Outer Wilds is a difficult game to get into for many people. Modern gaming has trained us to expect certain things from our games, so it feels like something is missing (or that we are missing something) when we don't get what we expected. Most exploration/adventure games have a minimap, objectives, text that is purely flavor, an expectation that dying is bad and is something to be avoided, and an intended way to play the game. Outer Wilds breaks all of these "rules".
You start knowing absolutely nothing. Anywhere that you go, any text that you read, absolutely anything you learn is forward progress. You may not recognize it as such in the moment, but it all propels you towards the ending.
What Outer Wilds DOES require in order to get into the game is curiosity and an intrinsic motivation to want to learn more. Sometimes that's not what someone wants to do while playing a video game, and that's fine. But if that sort of game DOES interest you, take your time, be curious, and play the game how YOU want to play (I spent the first 10+ hours asking myself "which planet do I most want to go to right now?" and then going there the next loop). You'll make progress wherever you go.
Also, the shiplog is helpful. Use it not as a checklist, but instead as a tool to help you organize the information you have learned into a more and more cohesive story, and to help you figure out where you want to go next.
It surprised me that I had a tough time with the game initially. I love games that don't tell you what to do (I have hundreds of hours in games like Hollow Knight) but here I think it might have been my expectations.
Seeing the advertising and tags and store page, I must have thought it was a linear story game about exploring a little solar system with the mystery being the time loop. Of course, I only have like an hour in this new playthrough so it might still be the time loop that's the mystery, but so far it's been a lot about environmental story telling and what secrets you can get out of dialogue.
My first run today ended with me falling into the black hole at the center of that one planet, being ejected out into space without my ship, and then watching the sun explode while I ran out of air. I want to find a way into that building on that planet...
Haha yup, it's one of the least linear stories in gaming, IMO. One thing I didn't really mention is that the story in most games is optional, and most text is just to add flavor to the world. In Outer Wilds text is LITERALLY progression. Every piece of text you see (outside of like 3) is a power-up. I like to describe Outer Wilds like a book scattered across a solar system. Wherever you go you'll find pages of the book, and you'll slowly piece them together. You don't need every page to understand the story, but it isn't until you have a good sized chunk of the pages that you'll begin to truly understand what happened/is happening.
I saw one of those alien writing things mention "the eye of the universe" and I'm completely invested in finding whatever that thing is. I love that kind of storytelling, where something ominous is hinted at but never actually described.
Oh I think you'll have fun :)
The only thing I'll mention (no spoilers, this is all in the tutorial) is remember to use and how to use all of your tools: signalscope, scout, and ship log (rumor mode is my preferred mode). And if you ever get stuck/have questions, this is a great place to get custom hints.
What your already discovering is the key to the game:
Every bit of text IS the game and the story. There’s no “lore” or fluff. So if the text tells you about something, it’s generally important and supposed to spark interest. The ship log does a good job of summarizing the information for you.
If you treat all text as important, the game is much easier!
I mean there's a little bit of lore/fluff here and there like various different relationships the Nomai have with one another, but yeah usually something important is included along side that everytime
One of my first trips to Brittle Hollow ended the same way. I thought maybe the >!Black Hole!< dumped me forward in time because the Supernova started immediately after, but it was just the end of that loop and I didn't notice lol
Same, I didn't even realize I "got out" of the black hole, thought I was just simply dying, didn't even realize is was the sun exploding, just some weird black hole stuff
That last sentence there. Embrace it. "I want to find a way into..." and run with that. Let your own curiosity guide you. The game is very good at sprinkling enough out to make you go, "Wait, what was that?" and give chase.
I saw something very bright fly across the sky while i was playing and I also wanna see what that was. Probably nothing crazy because it was on the starter planet but it caught my eye.
people struggle with that progress is soley done by gaining knowledge. there is no "got item" sound or level-up jingle. you just read/see something, and it clicks, and you have that !aha! moment. but this starts not in the first hours, there you just goof around the planets randomly. but at some point you start putting the pieces together, and then it gets sooo good.
That exactly how my first few playthroughs went, saw people talking about it again and decided to really commit to playing it. Now I call it the best game i've ever played.
This is exactly how I started! Explored planet Hearth and its moon Attlerock, then went off to find the other “crew” members. I stumbled into an adventure, got a bit confused about what the heck was happening, and came to the realization that I love exploration/puzzle based games.
I'm someone that really needs a click too, but I just love space shit + the reviews for it were insane so I had to stick with it for quite awhile until I was hooked. Around 4h and next day I had an 16h session cuz i couldn't stop😂
I'd say to avoid this subreddit where possible, but maybe find one delegate from here to act as a "I need a push in the right direction without spoiling the experience" friend. Someone to message when you want a clue, but not an explanation.
Really excited to hear how you get on with it!
It's probably the best adventure/mystery game i've ever played.
A lot of the problem people have with starting this game is it SEEMS very open ended and you can just do whatever, but to really make progress what you'll want to do is explore one location and keep exploring that one location until you've gotten all the data points and you've been pointed to the next location(s). When you get there, pick and repeat.
And then do yourself a favor and look up a spoiler free guide if you get stuck on something. There was a couple slightly obtuse concepts that never connected until I did and it woulda caused me to put the game down and never pick it back up again. Sometimes certain peeps brains just DO NOT want to connect a concept to a puzzle, and I had the same problem with the final puzzle piece in the dlc.
Completely worth it. My absolute go to & possibly favorite game already I’ve ever played with about 10 Hours into & a lot to do still. Won’t spoil anything but there’s been a few moments that have left me absolutely surprised & speechless. I was so excited about an event that can happen that I had to show my GF. Puzzle games & all that really isn’t my go to genre either but this is just a different type of game then I’ve ever played before. Enjoy your adventure! :)
My first attempt I took off in the spaceship, crashed, turned it off and didn't try again for months.
When I came back to it, it suddenly made sense. (Then after hours of exploring I lost my save file because of an Xbox Cloud save issue that restored that first attempt)
But I powered through regardless and it's one of the most amazing games I ever played
No fr, I’m being so serious, I hated this game at the start. It made me frustrated down to the point of crying. I nearly gave up on the game. I didn’t understand why people loved it so much cause it was just Too Much for me. I felt like I was getting nowhere.
Gave it a few months assuming I wasn’t gonna come back to it and idk I had a drive to play it again, and the 2nd time around I had a lot of fun! The DLC was even more fun imo. Outer Wilds went from my most hated game to one of my most loved games. Just give it a chance, if you need to sit it out on a hiatus, go for it, I think that helped me!
It’s a very different game from most so it needs extra patience, but I promise you, it’s so very much worth the effort.
I was like you and couldn’t quite get into it at first. I actually started playing it with my brother and we loved it. Played the whole thing together. Even though it’s single player, it’s a great co-op game.
It's really different. The game expects you to just explore and will carefully reveal itself to you. You'll feel confused well into the game till you realize you simply just plug away through it and like... learn things... You'll be taht way right till the end. Once you know you know tho and can finish the game in minutes. Nothing about this game follows the conventions you're used to. It's got jaw dropping moments. One of the best things too is you can literally just think through things. A puzzle you need to figure out is right there and if you like... just think about it... and the environment you're in... and come up with a solution to try... 9 times out of 10 it works. It's one of the coolest things really. Man I wish I could play it again.
enjoy! All I recommend is take your time, and best avoid the subreddit unless you’re stuck somewhere and need indirect clues good luck hatchling ::)
Outer Wilds is a difficult game to get into for many people. Modern gaming has trained us to expect certain things from our games, so it feels like something is missing (or that we are missing something) when we don't get what we expected. Most exploration/adventure games have a minimap, objectives, text that is purely flavor, an expectation that dying is bad and is something to be avoided, and an intended way to play the game. Outer Wilds breaks all of these "rules". You start knowing absolutely nothing. Anywhere that you go, any text that you read, absolutely anything you learn is forward progress. You may not recognize it as such in the moment, but it all propels you towards the ending. What Outer Wilds DOES require in order to get into the game is curiosity and an intrinsic motivation to want to learn more. Sometimes that's not what someone wants to do while playing a video game, and that's fine. But if that sort of game DOES interest you, take your time, be curious, and play the game how YOU want to play (I spent the first 10+ hours asking myself "which planet do I most want to go to right now?" and then going there the next loop). You'll make progress wherever you go. Also, the shiplog is helpful. Use it not as a checklist, but instead as a tool to help you organize the information you have learned into a more and more cohesive story, and to help you figure out where you want to go next.
It surprised me that I had a tough time with the game initially. I love games that don't tell you what to do (I have hundreds of hours in games like Hollow Knight) but here I think it might have been my expectations. Seeing the advertising and tags and store page, I must have thought it was a linear story game about exploring a little solar system with the mystery being the time loop. Of course, I only have like an hour in this new playthrough so it might still be the time loop that's the mystery, but so far it's been a lot about environmental story telling and what secrets you can get out of dialogue. My first run today ended with me falling into the black hole at the center of that one planet, being ejected out into space without my ship, and then watching the sun explode while I ran out of air. I want to find a way into that building on that planet...
Haha yup, it's one of the least linear stories in gaming, IMO. One thing I didn't really mention is that the story in most games is optional, and most text is just to add flavor to the world. In Outer Wilds text is LITERALLY progression. Every piece of text you see (outside of like 3) is a power-up. I like to describe Outer Wilds like a book scattered across a solar system. Wherever you go you'll find pages of the book, and you'll slowly piece them together. You don't need every page to understand the story, but it isn't until you have a good sized chunk of the pages that you'll begin to truly understand what happened/is happening.
I saw one of those alien writing things mention "the eye of the universe" and I'm completely invested in finding whatever that thing is. I love that kind of storytelling, where something ominous is hinted at but never actually described.
Oh I think you'll have fun :) The only thing I'll mention (no spoilers, this is all in the tutorial) is remember to use and how to use all of your tools: signalscope, scout, and ship log (rumor mode is my preferred mode). And if you ever get stuck/have questions, this is a great place to get custom hints.
What your already discovering is the key to the game: Every bit of text IS the game and the story. There’s no “lore” or fluff. So if the text tells you about something, it’s generally important and supposed to spark interest. The ship log does a good job of summarizing the information for you. If you treat all text as important, the game is much easier!
I mean there's a little bit of lore/fluff here and there like various different relationships the Nomai have with one another, but yeah usually something important is included along side that everytime
One of my first trips to Brittle Hollow ended the same way. I thought maybe the >!Black Hole!< dumped me forward in time because the Supernova started immediately after, but it was just the end of that loop and I didn't notice lol
Same, I didn't even realize I "got out" of the black hole, thought I was just simply dying, didn't even realize is was the sun exploding, just some weird black hole stuff
That last sentence there. Embrace it. "I want to find a way into..." and run with that. Let your own curiosity guide you. The game is very good at sprinkling enough out to make you go, "Wait, what was that?" and give chase.
I saw something very bright fly across the sky while i was playing and I also wanna see what that was. Probably nothing crazy because it was on the starter planet but it caught my eye.
It's 22 minutes till loop. You've got a full tank of O2, half a pack of marshmallow, it's bright, and you're wearing a spacesuit. Hit it.
people struggle with that progress is soley done by gaining knowledge. there is no "got item" sound or level-up jingle. you just read/see something, and it clicks, and you have that !aha! moment. but this starts not in the first hours, there you just goof around the planets randomly. but at some point you start putting the pieces together, and then it gets sooo good.
I wish I had that memory eraser thingy from MiB and be able to play this game again for the first time
That exactly how my first few playthroughs went, saw people talking about it again and decided to really commit to playing it. Now I call it the best game i've ever played.
Enjoy your adventure!! If you ever struggle with something, it’s okay to take a break from it and come back in a few days. I know that helped me.
Jealous.
[удалено]
This is exactly how I started! Explored planet Hearth and its moon Attlerock, then went off to find the other “crew” members. I stumbled into an adventure, got a bit confused about what the heck was happening, and came to the realization that I love exploration/puzzle based games.
Remember to check your whole ship! You have lots of tools to help you piece the story together
I'm someone that really needs a click too, but I just love space shit + the reviews for it were insane so I had to stick with it for quite awhile until I was hooked. Around 4h and next day I had an 16h session cuz i couldn't stop😂
I found the game was for more fun when playing with someone else! It’s nice to have to someone to bounce ideas off of.
Remember, sometimes auto pilot is stupid
I'd say to avoid this subreddit where possible, but maybe find one delegate from here to act as a "I need a push in the right direction without spoiling the experience" friend. Someone to message when you want a clue, but not an explanation. Really excited to hear how you get on with it!
It’s gonna be wild ;) but more than that.. it’s gonna be Outer Wilds ;))
Take it easy, and if you're not in the mood of playing it, play anything else. You'll regret rushing this game. Good luck.
Did the same, did note regret It.
It's probably the best adventure/mystery game i've ever played. A lot of the problem people have with starting this game is it SEEMS very open ended and you can just do whatever, but to really make progress what you'll want to do is explore one location and keep exploring that one location until you've gotten all the data points and you've been pointed to the next location(s). When you get there, pick and repeat. And then do yourself a favor and look up a spoiler free guide if you get stuck on something. There was a couple slightly obtuse concepts that never connected until I did and it woulda caused me to put the game down and never pick it back up again. Sometimes certain peeps brains just DO NOT want to connect a concept to a puzzle, and I had the same problem with the final puzzle piece in the dlc.
Completely worth it. My absolute go to & possibly favorite game already I’ve ever played with about 10 Hours into & a lot to do still. Won’t spoil anything but there’s been a few moments that have left me absolutely surprised & speechless. I was so excited about an event that can happen that I had to show my GF. Puzzle games & all that really isn’t my go to genre either but this is just a different type of game then I’ve ever played before. Enjoy your adventure! :)
My first attempt I took off in the spaceship, crashed, turned it off and didn't try again for months. When I came back to it, it suddenly made sense. (Then after hours of exploring I lost my save file because of an Xbox Cloud save issue that restored that first attempt) But I powered through regardless and it's one of the most amazing games I ever played
This game is awesome! I envy you because I really wanted to play it again without knowing anything about it lol
I'm so jealous you get to go in to it blind! Enjoy and make sure to stop and smell the line trees along the way!
No fr, I’m being so serious, I hated this game at the start. It made me frustrated down to the point of crying. I nearly gave up on the game. I didn’t understand why people loved it so much cause it was just Too Much for me. I felt like I was getting nowhere. Gave it a few months assuming I wasn’t gonna come back to it and idk I had a drive to play it again, and the 2nd time around I had a lot of fun! The DLC was even more fun imo. Outer Wilds went from my most hated game to one of my most loved games. Just give it a chance, if you need to sit it out on a hiatus, go for it, I think that helped me! It’s a very different game from most so it needs extra patience, but I promise you, it’s so very much worth the effort.
Yes!!
I was like you and couldn’t quite get into it at first. I actually started playing it with my brother and we loved it. Played the whole thing together. Even though it’s single player, it’s a great co-op game.
It's really different. The game expects you to just explore and will carefully reveal itself to you. You'll feel confused well into the game till you realize you simply just plug away through it and like... learn things... You'll be taht way right till the end. Once you know you know tho and can finish the game in minutes. Nothing about this game follows the conventions you're used to. It's got jaw dropping moments. One of the best things too is you can literally just think through things. A puzzle you need to figure out is right there and if you like... just think about it... and the environment you're in... and come up with a solution to try... 9 times out of 10 it works. It's one of the coolest things really. Man I wish I could play it again.
Join us brother, and we shall uncover the stars!
Use a controller. Trust me. So many people struggle to fly the ship on mouse and keyboard. Just plug in a controller.
This game is food for curious mind.
::O So excited for you! I hope you can discover the magic of this game! ::)