outer wilds is probably one of the most incredible experiences ive ever had in the videogame media bar none a product so wide that it expanded through time and space and will go down history as one of the major pieces of art of our generation mark my words
how I was definitely intrigued by this new addition to the original game and how it was gonna tie in to the base experience and honestly this is almost as good as the main game but has some slip ups here and there that I wish were streamlined to actually make the most of this beautiful story
since you already explored most of the stuff in the solar system the dlc will take place in a hidden starship that actually acts as the main destination for the entirety of your playthrough
issue 1 apart from actually discovering the stranger that is somehow the beginning of the quest when you actually know its coordinates every . single . loop you will have to get back to this spaceship after your times up sure that's a little less of a hassle when you get autopilot but this ties to
issue 2 the stranger is still subject to the time loop now this makes a lot of sense narratively this is definitely not an issue in that sense because since the gemini project is gonna explode anyway of course you will have to make your way back to base one . that being said exploring the environment while still being annihilated after 20 minutes grows tiring really fast mainly because instead of having a lot of variety and options like the solar system exploration you will have to lose those 2-3 minutes doing the exact same things
and thats the end this dlc is almost perfect after that
so I will talk of stuff that goes from less spoiler to more spoiler so SPOILER WARNING and I highly highly advice you to get into this dlc without any previous knowledge please please please
I've already talked profusely of base outer wilds and it's mechanics so I won't take a detour but what actually made me scream is the fact that most of the stranger will recontextualise how you use your tools: since this is an object created by a life form which is not part of the solar system (the stranger duh) most of the storytelling will happen in different ways than you were accustomed to the numai the people of this spaceship mainly used visual traditions to archive their culture instead of writing and even those sparse “letters” on the walls will be illegible due to the fact that this is not the numai language anymore and that's why I think its so fucking genius to create an entire different gameflow adding the fact that these people mainly used light sources to create energy and so you will use the flashlight to do what you have to do
that being said the stranger is absolutely beautiful to traverse an entirely circular world that makes use of water canals to traverse from one place to the other and explore every little nook and cranny of this artificial environment and the sense of exploration and wonder is still untouched from the OG game and getting to slowly know the owl people and making sense of what happened to them through films is probably the highlight of the experience
basically these guys received the signal of the eye and decided to reach it to know what's up with that and when they got there they realised the thing the eye does / will do is to eventually decimate the universe population and something something happened and you can actually find them in some attics just sleeping in front of a light
getting to know later in the game that the reality is actually that they had to completely destroy their home planet to get to the eye just for them to realise its not a divinity but a ruthless and violent being without any reason is just so fucking sad and an incredible twist and they were so broken by this that they tried to recreate digitally their homework to forever live in it transporting their conscience . they knew they were gonna die nonetheless but wanted to stretch that time for as much as possible
and in some ways you can also get in this digital world and explore it boom
the digital world is probably the point where I have the most problems . its honestly pretty confusing to traverse it feels like a labyrinth with very interesting but tricky mechanics and the fact that its completely dark and you still are subject to the time limit doesn't help
I wanted for it to be more streamlined but even beside that I can really say this is the most tense part of the entire outer wilds experience the atmosphere is so thick its gonna suppress your breath and the horror elements of the owl people actually hunting you down is such a good addition I was sitting tightly in my chair with my butt clenched
main point of this part of the game is trying to open a vault that the owl people hid in the water of the stranger and while it's very convoluted the game slowly gives you all the elements to open this vault that you also saw in the films
and when you manage to do that boom face to face with the prisoner he will give project onto you his experience and help you make sense of what actually happened and when it's your turn to show him your life its gonna get TEARY unironically had to stop for a second because the entire sequence of like 30 seconds absolutely annihilated me incredible storytelling through literally 0 words I cannot and also ties back to the entire lore of the main game and I was flabbergasted (this word is so funny)
so after he knows everybody's dead and gone he gets outside and kills himself so that he can finally get out of this endless prison and you do the same and youre left with a little scene of them ideally getting on the same boat towards the sun (another crying fit)
ideally this would be the end of the dlc but you can actually replay the ending of the game to see that the prisoner is added to the bunch and thats such a beautiful touch honestly I love that guy so much he went through a lot give him a happy ending
even though I wanted some kind of closure instead of this open ended narrative about the prisoner and a new ending I really enjoyed how this all tied back to the main game and actually recontextualises most of the story elements happening in outer wilds for a epopee that stems ages and ages
yes again I'm left with the feeling that this game is special theres so many deep themes explored by this game that I honestly never found in any other piece of media whatsoever alien movies didn't even scratch the surface of the greatness this duo of games touched upon a tale so grand so melancholic so happy and so tragic at the same time that it can't be discussed in a single review or even a 4chan 1000 pages discussion
outer wilds is and will always be one of my favorite things ever and this dlc is a testament of how much love was poured into this project and I cannot wait to see what the developer team is gonna make after this you guys got my heart and I thank you for releasing the most incredible experience I've ever had in my life in the videogame media
how I was definitely intrigued by this new addition to the original game and how it was gonna tie in to the base experience and honestly this is almost as good as the main game but has some slip ups here and there that I wish were streamlined to actually make the most of this beautiful story
since you already explored most of the stuff in the solar system the dlc will take place in a hidden starship that actually acts as the main destination for the entirety of your playthrough
issue 1 apart from actually discovering the stranger that is somehow the beginning of the quest when you actually know its coordinates every . single . loop you will have to get back to this spaceship after your times up sure that's a little less of a hassle when you get autopilot but this ties to
issue 2 the stranger is still subject to the time loop now this makes a lot of sense narratively this is definitely not an issue in that sense because since the gemini project is gonna explode anyway of course you will have to make your way back to base one . that being said exploring the environment while still being annihilated after 20 minutes grows tiring really fast mainly because instead of having a lot of variety and options like the solar system exploration you will have to lose those 2-3 minutes doing the exact same things
and thats the end this dlc is almost perfect after that
so I will talk of stuff that goes from less spoiler to more spoiler so SPOILER WARNING and I highly highly advice you to get into this dlc without any previous knowledge please please please
I've already talked profusely of base outer wilds and it's mechanics so I won't take a detour but what actually made me scream is the fact that most of the stranger will recontextualise how you use your tools: since this is an object created by a life form which is not part of the solar system (the stranger duh) most of the storytelling will happen in different ways than you were accustomed to the numai the people of this spaceship mainly used visual traditions to archive their culture instead of writing and even those sparse “letters” on the walls will be illegible due to the fact that this is not the numai language anymore and that's why I think its so fucking genius to create an entire different gameflow adding the fact that these people mainly used light sources to create energy and so you will use the flashlight to do what you have to do
that being said the stranger is absolutely beautiful to traverse an entirely circular world that makes use of water canals to traverse from one place to the other and explore every little nook and cranny of this artificial environment and the sense of exploration and wonder is still untouched from the OG game and getting to slowly know the owl people and making sense of what happened to them through films is probably the highlight of the experience
basically these guys received the signal of the eye and decided to reach it to know what's up with that and when they got there they realised the thing the eye does / will do is to eventually decimate the universe population and something something happened and you can actually find them in some attics just sleeping in front of a light
getting to know later in the game that the reality is actually that they had to completely destroy their home planet to get to the eye just for them to realise its not a divinity but a ruthless and violent being without any reason is just so fucking sad and an incredible twist and they were so broken by this that they tried to recreate digitally their homework to forever live in it transporting their conscience . they knew they were gonna die nonetheless but wanted to stretch that time for as much as possible
and in some ways you can also get in this digital world and explore it boom
the digital world is probably the point where I have the most problems . its honestly pretty confusing to traverse it feels like a labyrinth with very interesting but tricky mechanics and the fact that its completely dark and you still are subject to the time limit doesn't help
I wanted for it to be more streamlined but even beside that I can really say this is the most tense part of the entire outer wilds experience the atmosphere is so thick its gonna suppress your breath and the horror elements of the owl people actually hunting you down is such a good addition I was sitting tightly in my chair with my butt clenched
main point of this part of the game is trying to open a vault that the owl people hid in the water of the stranger and while it's very convoluted the game slowly gives you all the elements to open this vault that you also saw in the films
and when you manage to do that boom face to face with the prisoner he will give project onto you his experience and help you make sense of what actually happened and when it's your turn to show him your life its gonna get TEARY unironically had to stop for a second because the entire sequence of like 30 seconds absolutely annihilated me incredible storytelling through literally 0 words I cannot and also ties back to the entire lore of the main game and I was flabbergasted (this word is so funny)
so after he knows everybody's dead and gone he gets outside and kills himself so that he can finally get out of this endless prison and you do the same and youre left with a little scene of them ideally getting on the same boat towards the sun (another crying fit)
ideally this would be the end of the dlc but you can actually replay the ending of the game to see that the prisoner is added to the bunch and thats such a beautiful touch honestly I love that guy so much he went through a lot give him a happy ending
even though I wanted some kind of closure instead of this open ended narrative about the prisoner and a new ending I really enjoyed how this all tied back to the main game and actually recontextualises most of the story elements happening in outer wilds for a epopee that stems ages and ages
yes again I'm left with the feeling that this game is special theres so many deep themes explored by this game that I honestly never found in any other piece of media whatsoever alien movies didn't even scratch the surface of the greatness this duo of games touched upon a tale so grand so melancholic so happy and so tragic at the same time that it can't be discussed in a single review or even a 4chan 1000 pages discussion
outer wilds is and will always be one of my favorite things ever and this dlc is a testament of how much love was poured into this project and I cannot wait to see what the developer team is gonna make after this you guys got my heart and I thank you for releasing the most incredible experience I've ever had in my life in the videogame media