I am pretty sure I found a secret in the DLC nobody has actually mentioned anywhere.
In the big house after extinguishing the lights, you're supposed to go down to the basement. There is a secret there as well, shown in Drez's video.
However, if you go up, you can find a hallway with a patrolling guard that is almost impossible to get past. If you do get past (I janked him out getting spotted in a closet and then running past) you can leave the building via a balcony and jump up to the roof.
On the roof is a mask made of leaves and sticks. When you see it, kazooified shitty versions of the dlc music begins playing.
I started the dlc and beat it over the last few days. I cant wait to go back through the spoiler tags, but here are my thoughts.
Outer Wilds is one of my favorite games of all time. I dont think any other game has ever captured the wonder, curiosity, and straight up spiritual depth of learning about the cosmos. It gives me feelings no other game ever has.
I think the dlc does a pretty good job building on it. A couple specific things i liked:
The new worlds are really pretty and interesting. The music is still great. The spooky parts are genuinely tense.
I missed the time spent with my spaceship from the first game. I also missed the personality and individuality of the nomai.
At a higher level though, one of the best things about Outer Wilds is it captures what it feels like to live in the anthropocene, or basically the end of the world as we know it. Lots of games deal with what happens after the apocalypse, or even during it, but its the only one i can think of that deals with living before it, having certainty its coming, but being unable to stop it. In general, media as a whole has had a really hard time wrangling with this, it doesnt sell a lot of Pepsi, after all.
I think the new DLC is pretty good getting at this also. It presents a civilization who deals with this knowledge through anger, denial, and escape. It makes a pretty pointed critique of vg players themselves, avoiding existential dread through escape into "digital" worlds. The game comes down on the side of taking a cosmological perspective, where at the end of the universe the prisoner says "i dont know whats coming next, but i dont think we should fear it". Its a beautiful, hopeful notion, for how to put the death of yourself, your family, your species, your planet, your solar system, your universe in perspective. Solanium (or whatever) says "it looks like its time for something new". Indeed.
Ahh dang, isn't that always the way. I get to the game after most of the desire to chat about it has died down. Oh well.
One bit of trivia that I thought might be fun to know, for those who came new to the game with the expansion or just happened to miss it already. Mobius Digital, the development studio for Outer Wilds, was founded (from a funding standpoint) by Masi Oka, who played Hiro, the hero, from Heroes.
There is a really good mini documentary about the development of the game, which makes me really want to work at this studio (no data scientist openings atm, unfortunately.)
This music is great, and now you've got me all tearing up again. Fucking Outer Wilds man, I feel that this game and Journey are the most emotionally resonant and artist games ever created, in my mind.
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AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
I'd honestly forgotten about the drop of the new songs, so I came in here hoping some amazing person on this forum would get the chance to experience this masterpiece fresh again... which meant that I could follow along and grin the whole time.
Brovid Hasselsmof[Growling historic on the fury road]Registered Userregular
If the lack of saves is all that's holding you back I really recommend just giving it a go. I think there was maybe two or three occasions in 26 hours of play time that it took me more than 45 seconds to get back to where a loop interrupted me. The lack of saves isn't really an obstacle.
Outer wilds has a robust auto save feature in the ship log!
The ship log will record anything of note and will help you stay on track.
If you haven’t gotten to the ship then you haven’t even started a loop yet.
rhylith on
+1
AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
Honestly, it's a great game to just "let go." but I recognize how hard it is to convince people to do that. Also space can be very anxiety inducing, and parts of this game definitely ramp that up.
Outer wilds has a robust auto save feature in the ship log!
The ship log will record anything of note and will help you stay on track.
If you haven’t gotten to the ship then you haven’t even started a loop yet.
Yes, there is nothing else to save except the journal notes just by the nature of the game being "if you know what to do, you can complete the game in 20 minutes" and the game is really about building that knowledge of the world. You can "save" any time just by going to the menu and exiting, but that resets the loop. And in normal circumstances that's perfectly fine for how the game works.
At best I'd say try using pause to get by, but if you've really not got 20 minutes at a time to play, it's going to be frustrating to play. Timing and sequencing is important in many aspects and when you are taking time to remember what you were doing because you only played for one minute and left, you likely won't make it to where you need to be and that time already spent in the loop will have been "wasted" and you'll need to start a new loop anyway.
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
Outer Wilds is one of the only piece of media that has helped me the pervasive existential angst that comes with living at our point in history. I think for anyone who connects to the cosmos, who has persistent anxiety about planetary disaster, or even has spent time grokking death, its a wonderful, beautiful, impactful piece of art. Also fun.
And for those who love this game, i cant recommend Everything Everywhere All At Once enough, esp. If you've ever read Camut (Myth of Sisyphus in particular) and can vibe with the philosophy of Absurdism.
Ever since I discovered that "Permanently remove this game from my account" on Steam doesn't actually mean "permanently remove this game from my account", I've been meaning to reinstall this game and go through the final sequence now that I have the benefit of knowing several things that make said sequence much easier and finally have some emotional closure on it. Still haven't gotten around to it, though.
My favorite musical instrument is the air-raid siren.
Ever since I discovered that "Permanently remove this game from my account" on Steam doesn't actually mean "permanently remove this game from my account", I've been meaning to reinstall this game and go through the final sequence now that I have the benefit of knowing several things that make said sequence much easier and finally have some emotional closure on it. Still haven't gotten around to it, though.
You def should, Outer Wilds has one of the best video game endings of all time.
Ever since I discovered that "Permanently remove this game from my account" on Steam doesn't actually mean "permanently remove this game from my account", I've been meaning to reinstall this game and go through the final sequence now that I have the benefit of knowing several things that make said sequence much easier and finally have some emotional closure on it. Still haven't gotten around to it, though.
You def should, Outer Wilds has one of the best video game endings of all time.
Oh, I'm aware, and I also know what it is (having Youtubed it during the extended ragequit that led to using the options mentioned above). This would solely be for the exercise of directly experiencing it, and not having quit out of a challenge.
My favorite musical instrument is the air-raid siren.
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Brovid Hasselsmof[Growling historic on the fury road]Registered Userregular
Have you played the DLC? Cos that's a whole fresh opportunity for some rage.
Posts
Make it a youtubes!
I think the dlc does a pretty good job building on it. A couple specific things i liked:
The new worlds are really pretty and interesting. The music is still great. The spooky parts are genuinely tense.
I missed the time spent with my spaceship from the first game. I also missed the personality and individuality of the nomai.
At a higher level though, one of the best things about Outer Wilds is it captures what it feels like to live in the anthropocene, or basically the end of the world as we know it. Lots of games deal with what happens after the apocalypse, or even during it, but its the only one i can think of that deals with living before it, having certainty its coming, but being unable to stop it. In general, media as a whole has had a really hard time wrangling with this, it doesnt sell a lot of Pepsi, after all.
I think the new DLC is pretty good getting at this also. It presents a civilization who deals with this knowledge through anger, denial, and escape. It makes a pretty pointed critique of vg players themselves, avoiding existential dread through escape into "digital" worlds. The game comes down on the side of taking a cosmological perspective, where at the end of the universe the prisoner says "i dont know whats coming next, but i dont think we should fear it". Its a beautiful, hopeful notion, for how to put the death of yourself, your family, your species, your planet, your solar system, your universe in perspective. Solanium (or whatever) says "it looks like its time for something new". Indeed.
All the feels.
One bit of trivia that I thought might be fun to know, for those who came new to the game with the expansion or just happened to miss it already. Mobius Digital, the development studio for Outer Wilds, was founded (from a funding standpoint) by Masi Oka, who played Hiro, the hero, from Heroes.
There is a really good mini documentary about the development of the game, which makes me really want to work at this studio (no data scientist openings atm, unfortunately.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbY0mBXKKT0
I'm always down to talk about this game! I just have been busy the last couple of days.
https://nextlander.libsyn.com/016-a-gun-that-shoots-yagamis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haI3kOyVsQ8&list=PLof28y3rG7uT-h6_mMQv3lUmiEugsALCU
Honestly probably my favorites out of the music associated with this game.
Like I need to be able to save 45 seconds in.
The ship log will record anything of note and will help you stay on track.
If you haven’t gotten to the ship then you haven’t even started a loop yet.
Yes, there is nothing else to save except the journal notes just by the nature of the game being "if you know what to do, you can complete the game in 20 minutes" and the game is really about building that knowledge of the world. You can "save" any time just by going to the menu and exiting, but that resets the loop. And in normal circumstances that's perfectly fine for how the game works.
At best I'd say try using pause to get by, but if you've really not got 20 minutes at a time to play, it's going to be frustrating to play. Timing and sequencing is important in many aspects and when you are taking time to remember what you were doing because you only played for one minute and left, you likely won't make it to where you need to be and that time already spent in the loop will have been "wasted" and you'll need to start a new loop anyway.
And for those who love this game, i cant recommend Everything Everywhere All At Once enough, esp. If you've ever read Camut (Myth of Sisyphus in particular) and can vibe with the philosophy of Absurdism.
You def should, Outer Wilds has one of the best video game endings of all time.
Oh, I'm aware, and I also know what it is (having Youtubed it during the extended ragequit that led to using the options mentioned above). This would solely be for the exercise of directly experiencing it, and not having quit out of a challenge.
Okay
I need saves to even start a loop then.