One of the best parts about the main play-through of Outer Wilds is just how wide open the universe is. You might want to check out the Attlerock first, but if you're daring (and if you read any reference to harmonicas as a chance Pynchon reference needing dire attention) you can also head off into the terror of Dark Bramble. Or go to the cool ocean planet. Or the scary fire one! Mechanically speaking you're given myriad options for advancing the game, but you also just have a whole bunch of locations you can go. The universe feels big, the planets feel big: there's always somewhere else to go.

I think Echoes of the Eye kind of intentionally goes for the opposite. Outer Wilds was about exploring the "open" space of The Universe, Echoes of the Eye is about exploring the "closed" space of the Stranger. And well of course, the Stranger is big enough that it doesn't feel very restrictive. But it ends up playing out a bit more like a puzzle box: you really need to go over each area closely and there are hinge points you can get stuck at. It can be a little frustrating. It feels a little "trickier" than Outer Wilds did. I think the most difficult and rough parts of Outer Wilds were found in the final few steps of closing out any given puzzle; Echoes of the Eye's puzzles feel like they were mostly just those few final steps. To be clear I am not the smartest guy and am not too great at puzzle games.

The ending of Echoes of the Eye was phenomenal, and overall exploring the Stranger and uncovering its mysteries was great. And these thoughts on it might be colored by taking a several-month long break on the game after getting like 60% of the way through, and also by only having finished it like an hour ago. It is worth a play for sure; it is better than most other things out there, but some of the rough spots can create discouraging friction.