The best game I've played, not because its mechanically or visually better than any other game - there isn't one specific part of this which you can compliment without reaching for another aspect because everything is so interwoven together seamlessly and it becomes even more than the sum of its parts. Everything that can be said about this game already has been said, but that doesn't make the experience any less meaningful. It's not a game you can just describe to someone, but let me say this:
Outer Wilds is a game which utilizes its medium to its fullest potential. It isn't like TLOU or God Of War (2018), where such stories could be told just as well in a book or a movie. Outer Wilds works so well because it knows its a game, and it makes sure that such an experience can never be felt in a different medium. The puzzles, story, and exploration go so hand-in-hand that they blend into something that cannot really be defined in a way that undermines its uniqueness.
This game manages to incorporate a sense of deep, humble and emotional humanity in a spiraling sea of existential sublime, with the only thing pushing you on being your own sense of curiosity and wonder. It knows this, as after all its one of its major themes - The importance of learning and gaining knowledge around you, which it makes you identify all the more with the story and its meaning.
If saying the words "Ludonarrative Dissonance" make you feel smart, then this game will shut your wet Bioshock hate boner up for a good 20 hours and you'll have this game instead living in your head rent free for years to come.
Just play the game.
Outer Wilds is a game which utilizes its medium to its fullest potential. It isn't like TLOU or God Of War (2018), where such stories could be told just as well in a book or a movie. Outer Wilds works so well because it knows its a game, and it makes sure that such an experience can never be felt in a different medium. The puzzles, story, and exploration go so hand-in-hand that they blend into something that cannot really be defined in a way that undermines its uniqueness.
This game manages to incorporate a sense of deep, humble and emotional humanity in a spiraling sea of existential sublime, with the only thing pushing you on being your own sense of curiosity and wonder. It knows this, as after all its one of its major themes - The importance of learning and gaining knowledge around you, which it makes you identify all the more with the story and its meaning.
If saying the words "Ludonarrative Dissonance" make you feel smart, then this game will shut your wet Bioshock hate boner up for a good 20 hours and you'll have this game instead living in your head rent free for years to come.
Just play the game.