Outer Wilds: Stage Three, and Landing

Outer Wilds:

Outer Wilds: Lift Off, Stage One, Stage Two

Outer Wilds: Stage Three, and Landing

Eventually the joy of unrestricted travel is tempered by the accumulation of data, and the repeated twenty-two minute deaths. Every time the player learns something of value the game records it in the spaceship. The Rumors interface contains only essential knowledge. The player doesn't have to sift through extraneous data. Unfortunately this information is only available on the spaceship. The ship also includes a repair station for the spacesuit and a refill of oxygen. Unlike the Rumors, a live map of the solar system is viewable at any time, anywhere, with the click of a button (as long as you are in your spacesuit).

Death is a common occurrence in Outer Wilds. If a collision with a moon, cactus, Sun, sand, jellyfish, lava, campfire, or asteroid doesn't kill the player, the eternal emptiness of space will. Dying is the only way to save the game. If the player tries to quit mid-session, Outer Wilds asks, “Reset Loop and Quit to Main Menu”? But Outer Wilds doesn't save in the conventional sense. Nothing the player does is saved from life to life. Nothing carries over, except what you've learned. The data collected and displayed in the spaceship is the only artifact.

While the cycle of death is a core mechanic, it also evokes frustration as the player passes the halfway point. The twenty-two minute timer is essential for the game. It is the game, a core component of the investigation. Twenty-two minutes is both a significant chunk of time, and not enough time depending on the task. Either way punishes. Sometimes the player is partway through a series of challenges. They know time is running out (Hint: the player can use their access to the live map of the solar system to check their remaining time. The Interloper orbits the Sun three times. On the third it crashes into the Sun. This crash is at the twenty minute point. Use these to keep track of the remaining time. Or, I don't know, just turn on a stopwatch at the start of a new cycle). With minutes remaining, the player rushes ahead and dies. Or they inch forward too slowly. The solar system, and their progress, is obliterated before learning the final bit of data. In either case, the player needs to retrace their steps, repeating previously completed puzzles to reach the last piece of knowledge. This is the third stage of the game, which almost brought the experience crashing down in flames.

Outer Wilds is not difficult. The allotted time is normally enough to complete a series of tasks. But sometimes it isn't. Dying and being forced to repeat something isn't enjoyable. Later errors are more devastating, because the chain of actions become more complicated, and because the player can see the ending at the end of the quantum light (like the time I almost finished the final objective, but was eaten on the way to my objective).

The schedule is also frustrating because some actions only become possible later in the twenty-two minute cycle. The player waits for Ash Twin to dump its sand on Ember Twin, and only exactly at sixteen minutes (not a minute more or less) can they perform the action they need to advance their understanding of the Nomai. Where can the protagonist wait sixteen minutes?

At the starting campfire. The player can Doze Off at any campfire. This replaces the protagonist's vision with a black screen and a stopwatch. Time moves faster in this state. In ten seconds of player time, one minute of Outer Wilds passes. After one minute of real life, ten minutes have passed in virtual reality. There are other campfires but the player has to locate them and remember their location. The weakness of the starting campfire is its location. It's not near the place the player has to be at a specific time, so the player has to leave with time to spare.

At the location of the action. The player is where they need to be. But can they park their ship nearby? If not, is there a source of oxygen (some locations have trees which refill the character's oxygen tank)? Are there unpredictable hazards (asteroids, fragile terrain, sand storms)? Even if it is a safe location, the player still needs to pay attention while they wait, so they don't miss the key timing. One doesn't want to bungle the job and have to wait again.

The time constraint also prevents the player from beginning a new search if they finish an area with time to spare. In this event, may I recommend suicide? The easiest method is to enter the spaceship, take off the spacesuit, and exit the ship. Without the ship the player has to find some method of breaking their suit or injuring themselves. A high cliff, a cactus, or a dangerous creature all offer an instantaneous death. If floating in space, use the jetpack to move toward the closest celestial body. It's terrible when the player is in a location with no means of reliably offing oneself, like the outer rim of the solar system with no spaceship.

Despite this talk of death, Outer Wilds is really an unconventional exploration puzzle game. It's difficult to describe what sets it apart from other puzzle games. It doesn't require the player, except on rare occasions, to manipulate shapes, push balls into holes, or figure out a path through a dialogue tree. It does use the basic mechanics of flying a spaceship (or a spacesuit); momentum, gravity, and the movement of objects around the player. Their implementation isn't perfect. Try to read the text of a Nomai message while your vision shifts even as you stand still, because gravity! Also, the display in the spacesuit shows the gravity affecting the protagonist. But it shows a value of zero gravity when using the jetpack. This is completely wrong. If I'm two feet off the ground of Giant's Deep, I'm still under the effects of its crushing 2.0x gravity. I feel it dragging me back down.

I'm unsure how much of Outer Wilds is science based and how much is pseudoscience. I am willing to accept that a significant part is correct. Specifically I'm curious about the use of quantum science. This is a key element of Outer Wilds. Solving the three quantum rules and accessing the Quantum Moon are necessary to reach the ending. Whether implemented correctly or not, the Q Moon is cool. You'll see it out and about in the solar system. Once I was lucky enough to glimpse it for a second as the protagonist respawned. He opened his eyes, I saw the moon, and then, he blinked, and it vanished. The way Outer Wilds allows the player to explore its quantum rules is very satisfying. The player can travel anywhere. Every answer to every question necessary to solve the mystery is hidden somewhere. The developer gives the player freedom and doesn't direct them anywhere. But Outer Wilds also wants to teach the player its rules. It teaches them to solve larger problems with smaller tests. In this way it is like a science project. Solving problems means using the information the player has learned, about systems, about the Nomai, about the solar system, and combining it to advance further in a hostile environment. When a puzzle clicks, it is truly a “wow” feeling. And sometimes the player learns by accident. I had landed on Giant's Deep a couple times, always seeing the same scenery. But on the sixth, or tenth landing I discovered a completely new area that I didn't know existed. I experienced a similar surprise on the Quantum Moon. Reaching the end requires looking at everything from a different perspective, or with the right knowledge.

As the clues come together at the end, the player encounters more complicated puzzles. Some of them require quick thinking, and quicker navigation. One specific problem was a game error. When I tried to recover the Warp Core, a special device necessary to complete Outer Wilds, I was in a large circular room. A platform rotates around the inside surface of the sphere. It is possible that in trying to retrieve the Core I messed something up, but the second time everything went fine. The first time, after I clicked the correct buttons on the machines, the world went crazy. The gravity seemed to fail, but only partially. Everything was spinning rapidly, including myself. Desperately I tried to land, tried to grab the core, tried to turn off the machinery, but nothing worked. The spinning was so bad, the rapid motion of the objects in the room, I felt ill and had to turn off the game. As I said, the second time in the room, everything worked fine.

The strangest feeling, as I approached the end of the game, came from the NPCs. The conversations between the protagonist and the few characters are lackluster. It doesn't communicate with the player. Each of the other astronauts has a single minor clue to learn, nothing more. They are barely characterized. But the worst part is that the player can't tell them about the twenty-two minute cycle and the end of the solar system. And even if they can, the other characters don't care. There isn't anything they could do about it, but everyone is incredibly apathetic, or is it nihilistic?Outer Wilds is a game of mysteries. The initial mysteries are; who were the Nomai and what did their freaky statue do to me? Later they become, why does the Sun explode, and what can I do about it? Further on the questions return to the Nomai; what were they doing? And finally the question is, how can I finish their project to find the Eye of the Universe?

These are all answerable, and need to be understood to complete the game. I have a slight problem with them though. The story requires what seems like an incredible set of coincidences. All the following occur in a 22 minute period:

Orbital Probe Cannon fires.

The sand moves from Ash Twin to Ember Core, uncovering the Project.

The Black Hole eats out Brittle Hollow from the inside.

The Interloper collides with the Sun.

The Sun goes supernova.

And, just before all of this, the Hearthian's protagonist is imprinted by the Nomai statue, and goes into space to discover the answers.

There are possibly other coincidences. Or maybe, Outer Wilds explains how these are all planned by the Nomai, and nothing is a coincidence. I wouldn't put it past the developers to do this, nor for myself to miss it. But if any one of these doesn't happen the solution is impossible.

With the gameplay over, the Outer Wilds poses a final question; what does it all mean? Like any good material asking this question, the developers don't provide any solid answers. The ending is somehow disturbing, spooky, depressing, profound, and comforting. These sorts of endings are mixed. Sometimes the writers overdo the symbolic, mystical, emotional elements, but here it lands well. It's too strange to be understood, and needs to be experienced, as the intrepid explorer begins his last journey. So I enjoyed the fourth stage. At least, I think I did.

In Conclusion, Outer Wilds is an awe-inspiring journey that affords the player the freedom to explore as they will. It implements its core conceit, a twenty-two minute life, with excellence. The time limit is sometimes too much, and sometimes not enough, but this challenge makes the experience more compelling. The real success of Outer Wilds is that it combines a host of disparate mechanics (piloting, exploring, puzzle solving, outside the box thinking, experimenting, using tools, scientific thought) and makes them feel seamless. It's also because sometimes Outer Wilds doesn't feel like it has much game play at all. Most of it is exploring, reading, thinking, with few conventional puzzles or actions. But it holds together admirably, even with its deviously peculiar ending.

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Outer Wilds: Lift Off, Stage One, Stage Two

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