Twelve kinds of taste
Which one are you?
Rate five things you know, from any shelf. Your archetype shows up in about a minute, and gets sharper with every log.
Rate five things you know, from any shelf. Your archetype shows up in about a minute, and gets sharper with every log.
Puzzle, Simulator, Adventure, Indie
OpenCritic85IGDB85
Outer Wilds is a critically-acclaimed and award-winning open world mystery about a solar system trapped in an endless time loop.
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Richly built, contemplative, meticulous and cryptic.
15 profiled raters. Loved most by The Cartographers; disliked most by The Ironists.
We read them all: the case for is kofi_k's. Marked below.
A game about the scientific method that never says the phrase. You learn; that is the only upgrade. The ending made me sit in silence.
The only game where the progress is entirely in your head. No upgrades, no levels, just knowing. The moment the loop clicks is the best twenty seconds in the medium.
The only game where the save file is your own understanding. When the loop finally made sense I put the controller down and sat there.
A few lines from each review; the whole review is on the critic's site. Not part of Taste Buds's numbers.
Slant MagazineAaron RiccioJun 20195/5 starsThis is a rare adventure game in which the journey is actually more of a reward than the destination.
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Player.OneKenneth AraulloJun 201910/10If I ever find myself in my own closed time-loop, I’d wish for me to play the Outer Wilds, but with the added bonus of forgetting about it, just so I can experience it all over again. It’s that good, and the first true title that I could say is a 'must-play' for 2019.
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Digital ChumpsEric LaymanDec 20189.5/10Outer Wilds' compact clockwork universe does more with twenty-two minutes than its spacefaring peers can imagine in a lifetime. It treats curiosity as a Möbius strip and trusts its network of divine secrets will drive the player toward a reasoned conclusion. By turning away from the zeitgeist, Outer Wilds' sublime presence can only be defined as otherworldly.
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Cubed3Michael McCannJan 20245/10It's a lonely, cold planet over here. Mileage on Outer Wilds will depend largely on how much one enjoys exploration, discovery and extrinsic reward versus repetitive backtracking and restrictive (but also far too long and frequently-occurring-to-be-as-restrictive-as-it-is) time limits. It may certainly be a monkey brain desire for feedback and a more robust signposting of progress, but even knowing that the lack of it here is exactly the point, one can't help think there are examples within interactive media that have done lateral think puzzles better. Ones that would waste less time in between solving puzzles, too. Clearly, there's a majority disagreement for this view, so take it with a pinch of salt, but also go into it aware that it's not going to be for everyone. It is an experience that introduces a lot of mind-bending sci-fi concepts and a surprisingly emotional, if conflicting, conclusion. One just wonders if we like the scaffolding more than we like the building itself. Perhaps, though, it's just that some people really don't like time loop mechanics.
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Video ChumsA.J. MaciejewskiJun 20193/5 starsEnjoying Outer Wilds depends on your willingness to read guides and discuss the game online. Otherwise, you'll probably feel like you're regularly hitting your head on a brick wall as you try to make just an inch of progress.
Read the reviewSnippets via OpenCritic, where 82% of critics recommend it.
IGDB rating 8.7/10 from 889 ratings.
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