.

Whatever feelings Outer Wilds brought out of me in its opening moments were only further heightened and more deeply understood as I began unraveling the mysteries of its clockwork solar system, spiraling faster and faster towards an ending that left me in awe of everything that came before it and soon yearning for other experiences that could fill the black hole that the game's sudden absence left in place of my heart. Outer Wilds is not only a perfect game, but also one of the medium's purest expressions of its most inspiring possibilities. If only I could breathe out a sigh of relief and wake up on Timber Hearth for the first time again.

its a humbling feeling to find a game that feels bigger than you

i dont even know where to start describing it. at its core, its a game about not understanding. the gameplay revolves around trying in vain to learn about your surroundings - to piece it all together and find a solution to a problem - only to die not because of a lack of trying, but because we just dont have the time.

the beauty of Outer Wilds lies right there. its galaxy is small, yet feels huge and only gets bigger the more you dig. by all means it should feel like a hopeless venture to continue exploring, but its too engaging not to. there is no end goal, and it makes no promises other than the fact you will die.

and the magic is that we did anyway. even if i didnt know what for, i kept exploring its planets to find its secrets. i felt giddiness meeting every character and hearing their stories. i pat myself on the back after solving puzzles once i asked the guy at the starting campfire how to.

Outer Wilds - despite playing as an alien - is a deeply human game. a journey about facing adversity through sheer willpower despite not having all the answers, and knowing youre not alone in that.

i cant do this game a service with my $5 speak and someone else could do a much better job, and thats ok. because like i said, this game - like its setting - is big. theres so much to talk about, yet its message is so precise. its mysteries are so complex, yet so simple in retrospect. games like these remind me how special this industry is, and what kind of art it can produce. Outer Wilds is a profound experience i likely wont forget for a very long time.

Portal 2 feels like the fully realized version of the original Portal. At it's core it feels the same, but the sequel just has so much more going for it, more personality.

In this game, Chell is no longer bound to the test chambers of Aperture Science like in the first Portal. After an incident in the story, she decides to take a little stroll through an abandoned salt mine and the backstage parts within the facility while she's at it. All of this while she is accompanied by three unique companions throughout the game. Speaking of the companions, the dialogue in Portal 2 is a big improvement over the one in Portal. In the first game, GLaDOS' comments happened every now and then, but here you pretty much have a narrator by your side all the time. This alone makes for quite the tonal shift in atmosphere to Portal, which had a pretty isolated and empty feeling to it - I can see how people prefer that, but personally I really enjoyed the extra dialogue and characters, since GLaDOS' remarks in the first game were one of the best parts for me. Back to the atmosphere in general, I think Valve did a really good job with setting an unique vibe for each individual area. My personal favorite is the salt mine, the vintage setting really landed for me!

As for gameplay, Portal 2 introduces a variety of mechanics to make the puzzles more enjoyable than the first game. Energy balls are completely gone this time and are replaced with light bridges, gravity beams, new cube variants and three different sorts of paint. Sounds like overkill at first, but those mechanics don't really overstay their welcome and they are really fun to play around with.

The narrative weaves those puzzles together in a logical way, while also delving into the background story of Chell and Aperture Science; there's some really good worldbuilding in there. The companions aren't one-note personalities and each one adds to the story with a different purpose, which makes them distinctive and memorable in their own ways.

Overall it's an amazing puzzle game, absolutely deserves the praise it's been getting. Had a good time with the main story, but the community maps are a nice treat if you're still in the mood for some more Portal action.