Outer Wilds - a solar system trapped in a time loop.

I love that I have no idea if I’m doing things the “right” way. This game is so captivating.

I randomly decided to explore The Interloper and for the first time I went there immediately at the beginning of my loop. When the ice started melting as we got closer to the sun, I was so happy. Of course that was the answer! I still have no idea what I’m supposed to do with the ship encrusted in the ice on the other side - “there’s more to explore here” despite getting all the way to the center of the Interloper and finding the log in there - but I can’t wait to find more things out.

I still haven’t explored the Dark Bramble, the Twins, and 1-2 other places, so there’s still a lot more to do in the meantime.

I just completed the Interloper (fuck ice I slipped my way to deah!), now I have to continue exploring the Twins, which I have 40% explored, and I know in one of them I have to find an anglerfish fossil in a cave to know how to avoid him in Dark Bramble.

Once that’s done, I think I have to visit two other quantum things (I already did Giant’s Deep), to gain access to the quantum tower in Brittle’s Hollow, and from there travel to the mysterious Quantum Moon. I suspect I have to find some way to enter in the highest floor of the city in Brittle’s Hollow.

I thought I had been everywhere in the Interloper, but there was another passage at the point where it seemed clear to me I couldn’t go any further without dying. Might be worth another trip.

I flew to the moon, then took off and set the autopilot somewhere else. For some reason I crashed. I didn’t have my suit on so I walked around until I realized I was on the starting planet. I couldn’t figure out what to do so I quit. When I restarted, it put me back at the beginning.

I uninstalled it because Annapurna can’t seem to get 60 fps out of their engine on an Xbox One X. I’m not sure if I’ll play it again on PC.

I would have voted for this for a request Wednesday (Tom stream) but – actually that would be full of spoilers right? This game looks very good. I will vote for “Eastern Campaign: Barborossa” instead… you know… just to look like I know what I am talking about.

(which I do not)

I finally spent some time exploring the hourglass twins for the first time. Man every time I see a new place my mind is blown again.

I made it way deep into the Ember Twin and found the underground city with the shrine dedicated to the eye. It filled up with sand and killed me eventually. Anything else there is to see in there?

The rumor view in the ship’s log will tell you whether you’ve found everything. Look for the orange circle on the icon. I think it keys off just the diaries etc, so if there’s other kinds of discoveries like items/switches/shortcuts, they won’t count.

(But in this specific case, yes, there is more.)

Like @Nightgaunt, I’ve really been struggling with this one so thanks for the tip. I’ve discovered some crazy things while playing (like the tiny Fig backer satellite in a distant orbit, and ‘destroying the fabric of spacetime’ ending at the High Energy Lab – much to my surprise and horror) but this just totally eluded me. I’ll be damned if I could recall even minor clues pointing to this particular approach, and I’ve revisited numerous sites in the hopes of finding something. Anything.


The double tower is suspicious and intriguing but beyond that I found little to suggest the warp tower with the broken top was even functional; all the functioning warp towers have a golden reticule. Not to mention, every other warp core points to another astral body and only warps when you’re aligned. This one should never really lose its alignment and yet it is still very specific with the timing, and under a sand column no less! Gah.

Anyway, I’ll have to try this tomorrow. Spent many loops and hours tonight trying to get into the Ash Twin Project before venturing back into this thread, defeated… I feared this obstacle would be my undoing! Every other one I’ve managed to work out with some moments of inspiration.

Nevertheless, this has been a remarkable experience. Not much more to go now, unfortunately…

Okay, so the astral alignment is the Ember Twin and the sand column is the big visual indicator, but unlike every other warp tower in the game, the projection is reversed so you need the alignment of Ember Twin to warp/push you away and into… Ash Twin. It’s a weird inconsistency that I hope they address. The golden reticules (as well as the game telling you to look up at them) are a good indicator of pull warping so I can’t help but feel that the broken top of the tower could have been a better clue. It seemed to me like the warp tower was just broken and not functional, after all, the warp across the bridge takes you to Ember Twin so… what’s this one for? Looking back, that’s a clue in itself! I think I’d prefer the tower to be intact and open top still (so the sand column is still an obstacle), but instead of a golden reticule, have an open golden rim that subtly differs to the others. I think that might be just enough to make people question the nature of its unique warping.

Phew, finished. I think I need to go and lie down.

One of my favourite games.

I agree it’s an exceptional experience.

From a sharing standpoint the game is at a disadvantage though as it’s really tough to discuss anything from the game without revealing some of the content that makes the game.

It’s difficult enough to get people to try out an awesome game you can’t really spoil like say Slay the Spire. How except by repeating “it’s an awesome handcrafted exploration experience” do you sell Outer Wilds? :P

Yeah exactly. I’ve been trying with friends today though! :-) The trailer on the main site is evocative without being too specific but it’s definitely hard to get across just how uniquely brilliant Outer Wilds is.

Coming from Return of the Obra Dinn, I don’t think I’ve had this level of quality back-to-back before. I was buzzing after that and even more so after this. Good times!

I almost ordered one of those 299 xbox one x’s to play this and couch Sea of Thieves with my kiddo…but OMG…how many hours in a day are there for family, dogs, work, yard, music hobbies, etc…I “dont” need this.

Those could be my consecutive games of the years 2018-2019!

Obra Dinn was engaging within the first 5 minutes. Unfortunately, this game is not.

Tromping around the homeworld is longer than necessary and while it’s cool that it teaches you just about everything you need in a hands-on way, I think it’s also a kind of tedious way. It’s sort of too bad you can’t get straight into the flying and exploring (I mean, you can, but you’ll crash). But I don’t think it takes more than 15 minutes to get to the point where the hook can sink in!

I dunno, as I mentioned up thread, opening your eyes to a planet looming directly above (and potentially something else), a small explosion in front of it, something shooting off and then something else flying past was enough to make me go ‘I want to find out what’s going on up there’, right off the bat. Everything else during the intro is tilling the soil and planting the seeds.

Besides, as @Nightgaunt said, it doesn’t have to take you long, depending on how much you want to discover before leaving. I spent ages exploring Timber Hearth before nervously and excitedly setting off into space. I also think it’s important you get a strong sense of ‘home’ at Timber Hearth before you leave, rather than waking up and jetting off straight away.

And why haven’t I seen @BrianRubin in here?

Well, I asked for a key and haven’t heard back, cat died, got a new cat, old cat got sick, and now I’m sick.

So… Been kinda busy.

Oh I’m sorry to hear it Brian. Hope you and old kitty get better soon.