[Outer Wilds] Here Comes the Sun

Winky

Outer Wilds is an open world exploration action-adventure indie video game. In the game, the player-character finds themselves on a planet with only 20 minutes before the local sun goes supernova and kills them; the player continually repeats this 20-minute cycle but learning details that can help alter the outcome on later playthroughs. The game won the Seumas McNally Grand Prize and Excellence in Design at the 2015 Independent Games Festival Awards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kYtnjmpPg4&t=510s

I just beat this game last night and it is a beautiful little masterpiece of a game. I would describe it as Majora's Mask by way of Myst, The Witness, Super Mario Galaxy, and No Man's Sky. I haven't felt this sense of discovery or adventure from a game since Breath of the Wild.

It's available on Xbox One via the Xbox Game Pass (Note: you can get a month of Xbox Game Pass for $1, it's great value at the moment and I enjoy a lot of the games on it this month!)

It's also available on PC via the Epic Game Store as a timed exclusive (it's coming to the Steam store eventually). There has been some major controversy about this due to the fact that the game advertised itself on Kickstarter as a Steam game and later made an exclusivity deal with Epic, though they do eventually plan to be on Steam as well.

Winky

Here is one of the most affecting moments I've had in Outer Wilds so far (aside from the ending, of course). I'm spoiling it since, while it is essentially an entirely unique event that no one else is guaranteed to run into on their own playthrough, I have the feeling that a similar kind of experience might happen to a lot of players, and it is worth experiencing most of the things that happen in Outer Wilds totally blind:

I was attempting to get below the surface of The Interloper, which is an ice-covered comet that swings in an orbit close to the sun and then shoots out into space. I missed my window of opportunity to get into its core (and follow the trail of the ill-fated alien explorers who came here before me) as it swung near to the sun and the ice on its face melted and re-solidified. Due to a stroke of ill luck, the gravity of the sun pulled my ship off of the comet without me in it and I was forced to watch helplessly as my only ticket home tumbled into the star's surface and was destroyed.

Since I was stranded on this ball of ice careening out into space, having failed my self-assigned mission and with no way to leave, I gave up searching and just sat on the sun-ward side of the comet watching the solar system sail away.

In the game you have a signal finder, which you use to find other explorers of your race out in the solar system by pin-pointing the signals they project, each signal being the sound of the explorer playing their own unique folksy instrument (banjo, drums, harmonica, etc).

So there I was, farther from my home than I had ever been, than anyone of my entire species had ever been, trapped on a rock with no way to return, and knowing that in just a few minutes I and everything I'd ever known would be destroyed in an event I still didn't have the slightest clue how to prevent. On a whim, I pulled out my signal finder, and pointed it out into the collection of planets as they receded into the distance. I was so far away now that from this vantage point the signals of all my compatriots, that had once appeared to me as individual points spread far out across space, were all condensed into a single overlapping point. All those sparse, lonely little tracks, when played together, became a chorus, and all the signals of our entire little species became a single composition containing all of our instruments' voices singing together.

And then I watched the sun go supernova and consume everything.

SeGaTai

It's pretty amazing and a thing every one should see and I'm only on the first planet still.

My wife really likes myst and puzzle games but I'm a little worried some of the platforming / space flight controls will be too much of a barrier

Medium Dave

Outer Wilds is fantastic and I play a couple of loops each night and then think about what I'm gonna play the next night at work all day.

I "finished" up Giant's Deep last night, moved on to the twin planets after. Had a crazy thing where I wound up on the other planet and was out of fuel and burning oxygen and just scrambling to find out as much as possible before the end of the loop, it was real cool.

Winky

Medium Dave wrote: »

Outer Wilds is fantastic and I play a couple of loops each night and then think about what I'm gonna play the next night at work all day.

I "finished" up Giant's Deep last night, moved on to the twin planets after. Had a crazy thing where I wound up on the other planet and was out of fuel and burning oxygen and just scrambling to find out as much as possible before the end of the loop, it was real cool.

Yeah, some of the best moments are where you just barely scrape by on getting to where you need to be before the end of the loop and are just desperately begging the translator to go faster.

SniperGuy

I finished this game and it immediately shot up into my top games of all time. It is really, really, good.

Madpoet

I had a great moment I can share w/o spoilers: Immediately after launch, I set a course for another planet. The autopilot went through its alignment routine, but I hadn't quite got clear of Timber Hearth and I wound up plummeting back to the ground butt first. The thrusters broke in the fall, so I got out and made repairs. This taught an important lesson - exiting the ship does not turn off autopilot. As soon as the thrusters hit 100%, the ship resumed the acceleration phase and took off for Dark Bramble without me.
I can't think of any way that trick might be useful later, but it's filed away just in case I need to launch the ship into the sun or something.

SniperGuy

Once I was autopiloting towards Giant's Deep and hit something on the way and it hit hard enough to crack my ship in half, but not hard enough to kill me. I turned around and everything behind the cockpit was flying away in space. I had to jetpack down to giant's deep where i was then stuck.

Also! Your ship has an eject button!

SniperGuy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Og9GagTcaf4

Holy crap this game has come a long way. I recognize so much stuff in this trailer! Potential spoilers for some stuff if you haven't played a bunch yet.

Alucard6986

I was very hot and cold on this game. Sometimes it felt great figuring out a mystery that had been stumping me for hours, but then towards the end I finally hit a brick wall that just infuriated me to the point that I looked up the answer online.

End game spoilers

I couldn’t figure out how to get inside the ash twin project. I had filled out literally every other entry on the rumor map, so this was essentially the final puzzle of the game. I had tried and failed the correct solution: using the ash twin tower, even standing in there when the pillar of sand passes over head.

Since it didn’t work, I crossed it off the list and spiraled further and further away from the right answer, rereading every rumor and revisiting every major location in the game, checking all of them during every time period.

So when I do finally give up and google the answer, I just feel even worse that it wasn’t some complex culmination of every revelation in the game, it was just a slightly different execution of something I already did. I would have never figured it out, and it had already pushed me far past my breaking point emotionally.

I liked the game a lot more during the early hours when everything was new and you were constantly filling out the rumor map.

Winky

Madpoet wrote: »

I had a great moment I can share w/o spoilers: Immediately after launch, I set a course for another planet. The autopilot went through its alignment routine, but I hadn't quite got clear of Timber Hearth and I wound up plummeting back to the ground butt first. The thrusters broke in the fall, so I got out and made repairs. This taught an important lesson - exiting the ship does not turn off autopilot. As soon as the thrusters hit 100%, the ship resumed the acceleration phase and took off for Dark Bramble without me.
I can't think of any way that trick might be useful later, but it's filed away just in case I need to launch the ship into the sun or something.

Oh man, I can already come up with ideas how this could be awesome for speedruns.

Winky

Alucard6986 wrote: »

I was very hot and cold on this game. Sometimes it felt great figuring out a mystery that had been stumping me for hours, but then towards the end I finally hit a brick wall that just infuriated me to the point that I looked up the answer online.

End game spoilers

I couldn’t figure out how to get inside the ash twin project. I had filled out literally every other entry on the rumor map, so this was essentially the final puzzle of the game. I had tried and failed the correct solution: using the ash twin tower, even standing in there when the pillar of sand passes over head.

Since it didn’t work, I crossed it off the list and spiraled further and further away from the right answer, rereading every rumor and revisiting every major location in the game, checking all of them during every time period.

So when I do finally give up and google the answer, I just feel even worse that it wasn’t some complex culmination of every revelation in the game, it was just a slightly different execution of something I already did. I would have never figured it out, and it had already pushed me far past my breaking point emotionally.

I liked the game a lot more during the early hours when everything was new and you were constantly filling out the rumor map.

Honestly, I don't think it's against the spirit of the game to ask other people for hints if you're stuck. Though, that can be somewhat dangerous as every hint cuts into the experience of discovery that is pretty vital to the whole thing.

Aistan

Alucard6986 wrote: »

I was very hot and cold on this game. Sometimes it felt great figuring out a mystery that had been stumping me for hours, but then towards the end I finally hit a brick wall that just infuriated me to the point that I looked up the answer online.

End game spoilers

I couldn’t figure out how to get inside the ash twin project. I had filled out literally every other entry on the rumor map, so this was essentially the final puzzle of the game. I had tried and failed the correct solution: using the ash twin tower, even standing in there when the pillar of sand passes over head.

Since it didn’t work, I crossed it off the list and spiraled further and further away from the right answer, rereading every rumor and revisiting every major location in the game, checking all of them during every time period.

So when I do finally give up and google the answer, I just feel even worse that it wasn’t some complex culmination of every revelation in the game, it was just a slightly different execution of something I already did. I would have never figured it out, and it had already pushed me far past my breaking point emotionally.

I liked the game a lot more during the early hours when everything was new and you were constantly filling out the rumor map.

That is exactly the same thing that happened to me.

Ash Twin end of game-

Nowhere in any of my experiences with the sandfall had I ever experienced the "eye of the storm" phenomenon that was needed to use that teleporter. All I knew was that I go into it I get sucked up to Ember Twin full stop. So having to wait under the bridge until it's directly overhead then rush in and get teleported? How the fuck do I figure that out?

No, what I assumed was that that teleporter was a reflection of its tower- broken, and i'd have to find another way in.

But that was the only instance of that kind of logical leap I can think of. Every other puzzle in the game is explained somewhere at some point.

Winky

SniperGuy wrote: »

Once I was autopiloting towards Giant's Deep and hit something on the way and it hit hard enough to crack my ship in half, but not hard enough to kill me. I turned around and everything behind the cockpit was flying away in space. I had to jetpack down to giant's deep where i was then stuck.

Also! Your ship has an eject button!

One loop I managed to find myself shipless in the center of Dark Bramble. That was a hell of a time I tell you what.

Casually Hardcore

Is there a way to tell if you have all the clues on a planet?

Winky

Casually Hardcore wrote: »

Is there a way to tell if you have all the clues on a planet?

If you enter an area it will tell you in the ship log whether there’s more to discover there, but it won’t tell you if there’s areas you haven’t discovered yet.

I feel like almost all the areas in the game have a breadcrumb somewhere else that leads to them, though.

Kid Presentable

me going to Brittle Hollow 100 times failing to figure out how to get into the Tower of Quantum Knowledge

Zek

Endgame plot question:

Why were all the stars going supernova? Like countless supernovas in the space of 22 minutes is obviously not natural. I thought the implication was that the Nomai failed to trigger a supernova, but the project was triggered automatically thousands of years later when the sun reached its natural end of life. However nothing seems to explain why the whole universe is dying at once.

Zek

Aistan wrote: »

Alucard6986 wrote: »

I was very hot and cold on this game. Sometimes it felt great figuring out a mystery that had been stumping me for hours, but then towards the end I finally hit a brick wall that just infuriated me to the point that I looked up the answer online.

End game spoilers

I couldn’t figure out how to get inside the ash twin project. I had filled out literally every other entry on the rumor map, so this was essentially the final puzzle of the game. I had tried and failed the correct solution: using the ash twin tower, even standing in there when the pillar of sand passes over head.

Since it didn’t work, I crossed it off the list and spiraled further and further away from the right answer, rereading every rumor and revisiting every major location in the game, checking all of them during every time period.

So when I do finally give up and google the answer, I just feel even worse that it wasn’t some complex culmination of every revelation in the game, it was just a slightly different execution of something I already did. I would have never figured it out, and it had already pushed me far past my breaking point emotionally.

I liked the game a lot more during the early hours when everything was new and you were constantly filling out the rumor map.

That is exactly the same thing that happened to me.

Ash Twin end of game-

Nowhere in any of my experiences with the sandfall had I ever experienced the "eye of the storm" phenomenon that was needed to use that teleporter. All I knew was that I go into it I get sucked up to Ember Twin full stop. So having to wait under the bridge until it's directly overhead then rush in and get teleported? How the fuck do I figure that out?

No, what I assumed was that that teleporter was a reflection of its tower- broken, and i'd have to find another way in.

But that was the only instance of that kind of logical leap I can think of. Every other puzzle in the game is explained somewhere at some point.

That's definitely the game's worst puzzle.

I had every aspect of it figured out - I deduced that I needed to teleport into the core of Ash Twin to get a warp core for the Vessel, and I knew that the sixth warp they hinted at was the one in the Ash Twin tower, so logically that would take me inside the planet. I thought the fact that the roof was gone was a hint that the roof was not needed, so I was convinced I needed to stand on the warp spot and look down into the core instead - every other teleport in the game functions by standing on it and looking in the direction you want to go. But not only does this warp send you backwards instead, for some reason it only works when it's pointed at Ember Twin? And even if you do try that, it won't work if you're standing there when the sand arrives, you have to run out into the sand at the last second.

I understand it's a critical endgame moment that blows the whole mystery wide open, so they can't have people stumble on it by accident early on. But they just needed to drop an explicit hint somewhere, it's not something that anybody would figure out on their own. You can find literally every piece of information in the game and it's not enough to solve that puzzle.

Kid Presentable

Zek wrote: »

Endgame plot question:

Why were all the stars going supernova? Like countless supernovas in the space of 22 minutes is obviously not natural. I thought the implication was that the Nomai failed to trigger a supernova, but the project was triggered automatically thousands of years later when the sun reached its natural end of life. However nothing seems to explain why the whole universe is dying at once.

I have been thinking about this too and don't really have an answer. One small thing of note is I am fairly certain the sun in the game's solar system isn't at its "natural end of life" - I recall someone somewhere mentioning that it should by all accounts be still a long ways off.

My interpretation has been that the Sun Station method didn't work the way it was supposed to but did fuck with the sun enough in some manner to accelerate things

but that doesn't explain the other stars...

SniperGuy

Zek wrote: »

Endgame plot question:

Why were all the stars going supernova? Like countless supernovas in the space of 22 minutes is obviously not natural. I thought the implication was that the Nomai failed to trigger a supernova, but the project was triggered automatically thousands of years later when the sun reached its natural end of life. However nothing seems to explain why the whole universe is dying at once.

Answer:

super super end game spoilers

It's just the natural end of the universe. Everything is dying out nearby. It's a little silly to be able to see all the stars dying, but it's also silly to have life and atmosphere on rocks the size of the ones in this solar system, so you have to take it with a grain of salt. The assumption is that the nomai triggered the supernova, but they weren't able to do it before the traveler appeared and killed them all with ghost matter. The time loop finally gets to start because the sun is naturally exploding at the end of its days. edit: You can actually find a log from some nomai (I think on the Vessel) that implies that they're hopping from system to system desperate to find a system that still has some time left so they can keep living

Kid Presentable

SniperGuy wrote: »

Zek wrote: »

Endgame plot question:

Why were all the stars going supernova? Like countless supernovas in the space of 22 minutes is obviously not natural. I thought the implication was that the Nomai failed to trigger a supernova, but the project was triggered automatically thousands of years later when the sun reached its natural end of life. However nothing seems to explain why the whole universe is dying at once.

Answer:

super super end game spoilers

It's just the natural end of the universe. Everything is dying out nearby. It's a little silly to be able to see all the stars dying, but it's also silly to have life and atmosphere on rocks the size of the ones in this solar system, so you have to take it with a grain of salt. The assumption is that the nomai triggered the supernova, but they weren't able to do it before the traveler appeared and killed them all with ghost matter. The time loop finally gets to start because the sun is naturally exploding at the end of its days.

this might be right but I don't like it!

outside of the fact that as a player I don't think it makes any sense for all the stars in the universe (that are of wildly different ages and sizes) to reach their natural ends at the same time, the game comments about it being weird as hell

then also the game shows this super advanced race meddling with technology that blows up stars

from a storytelling perspective, I think it's much more powerful if there's a connection there - if every other star wasn't blowing up too, I'd be pretty certain that the Nomai were in fact directly (albeit slowly) responsible for blowing up Timber Hearth's sun, but not being able to explain the rest of them does kind of leave you with "oh it was just time for the end of the universe I guess" which is kind of a more lackluster answer imo

SniperGuy

Kid Presentable wrote: »

SniperGuy wrote: »

Zek wrote: »

Endgame plot question:

Why were all the stars going supernova? Like countless supernovas in the space of 22 minutes is obviously not natural. I thought the implication was that the Nomai failed to trigger a supernova, but the project was triggered automatically thousands of years later when the sun reached its natural end of life. However nothing seems to explain why the whole universe is dying at once.

Answer:

super super end game spoilers

It's just the natural end of the universe. Everything is dying out nearby. It's a little silly to be able to see all the stars dying, but it's also silly to have life and atmosphere on rocks the size of the ones in this solar system, so you have to take it with a grain of salt. The assumption is that the nomai triggered the supernova, but they weren't able to do it before the traveler appeared and killed them all with ghost matter. The time loop finally gets to start because the sun is naturally exploding at the end of its days.

this might be right but I don't like it!

outside of the fact that as a player I don't think it makes any sense for all the stars in the universe (that are of wildly different ages and sizes) to reach their natural ends at the same time, the game comments about it being weird as hell

then also the game shows this super advanced race meddling with technology that blows up stars

from a storytelling perspective, I think it's much more powerful if there's a connection there - if every other star wasn't blowing up too, I'd be pretty certain that the Nomai were in fact directly (albeit slowly) responsible for blowing up Timber Hearth's sun, but not being able to explain the rest of them does kind of leave you with "oh it was just time for the end of the universe I guess" which is kind of a more lackluster answer imo

I do like it! (end spoilers)

They tried to make the sun go supernova. You find out on the solar station that it just didn't work at all. As mighty as the nomai were, they couldn't blow up a star which seems like a real hard thing to do! It's an interesting twist that there's nothing actually nefarious going on, you just have the unfortunate luck to be born at the end of the natural universe, but the good luck to get to witness the birth of the next one.

Aistan

It also ties thematically in with the post credits scene, which I like a lot so i'm glad there was a reason to do it.

Kid Presentable

SniperGuy wrote: »

Kid Presentable wrote: »

SniperGuy wrote: »

Zek wrote: »

Endgame plot question:

Why were all the stars going supernova? Like countless supernovas in the space of 22 minutes is obviously not natural. I thought the implication was that the Nomai failed to trigger a supernova, but the project was triggered automatically thousands of years later when the sun reached its natural end of life. However nothing seems to explain why the whole universe is dying at once.

Answer:

super super end game spoilers

It's just the natural end of the universe. Everything is dying out nearby. It's a little silly to be able to see all the stars dying, but it's also silly to have life and atmosphere on rocks the size of the ones in this solar system, so you have to take it with a grain of salt. The assumption is that the nomai triggered the supernova, but they weren't able to do it before the traveler appeared and killed them all with ghost matter. The time loop finally gets to start because the sun is naturally exploding at the end of its days.

this might be right but I don't like it!

outside of the fact that as a player I don't think it makes any sense for all the stars in the universe (that are of wildly different ages and sizes) to reach their natural ends at the same time, the game comments about it being weird as hell

then also the game shows this super advanced race meddling with technology that blows up stars

from a storytelling perspective, I think it's much more powerful if there's a connection there - if every other star wasn't blowing up too, I'd be pretty certain that the Nomai were in fact directly (albeit slowly) responsible for blowing up Timber Hearth's sun, but not being able to explain the rest of them does kind of leave you with "oh it was just time for the end of the universe I guess" which is kind of a more lackluster answer imo

I do like it! (end spoilers)

They tried to make the sun go supernova. You find out on the solar station that it just didn't work at all. As mighty as the nomai were, they couldn't blow up a star which seems like a real hard thing to do! It's an interesting twist that there's nothing actually nefarious going on, you just have the unfortunate luck to be born at the end of the natural universe, but the good luck to get to witness the birth of the next one.

I've decided that you're right and am currently chewing on whether or not I like it

Aistan

For reals though, there is one thing that hasn't been mentioned about the end of each cycle. Also endgame reveal spoilers.

The Interloper crashes into the sun. If you look at the map near the end of the 22 minutes its orbit has disappeared.

So that's the real reason the sun goes supernova. It's one final Fuck You from the object that killed an entire civilization. Now it's going to blow everything else up just to make sure.

SniperGuy

Aistan wrote: »

For reals though, there is one thing that hasn't been mentioned about the end of each cycle. Also endgame reveal spoilers.

The Interloper crashes into the sun. If you look at the map near the end of the 22 minutes its orbit has disappeared.

So that's the real reason the sun goes supernova. It's one final Fuck You from the object that killed an entire civilization. Now it's going to blow everything else up just to make sure.

I think the reason for this is

the sun is expanding which fucks up the interloper orbit. The solar station crashes into the sun early on too.

Zek

SniperGuy wrote: »

Aistan wrote: »

For reals though, there is one thing that hasn't been mentioned about the end of each cycle. Also endgame reveal spoilers.

The Interloper crashes into the sun. If you look at the map near the end of the 22 minutes its orbit has disappeared.

So that's the real reason the sun goes supernova. It's one final Fuck You from the object that killed an entire civilization. Now it's going to blow everything else up just to make sure.

I think the reason for this is

the sun is expanding which fucks up the interloper orbit. The solar station crashes into the sun early on too.

Yeah I think the Interloper is just a wild card that explains why the Nomai died out. The sun seems to transition gradually from healthy to supernova over those 22 minutes, not triggered by anything that we see. It's weird that this happens to be the same duration that the Nomai chose to reverse time, which is something else I don't think they explained. Why 22 minutes? Did the probe really discover the Eye after only 22 minutes of flight?

Aistan

SniperGuy wrote: »

Aistan wrote: »

For reals though, there is one thing that hasn't been mentioned about the end of each cycle. Also endgame reveal spoilers.

The Interloper crashes into the sun. If you look at the map near the end of the 22 minutes its orbit has disappeared.

So that's the real reason the sun goes supernova. It's one final Fuck You from the object that killed an entire civilization. Now it's going to blow everything else up just to make sure.

I think the reason for this is

the sun is expanding which fucks up the interloper orbit. The solar station crashes into the sun early on too.

I mean 1) you're not wrong, that's probably what is happening.

but 2) I still like my interpretation better.

SniperGuy

Zek wrote: »

SniperGuy wrote: »

Aistan wrote: »

For reals though, there is one thing that hasn't been mentioned about the end of each cycle. Also endgame reveal spoilers.

The Interloper crashes into the sun. If you look at the map near the end of the 22 minutes its orbit has disappeared.

So that's the real reason the sun goes supernova. It's one final Fuck You from the object that killed an entire civilization. Now it's going to blow everything else up just to make sure.

I think the reason for this is

the sun is expanding which fucks up the interloper orbit. The solar station crashes into the sun early on too.

Yeah I think the Interloper is just a wild card that explains why the Nomai died out. The sun seems to transition gradually from healthy to supernova over those 22 minutes, not triggered by anything that we see. It's weird that this happens to be the same duration that the Nomai chose to reverse time, which is something else I don't think they explained. Why 22 minutes? Did the probe really discover the Eye after only 22 minutes of flight?

Well it's because

the ash twin project could only go back 22 minutes at a time. So you're just happening to see the sun's last 22 minutes of life. And yeah, the Eye is rotating this star, so it is close by, relatively.

milski

Specifically, regarding the time duration:

The Nomai chose 22 minutes for the project. They believe the Eye is in an enormous orbit around the solar system, so 22 minutes was likely to be how long it would take the probe to travel the maximum possible distance of that orbit (which they seem to know) when fired at beyond-max power (which they expect their nomai friends to do).

Winky

Regarding the end of the game

Given there is an Eye of the Universe, and you just happen to reach it right when the universe ends, I assume these things are related. My head canon is that because your Star is the one that is being orbited by the Eye of the Universe, when you reach it there is some quantum/relativistic weirdness going on that makes it such that the light of every star in the universe going supernova reaches your solar system at the same time, even if they each individually blinked out billions of years ago.

Medium Dave

Beat it last night, loved it.

Easily my favorite game of the year and I think it might be in my top 10. Just lovely.

A few puzzles were a little rough to figure out on my own (so I didn't) and the execution at the end was more annoying than cool (wait then speed then slow...) but what a fantastic experience.

GMaster7

Winky wrote: »

I just beat this game last night and it is a beautiful little masterpiece of a game. I would describe it as Majora's Mask by way of Myst, The Witness, Super Mario Galaxy, and No Man's Sky. I haven't felt this sense of discovery or adventure from a game since Breath of the Wild.

I read this comparison/description and threw up in excitement.

I'm hoping this comes to PS4, given that it wasn't published by Microsoft or anything, but I may end up playing it on PC. We'll see.

SatanIsMyMotor

GMaster7 wrote: »

Winky wrote: »

I just beat this game last night and it is a beautiful little masterpiece of a game. I would describe it as Majora's Mask by way of Myst, The Witness, Super Mario Galaxy, and No Man's Sky. I haven't felt this sense of discovery or adventure from a game since Breath of the Wild.

I read this comparison/description and threw up in excitement.

I'm hoping this comes to PS4, given that it wasn't published by Microsoft or anything, but I may end up playing it on PC. We'll see.

I got it on pc for, like, $15. I never use the Epic store so I don't know if it was a promo or something but that shit was cheap as eff.

Cristoval

I've been playing this game a few rounds each night. Neither Myst nor Majora's Mask were my kinda jam, so I didn't think this would stick with me as long as it has, but I keep thinking about it during the day. I'm not sure if or how I'm making progress, but this might be a nice slow burn chill-out game for me for quite some time.

Zek

Cristoval wrote: »

I've been playing this game a few rounds each night. Neither Myst nor Majora's Mask were my kinda jam, so I didn't think this would stick with me as long as it has, but I keep thinking about it during the day. I'm not sure if or how I'm making progress, but this might be a nice slow burn chill-out game for me for quite some time.

As long as you're seeing new stuff you're making progress, it's hard to explain why. But you're forming a picture in your brain of the situation in each planet, and you can win once you fully understand all of it.

captaink

Zek wrote: »

Cristoval wrote: »

I've been playing this game a few rounds each night. Neither Myst nor Majora's Mask were my kinda jam, so I didn't think this would stick with me as long as it has, but I keep thinking about it during the day. I'm not sure if or how I'm making progress, but this might be a nice slow burn chill-out game for me for quite some time.

As long as you're seeing new stuff you're making progress, it's hard to explain why. But you're forming a picture in your brain of the situation in each planet, and you can win once you fully understand all of it.

And make sure to use your ship computer. It does progress from cycle to cycle and can point you at things you're missing.

Synthesis

Being able to stop time during computer use, treading translations, and dialog trees is very helpful, if you're feeling pressed for time.

(Not to say that it's the only way to play. I'd recommend everyone go through at least one cycle with no time stop options--with a stopwatch handy.)

cooljammer00

Any news on when, if ever, the EGS exclusivity will lapse?

Cristoval

captaink wrote: »

Zek wrote: »

Cristoval wrote: »

I've been playing this game a few rounds each night. Neither Myst nor Majora's Mask were my kinda jam, so I didn't think this would stick with me as long as it has, but I keep thinking about it during the day. I'm not sure if or how I'm making progress, but this might be a nice slow burn chill-out game for me for quite some time.

As long as you're seeing new stuff you're making progress, it's hard to explain why. But you're forming a picture in your brain of the situation in each planet, and you can win once you fully understand all of it.

And make sure to use your ship computer. It does progress from cycle to cycle and can point you at things you're missing.

I only just realized it tracks your progress and next points of possible interest on my last play through. Whoops!