Learning everything you need will require thorough examination of all the stellar bodies that can be landed upon. Clues and parts of the story have been scattered by the Nomai across the system. It’s all about exploration and learning why the sun is imminently going to explode and what, if anything, can be done about it. It’s hard to gauge how much playtime Outer Wilds actually offers. Consequently, while all the environmental dangers will encourage you to be slow and cautious, the ticking countdown will forever be pushing you to move faster, faster, faster. Even if you manage to not off yourself, the sun explodes after 22 real-time minutes, which, unsurprisingly, means another death and another start back in camp. However, the game gets you there too because the sun is on its own course for disaster. Generally speaking, most of these deaths can be avoided by taking your time and being methodical. There’s death by spacesuit puncture (and asphyxiation), death by drowning, death by plummeting into the sun, death by being swallowed by giant alien anglerfish, death by being smothered by sand, death by “ghost matter” radiation, death by air tank depletion, death by spaceship explosion, death by autopilot navigation into a planet, death by impalement…the list goes on. Outer Wilds actually has an impressive number of ways to die. Unless you’d rather simply strike off in a new direction, returning to your previous position later on, as at all times you are free to explore elsewhere should you so choose. If you want to resume your interrupted exploration, this means that you will have to take off (again), fly back to where you were (again), land (again), and walk back to the location where you died (again). Every time you die (or quit), you are returned to the beginning again. This Groundhog Day-esque time looping is at the core of the Outer Wilds experience. A weird alien TV monitor comes up on-screen and shows a sequence of stills from your latest run through the game, reversing until you wake up at your campsite next to the launch tower again. My second attempt wasn’t much better as I wasn’t sure how high I had to fly to escape the planet’s gravity and ended up being pulled back down and crashing.ĭeath, as they say, is only the beginning, however. I did before even getting into orbit by accidentally stepping from a high platform and plummeting to my doom. Space, you see, is very dangerous and you could well die before finding anything. During these exploratory junkets, you’ll discover ruins left by an ancient civilization known as the Nomai. After taking off from your home planet, you’re able to freely fly to any of a dozen worlds, moons, and space debris. Players assume the first-person role of an unnamed Hearthian, a multi-eyed, blue skinned race that is just starting to explore its own solar system in steampunk-esque ships that look like they’re held together with spit and baling wire. This is a very well-made game with a specific vision that does not have a lot of middle ground between love-it and hate-it. Outer Wilds stands out in that the very elements that are an integral part of the charm for the people who will really love this game are the same ones that will be showstoppers for everyone else. Ordinarily it makes sense to evaluate a game’s pros and cons to help provide people a sense of whether they’d enjoy it or not. The strict adherence to punishing real-time limitations in Outer Wilds will no doubt leave some feeling frustrated by this 3D exploratory experience, but there are diverse worlds and an intriguing mystery to discover that will surely garner a passionate following as well. Then again, no one ever said exploring a whole solar system whose sun is about to go supernova was going to be a walk in the park. So it’s curious that over thirty years later, Mobius Digital would develop a game that doubles down on death while simultaneously throwing out the ability to save. Fortunately, designers eventually realized that constant game-overs and loss of progress was not very fun. Back in the 1980s, when Sierra was king, games had no problem with killing players off.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |