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

Ah, I see you folks have come to the divisive bits!

So I felt the darkness added immensely to the atmosphere and made exploration a lot more eerie and uneasy. I really enjoyed it and I like that you can’t gamma it away too (like in Hunt: Showdown, sigh). That said, I get the frustration, especially when the Stranger’s/owl-elks come out to patrol. Not going to lie: I giggled when I realised they were happy to stand still silently with their light covered and just… wait in the pitch black. From a game design point of view, that’s annoying, but it just made them seem so much more intelligent than, well, most other stealth game guards; shouting, clanking around and flashing their lights everywhere..

Which areas have you been trying to work through @JoshL and what are your latest leads?

I don’t want hints, I am going to figure it out. I haven’t even read your spoiler! But since you asked, I’m trying to get the codes to open the vault. I know all the secrets, e.g. go through the fireplace. But so far I haven’t succeeded at any of them, because of the stupid antler-men.

That’s the spirit! :-D

Well, I figured out how to get through the fireplace , which took a lot of messing around. But the trick I used won’t work for the other hidden areas. Still, that did give me another hint, which I followed, but not sure what to do with that now.

It really did take me a week to figure out how to do that though.

And of course now I’ve figured out the second, and much simpler trick which will probably work for the other areas. However, I tried it in one of the areas, and while I did get much further, much easier, it still didn’t get me quite all the way there.

My son and I started playing Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye together this weekend. We tag team it, like we did for the main game, taking turns between every <spoilery main event goes here>. It’s great to have another player along and to bounce ideas off each other.
And wow. It’s been such a joy so far. I wasn’t sure how an expansion would fit in the pocket sized solar system, but it does! And it’s another fantastic little story.

Skimming this thread to avoid spoilers, it mentions divisive parts. I’m guessing we haven’t reached them yet. Up to this point, everything has flowed very nicely and been fun to solve. We keep making progress, but have more to find still. I hope those bits do not come and bring down the experience. It’s been fantastic.

Well, I finally got into all the forbidden archives. One of them gave me a hint to a thing I’d already figured out by accident :(

Anyway, a bit stumped on what to do now. I’ll keep going…

Oh, I get it. I have to die. Not sure how to do that.

We finished the expansion last night. After a fair amount of frustration at “those parts”, we eventually figured out all the tricks that help with them or bypass them.

It was an affecting story once again and a great addition to the Outer Wilds lore. I’m really glad we got the expansion. It’s definitely a great game to play as a duo too.

@JoshL There is a very simple answer to your last question. As a general hint: no need to go far at all. We had done it several times before not on purpose. So we kind of knew it was a thing.

Must…resist…reading…spoiler…

Haha, yes, I know the feeling! That stumped me too and I went to bed with no ideas, then it hit me at about 6:30 in the morning. I had to wait all day before I could try it out…!

Ha! My son and I had done it several times before by mistake (we are that good at the game) and thought we had found some kind of buggy behaviour. Then it hit us what it could be used for once we reached that point. Very clever.

Honestly I felt kind of daft when it hit me. The fire! It’s been literally staring at me every time I’ve gone to sleep and opened my eyes on The Stranger! Get this though: I discovered the hidden chamber of dead owl/elks the first time I went into the first building in the river lowlands! I’m not even sure what possessed me to remove the lanterns, never mind in the right window. Pure dumb luck and I was hoping it wasn’t some MAJOR late-game reveal I’d discovered way too early! Thankfully not.

Wow. That’s indeed quite the random discovery.

Ok, I figured it out without hints! Well, except the in-game computer log hint which I re-read carefully which allowed me to figure it out… you can die before you go in. Once I realized that, I pretty quickly figured out to use the fire, which I had noticed could injure you.. So, if you’ve done that, you can read this spoiler: Is that the end? Once you see the vision of the antler-man and the raft? Or is there something else?

Answer for spoiler question: That’s it.

The normal game ending has an added character with 2-3 lines of text and the ending picture is slightly different.

Thanks. I would probably do the regular ending to see that, but… I don’t remember how to do it!!

Yeah, I was the same! I fumbled through and almost did it first time.

I think it’s definitely worth doing the ending again to see (and especially hear) how it changes. I found it even more affecting this time and it was really sad knowing that this time was almost certainly the last time. Aw man. Just incredible stuff.

At this stage I’ll be blown away if Echoes of the Eye isn’t my game of the year. Not bad for some DLC.

I’m very late to the party here, but seeing the DLC talked about recently made me pick up this game for a second time. Initially, I thought it was an amazingly crafted tech demo. But after randomly exploring a few planets and being frustrated at the 22 minute limit, I didn’t finish.

This time, hearing that it was designed as a detective game, I started at a single thread (explore the moon) and explored everything one step at a time. I sought answers to any questions that popped up in the next time loop. And it sucked me in, big time. This was an incredibly satisfying game, with a surprisingly frightening and emotional ending.

I’m skipping recent replies in this thread until I play the DLC, but thanks for the chatter! I’m glad I gave this game a second shot!

Glad you have it a second chance. This game is something special. And going through that story for the first time is such a memorable experience.