The first thing I will say in regards to Outer Wilds is that it is...different. Outer Wilds rejects all sensibilities of form and structure--and for that reason alone, your enjoyment of the game is largely dependent on whether you can attune to the game's quirky and often-arbitrary ideas. As such, it's very hard to give Outer Wilds an arbitrary rating, because the game itself fundamentally eschews conventional notions of what a "good game" should be.

To put it more simply, Outer Wilds is less of a video game, and more of an experience in video game form. Yet, paradoxically, it's perhaps the best example of an experience that can ONLY work in video game form. It's something that for many people, will simply not make sense. For the people who can adjust to its ambiguity and erratic structure, however, it's an experience unlike anything--past or present--in the medium of video games.

Therefore, despite the multitude of five-star reviews that lace this page (including mine), Outer Wilds is unfortunately a game I cannot recommend to everyone, despite my belief in it being amongst the greatest titles in this medium. It is something that takes a certain mindset and experience to appreciate, and without that mindset the game will just feel meaningless. It kind of reminds me of "Waiting for Godot"--one person might see the pinnacle of 20th century drama, while the other person might see two people sitting under a tree for two and a half hours. This is the video game equivalent of that.