Outer Wilds, Subnautica, and 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. Play them all, and don’t look anything up, because the unfolding mystery is half the charm and you can never unknow it.
I really enjoyed it up until the end, where I knew exactly what needed to happen, but I couldn’t figure out how to do it. When I finally looked it up, it was the most unintuitive solution that felt more like an easter egg than the intended path. I would have never finished it on my own, which left a bad taste in my mouth.
I mean, the entire game can sort of be described as an easter egg hunt. If you’re talking about >!warping inside the Ash Twin project!< then I get it, I got stuck on that for a while too but I love puzzle games and am used to that feeling of being stuck. I’ve noticed watching playthroughs that most people miss >!clues for how to tell the warp towers apart or how to apply the knowledge that warp towers activate when oriented towards the gravitational center of a destination!<, so there could’ve been more clues for that.
Edit: I think something that could’ve improved it is if they made a mini-game of the ship log to get more people to interact with it. A lot of the issues people seem to have with the game stem from them not meaningfully engaging with the clues they’ve been given. As it is the game relies heavily on people actively trying to piece together the puzzle themselves without any mechanism to ensure they do it.
Yeah they work like ::: spoiler this –where the title of this spoiler is “this,” attempting to make this interjection fit smoothly inside the sentence– ::: but the markup and formatting makes them kinda weird to try and put inside a block of text.
I got stuck on the same thingI like collectathon games so I thought of the ship log as the collectibles in the game, trying to fond every clue but when I got to the ash twins, I stayed on the correct spot two entire cycles and the teleporter didn’t want to work. Then I searched for it to confirm I was following the correct lead. The game was really fun but sometimes it asked you to be on position x at time t and gave you only two opportunities with 5 minutes of waiting in between. Something like a teleporter detector when you get close enough to them, as with the radio detector would have helped. I really enjoyed the game and 100% completed it in two sittings. I keep recommending it.
You do have a >!teleporter detector!<, sort of. You can use the >!scout launcher to see when the teleporter activates by shooting the scout on the platform and hanging back. A black hole will appear when it activates and you can jump in.!<
Unpopular opinion warning: After absolutely adoring Subnautica I was excited to try Outer Wilds as I was told it was similar. But for some reason despite my best efforts I just never got myself to care about it. It must be having to start over and over again and having a time limit to do anything that just annoys me too much. I get what they were going for and you can really tell it was made with a lot of love. But it was just not for me.
Unpopular opinion warning: after playing and adoring Outer Wilds, I played Subnautica and, while it’s a fine game, I’m having trouble getting engrossed in it. I’ve never been much of a fan of survival games, though (apart from Minecraft if it counts?) and Subnautica may be my favorite in that category… But it’s still firmly in that category
Everyone should TRY Subnautica and Outer Wilds without being spoiled first. And if they give it a go and don’t like it, they shouldn’t be outcasts for choosing to read about the game instead of playing it themselves. No game is fun for everyone, and that’s ok
Maybe I’m just weird but haven’t played it yet because I don’t have much reason to play it… I want to know why I should play it but not enough to just go play it.
That usually means it’s a knowledge-based game and the fun is in the figuring out. Tunic had a similar feel even though the gameplay was very different.
It’s weird, I absolutely adored Tunic, it’s one of my favorite games of all time, yet Outer Wilds was just “alright” for me? Like IGN 7/10 good but nothing to write home about.
Part of that was probably because I felt constant nausea due to being unaccustomed to playing 3D games with controller - the fact half of the game occured in space with two additional axis of rotation significantly worsened it.
So, there’s a few reasons why everyone wants you to go in blind:
It’s a puzzle game and a mystery, and one where knowledge is everything. Technically you seem complete the whole game in 5 minutes if you know how. In practice, it’s hours of discovery as you slowly piece together an absolutely breathtaking mystery (there’s literally a “conspiracy board with polaroids and string” on your ship that you can consult as you start to piece things together). That sense of discovery and wonder is everything, and we’re trying to preserve as much of it for you as possible.
There’s an absolutely brilliant twist about half an hour in that will leave your jaw on the floor.
The ending is incredible. Real top tier “best endings in video games” kind of material.
The whole game is just full of really really cool “WOW” moments as you discover new things and just lose your mind over them.
But I get it, you want a little more than that. Here’s the non-spoilery version:
Its a puzzle game that deftly avoids presenting you with “Solve this Sudoku” style puzzles. You’re not doing an IQ test, you’re solving a vast mystery that reaches across space and back into the past. You’re an archaeologist, unearthing the ruins of a dead civilisation. You’re an explorer (most of the puzzles are about navigation; figuring out how to get into or out of places) diving deep into the unknown.
On a more practical level, it’s a game about flying around a tiny but surprisingly well simulated star system in a little tin can space ship, landing wherever you want, and exploring whatever you want, as you try to solve a mystery that threatens your whole civilisation.
It’s a game of cosmic wonder. If you’ve ever felt awestruck by the idea of things like black holes, wormholes, four dimensional space, megastructures in space and so on, this game has it all and more. It’s cute and fun on the surface, but really it’s 2001 and Solaris and Interstellar, just slamming you with the sheer majesty of space.
And it’s just full of heart. It’s a game about life and community and the beauty of building great things together.
Now the more spoilery stuff. Let’s talk about that big twist that happens early on. This doesn’t give much else away, but it does slightly lessen the impact of one really cool moment.
SpoilerAbout half an hour into your first exploration of the solar system, the sun goes supernova. It is terrifying, and awe inspiring. And you die. And wake up again, 22 minutes in the past. That’s the game; it’s a time loop. It’s groundhog day but instead of I’ve Got You Babe it’s the fucking sun exploding. So now you have to repeat the loop, over and over, trying to piece together an answer to why the sun is blowing up, and how you can stop it, and perhaps how it all ties into a dead alien civilisation and their quest for something called The Eye of The Universe.
That should be enough to give you some idea of why people are so hype about this game. It doesn’t even come close to covering some of the truly wild discoveries you’ll make along the way, or indeed the truly heartbreaking emotional gut punches the game will deliver.
It’s one of the best games ever made. I cannot recommend it enough.
Genuinely the best review of the game I’ve read to date. Very good writing to showcase the “Feel” of the game with none of the real content being spoiled.
First time I approached the gas giant I fell in. I bout pissed myself. If you do go back, I suggest turning off frights for the DLC content. It’s definitely willy-filled in a couple of small parts.
Yeah. Live the existence and it will be unique to however you do it but the end is the end, the best you can do is hope to observe it and share it with others.
had the same problem with subnautica, brilliant game but unfortunately i cannot go further than about 25% into the grassy plateaus (the red grass area) before my lizard brain goes “lmao nope, fuck that shit”
It’s at least nice to know i’d be the only survivor in a horror movie, i would be physically unable to enter the haunted mansion.
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