Echoes of the Eye comes along as a DLC, that cements Outer Wilds as the most astonishing gaming experience you can have. Those, who have played the main game, my favorite game of all time, will know what to expect, but let me tell you: this is a one of a kind DLC, that’s basically an entire game within the game and designed at the same level we’re used to by Outer Wilds standards. It pushed the exact same buttons for me - it will leave you in awe of the mind-bending world that it puts you in and it will challenge you to solve a mystery that has the same emotional background story.
Outer Wilds is absolutely special. Special because of the way it’s world was built and special because of the way the game-loop is designed.
The solar system in which you’ll find yourself, is fully realized. It’s living. Everything and everyone is moving in the endless blackness that surrounds it. You can watch the planets and the sun do their dance from anywhere in the game. It’s just crazy, when you find all the little details the devs have thought of, to make it feel ‘whole’.
The second part of what makes this game so special is, that you could basically beat the game in the first loop you ever play. Because the only progress you make in this game, is getting information. You don’t develop new abilities, you don’t get new equipment, all you get, is bite-sized snippets of information that slowly completes the puzzle and finally shows you how to ‘end the game’. The big problem this brings with itself is then, how do you hide all of that information in plain sight and at least good enough that it’s not easy to find it. And oh boy some of the mysteries are hard to solve, but the payoff is almost always resulting in a dropped jaw. If you progressed to a later stage in the game or even finished it, you’ll still wonder how they hid all of it and how it all makes sense in retrospect. It’s a masterclass in game design, how they give you the exact amount of info you need and how it included all the places you can visit. I can’t stress this enough, I have never ever seen a game that is built so cleverly.
And all of this is true for both the main game and the dlc.
As usual I don’t talk about the specifics of the story, but it will hit you as hard as it hit me, when you are interested in the existential questions of a civilization and the future of our universe. It will give you goose bumps if the questions the most intelligent people on our planet deal with every day, interest you. And it will make you speechless when exploring other planets and space sounds like something you want to do.
Andrew Prahlow even delivers the best game soundtrack I heard on top of it, making Outer Wilds the best game or 2019, the DLC the best game of 2021 and the whole package my favorite game of all time.
Outer Wilds is absolutely special. Special because of the way it’s world was built and special because of the way the game-loop is designed.
The solar system in which you’ll find yourself, is fully realized. It’s living. Everything and everyone is moving in the endless blackness that surrounds it. You can watch the planets and the sun do their dance from anywhere in the game. It’s just crazy, when you find all the little details the devs have thought of, to make it feel ‘whole’.
The second part of what makes this game so special is, that you could basically beat the game in the first loop you ever play. Because the only progress you make in this game, is getting information. You don’t develop new abilities, you don’t get new equipment, all you get, is bite-sized snippets of information that slowly completes the puzzle and finally shows you how to ‘end the game’. The big problem this brings with itself is then, how do you hide all of that information in plain sight and at least good enough that it’s not easy to find it. And oh boy some of the mysteries are hard to solve, but the payoff is almost always resulting in a dropped jaw. If you progressed to a later stage in the game or even finished it, you’ll still wonder how they hid all of it and how it all makes sense in retrospect. It’s a masterclass in game design, how they give you the exact amount of info you need and how it included all the places you can visit. I can’t stress this enough, I have never ever seen a game that is built so cleverly.
And all of this is true for both the main game and the dlc.
As usual I don’t talk about the specifics of the story, but it will hit you as hard as it hit me, when you are interested in the existential questions of a civilization and the future of our universe. It will give you goose bumps if the questions the most intelligent people on our planet deal with every day, interest you. And it will make you speechless when exploring other planets and space sounds like something you want to do.
Andrew Prahlow even delivers the best game soundtrack I heard on top of it, making Outer Wilds the best game or 2019, the DLC the best game of 2021 and the whole package my favorite game of all time.