It's alright. Unfortunately not as great as I was expecting. Core movement is solid but feels like it needs more, as you only really have a dash and a jump. I kept hoping I'd unlock more moves, or reach areas with a greater focus on building speed down slopes, but it never really happened. Maybe I'll watch a speedrun and realise I was missing out on some fun movement tech.

Early levels are way too basic and boring, but the later ones start getting more interesting, thanks to their smaller platforms, more frequent hazards, and funky gravity manipulation. The "bosses" are thankfully just more intense platforming, which I greatly approve of, but they still feel too simple.

Combat is just plain bad, and I started skipping through all narrative elements pretty quickly, which I don't do in most games. The main character is cursed with obnoxious game protagonist dialogue - "huh, I wonder what's over there. Better check it out..." That kind of stuff. It sucks, and I wasn't really interested in sitting through long conversations and audio logs to learn more about the world. Outer Wilds this ain't.

Again, it's alright. Oddly similar to Sonic Frontiers, but still better in every way.

Reviewed on Feb 23, 2024


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