Echoes of the Eye: Owlelk and the Dreamworld

Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye:

Echoes of the Eye: A Strange New Adventure

Echoes of the Eye: Owlelk and the Dreamworld

Echoes of the Eye: The History of the Eye as told by the Owlelk, Nomai, and Hearthians

When I woke up, with the aliens gone, it seemed as though I was in the same structure. Exiting, I realized my mistake. I had been transported to a completely different world. Sure, it was a woods with a river, but the scene was darker, like a suffocating night. I'd lost my jet pack and flashlight. The only lights were the Artifact's faint greenish glow, and lanterns scattered across a dark wood. In the distance I saw a large wooden house, in good repair and lit with hundreds of candles. I steeled myself for the intense sequences Echoes of the Eye had warned me about.

I had so many questions. What is this new, darker, world? Am I dreaming on The Stranger, trapped in someone's memories, or transported to another location entirely? Does outside time still pass?

The inside of the big house is eerily silent. The player sees shut doors with no mechanism for opening or shutting. I entered with trepidation. Creeping slowly through the big house I saw a screen of a movie, and the shadow of a head of an Owlelk. I couldn't find a way in. As I heard a hideous screech, the movie screen went blank. I ran deeper into the structure.

What makes the Dreamworld, as called it, particularly terrifying is the combination of an overwhelming darkness and the threat hiding wrapped within. The player can only see three feet ahead with no peripheral vision. The Artifact can be focused to light distant objects, but, what if something sees me?

While exploring I fell into the river, which woke me. I had to go back. The real world was of no consequence. The Dreamworld held the answers posed by The Stranger.

I discovered that the Dreamworld isn't like The Stranger. It has a river, but the river flows slowly, and along a flat surface, to four locations; The Big House, The Totem Bell, The Singing/Ghost House, and The Forest House. Along the river, separating each location, is a tunnel of complete blackness.

Despite exploring these areas, I still hadn't encountered the intense sequences. The tension increased every step I took in the oppressive Dreamworld. At one location I set off a light sensitive alarm system in the Dreamworld. It triggered an alarm at the fire in the real world. I awoke, thwarted.

When I finally encountered an Owlelk, its towering figure ran towards me, screeching eerily with its lantern swinging from its hand. It grabbed me, blew out my lantern, sending me back to reality. But, if for some reason, you aren't carrying your lantern, it snaps your neck! Which also wakes you. The Owlelks aren't overly frightening. The darkness, their screeching, their eerie lamps, their large form, and their quick movement combine to make them anxiety inducing. The worst part was the worry, that if they caught me, I would have to restart, waiting another twenty-two minute cycle to achieve my objective.

Still, I wasn't completely done with The Stranger. I acquired more information. I alternated between the reality of The Stranger and the Dreamworld. Remembering where everything is, connecting it, and putting it all together is daunting. I made a map of The Stranger. A sort of flow chart, since the player can really only move in one direction, down river. At the three locations which I called The Village, The Tower, and the Stilted Village, I wrote what I had done, and what I needed to do. I was still trying to grasp what had happened to the Owlelk.

I found one reel that showed them destroying slides with green fire, while in another I saw them placing their giant totem in water. By now, it was clear that the totem had three locks on it. I had no idea what was inside. To know, I had to discover how to open each of the locks. And in the Fire Reel Building (I call it that because it had a picture of what looked like a slide reel on fire), I saw three holograms revealing three fire reels. Those reels, when I found them, each revealed a secret room in the Big House, the Singing House, and the Forest House. 

I still didn't understand the Owlelk. I knew why they had come. I suspected they were upset. But what had they done? What had they locked away? Were these aliens frightened or confused? Was their plan (whatever it was) malicious or benevolent?

One of the problems of Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye, is that the player must develop theories about their experiences, and test them. You can waste a twenty-two minute cycle conducting an experiment that accomplishes nothing; not even certain if it proved or disproved your thesis.. There are stories on Reddit of other players trying creative ideas multiple times to make sure the first time it didn't work was a fluke. Sometimes answers are found through hypothesis and experiment, sometimes they are discovered completely by accident. This is good, but also terrifying, that the success of any player is partly based on luck.

For instance, I discovered that if you hold an Artifact, and step on a green fire in one of the sleeping rooms, you will die, but you will wake up in the Dreamworld. And then, if you are kicked out of the Dreamworld (falling in water, taking too much damage, having your lantern blown out) you will be dead, dead. But I didn't understand why, yet.

This problem is also Outer Wild's strength. It encourages the player to hypothesis, experiment, and revise their hypothesis with new data. It's a creative system that rewards inquisitive players.

For example, I discovered, by watching the reels repeatedly, that in one of them, a Owlelk walks across air at a specific spot in the Dreamworld. I was able to locate the spot and replicate his action. I didn't know why it worked, yet.

On The Stranger I pieced together another puzzle to find a hidden room with three tablets, each marked with one of the three lock symbols. Unfortunately, they were burnt and unreadable.

In the Dreamworld I discovered a method to blow out the lights in the Big House. Echoes of the Eye is packed with puzzles connected to lights. Lights lock and unlock doors, pilot rafts, and make doors appear and disappear. They hide the player, and reveal them to foes. In the Dreamworld, lights create doors, but when the lights fail, the doors disappear, leaving only empty doorways. This frees the Owlelk, and sets them searching for the player. It also opens up paths to previously inaccessible areas. While the Owlelk send you back to The Stranger if they catch you, they don't reset the work you completed in the Dreamworld. Only the exploding sun does that.

Using the information on the slide reels I found and entered the secret room in the Big House. Each secret room is closely guarded by Owlelk hiding in near darkness. Three times I had to master my fear (and anxiety about being forced to start over) to dive past them. The strategy intended by the game seems to be; let the Owlelk see you, to draw them toward your location, then dive behind some terrain and sneak around them as they search at your original location. You have to dodge and weave, avoiding their shining light and grasping hands. You can not defeat the aliens. Online, other players claim the “Reduced Frights” option slows the aliens, and reduces their screeching.

The secret rooms are fabulous technologically sophisticated libraries, very different from the rustic woody dwellings in both The Stranger and the Dreamworld. Each library contains two reels, one which shows an unburnt copy of a previously discovered reel, explaining a critical detail of backstory.

The story of the second reel is reserved for the final article.