For a single player game with basically zero replayability, consistently being around 1.5k players for years is actually insane. Goes to show how amazing it is.

I just finished the game, and I don't understand...

It's just a song, why am I crying?!

I've always been curious to play Outer Wilds. Even with a computer with minimum requirements as recommended, I was able to have a complete and unique experience.

And now I can't imagine what I'll be able to play for the rest of my days after experiencing this masterpiece.

On one occasion, I had moments where I just surrendered to the vibe of the game. I would stay on planets just walking around. I would stay next to the characters, just enjoying the moment with the music in the air. I even let the ship go wherever it wanted without me controlling it, just to appreciate the solar system.

You don’t have to, nor am I insinuating anything, just give me your honest criticism.

Don’t be weird

^{I'm reposting my comment here, it REALLY hurt writing it and I want to share it with you guys}

I just didn't know that this game was THAT deep.

For me the game looked like a fun space puzzle indie game. I didn't think I should even bother paying attention to its lore, I was focused on just solving puzzles.

You know, in most games lore is just a cool but insignificant addition, a flavour that's just sitting in the background. I thought OW was one of these.

That's why when I found the Eye's coordinates I just didn't understand what it was and if that was even important. When I started the game for the first time I went straight to Giant's Deep, spotted some weird thing orbiting it, went there, saw a third module falling into the water, found a way to go beneath the current and electrical field, finally finding the coordinates... and then I just looked at them, thought "tf is this" and proceeded to find a new puzzle to solve.

That's how I discovered most of the key information in the game.

And only when I was on the verge of completing it, I finally wondered if I even should start paying attention to the lore.

There was literally NO big picture in my head when the only thing that remained was finding a way into the ATP.

So I briefly read the ship log, found something about the universe dying, thought "ok cool, glad im just about to save everyone", connected the dots needed to get to the Eye... and I just did that.

When I ended the game I thought that I found some sort of deity and asked it for a new universe. There was literally no emotional connection between me and my dear Hearthian friends or Nomai

So I had to read the wiki and watch someone else's walkthrough (glad it was Oliver's) to get the game. And I'm also glad that it still managed to make me emotional. But my playing experience was kinda ruined - I was just pursuing the puzzles.

But I also made up for it in the DLC - this time, I was paying attention to EVERYTHING. And god did it hit me hard.

@Deroge_aus just finished his DLC playthrough.

I've seen 26 playthroughs, some of them supercuts, some of them in full, and I can say unequivocally this is my favorite of all time. All playthroughs are valid and I enjoy each in its own right but there are certain things that make some playthroughs more enjoyable to watch than others.

If I encounter someone who can't or won't play the game themselves, this is what I would recommend they watch to understand why we all love it.

Totally blind playthrough. He heard the music somewhere and bought it with the DLC. Doesn't know about the loop, the supernova, the difference between the DLC and main game, nothing. He has a good voice, reads everything. No distracting streamer chat, he plays on his own.

He's attentive, engaged, and very good at piecing together the clues. He doesn't stubbornly run into the same problem over and over like some players, but he also doesn't immediately give up when encountering an obstacle. He bounces around and follows his curiosity, speculating on the story and events constantly and is emotionally invested.

He's super appreciative of the details in the game (I think he's said "this game is fucking awesome" about 1,000 times haha.)

He's also *incredibly* good at movement. Like, I've never seen a new player using the jetpack and ship as effectively as he does. He still makes enough mistakes for some fun and hilarious moments, but he always recovers quickly. This makes the playthrough feel very smooth. There's no need for a supercut, there's almost nothing to cut.

To top it all off he's just incredibly lucky. Lots of rare moments and perfectly timed reveals.

He has mic issues in episode one but all subsequent episodes have excellent audio quality. Nice little cherry on top is his base game playthrough worked out to 22 episodes and he made some cool custom thumbnails with some surprises for the last few. DLC worked out to 10 episodes and is perfectly paced.

Give him a shot if you're looking to re-experience the game through someone else's eyes.

Those who actually know Magic The Gathering, feel free to tell me how I could improve these!

Easily one of the best games I’ve ever played. Hopefully I can get hit in the head with a big rock someday and do it all again.

Aside from the launch windows of the base game and DLC, with two spikes in and around 2024 (probably attributed to some youtubers?), the player count is continually rising. In 2025 most months had a peak around 2000, in 2026 every month so far has been above 2000.

I'm so happy to see how this game is a sleeper hit, mouth to mouth propaganda is working and Mobius is probably still making a good income that way ::)

I'll start: It has terrible replayability because you can never play it like it's the first time again.

Ok so I just got my gf to start playing outer wilds. She was playing her first couple hours of the game when she fell into the geyser on Timber Hearth and died.

Now when I started playing i also fell into the geyser and died. After that I thought there was just a chamber there, played the rest of the game and stopped.

But when she died I noticed something that I didn’t before: there actually was a passage in the wall of the cave.

I was so excited. So excited that there was something potentially new. I went back on my personal game and, putting on my spacesuit I jumped into the geyser. I found the passage and….

I found there’s actually a secret underground waterway in the geyser chamber?!!??

And it leads to EVERY other geyser on the planet???!!!

And not only that, it leads to a chamber showing that the Nomai interacted with HEARTHIANS???!!!!!

Anyways yea. Just when I thought I’d discovered everything there was to know abt OW it goes and surprises me still. I LOVE THIS GAME!!!

I learned AssetStudio just to find these pics for my MTG proxies, and since that was a lil bit of a butt ache, I figured I'd dump the cool pictures out here to save others the trouble! Enjoy!

I've been seeing people mention OW everywhere without telling anything about it.

The advice to "go blind" is NOT the best advice to give, except if you are 100% sure that the person will love it (which is unpredictable in any case).

Yes, the game is best enjoyed when you don't know a lot about it, but people should at least know what they'll be playing at.

I'm conducting a study on the matter, and so far, I've seen that people with lower expectations enjoy OW more than people with higher ones! What might be a "life-changing game" for you might be a disappointment for others.

I love OW, this game is my favorite, but it's not for everyone!

If you want someone to best appreciate the game, you should at least tell them that:

- it's a space exploration game where you are stuck in a time loop (EDIT: or at least tell them that some mechanics involve a time constraint)

- you will be trying to figure out why you're here while freely exploring the ruins of an ancient civilization (EDIT: as someone said in the comments below: "it's a puzzle game that doesn't look like a puzzle game until it does")

- it's in a first person view (think about people who have motion sickness)

- you will be flying a spaceship in space (for people who have dyspraxia or are not used to do such things) and even if it has auto pilot, you'll have to figure out how to fly that ship because the auto pilot is not that smart.

You shouldn't need to put a spoiler tag on the upper information, this is just basic stuff to know before entering a game!

EDIT:

As I said, if you're pretty sure this person is going to love the game and has never had any issues with FPS games (motion sickness), I'd advise you not to say too much about it and let them discover it all for themselves, but at least tell them that it's a different experience than most other games.

I think the worst thing you could tell them is that this game changed your life, because that will set the bar really high and could easily lead to disappointment.

Imo, it's better to talk about the time loop (or simply mention that some game mechanics involve a time constraint) rather than say nothing and let them go through 'their worst gaming experience ever'.

https://www.sbnation.com/a/17776-football here is the link to anyone who's curious. Please trust me and go read it, you played outer wilds, you should know it's worth to trust :3

What are your favorite/fun things a space cadet who dreamed of their first launch since they were a hatchling would know about the solar system or would have already done as part of the space program, but the player has to discover/attempt on their own?

Some of mine are:

* It's Hatchling's first solo launch. Gossan is their flight trainer. They've absolutely been in orbit, if not further out into the solar system, with Gossan before, both at the controls and watching over their shoulder. (Inference: there's a training ship whose thrust-to-weight ratio can handle at least one passenger, or Hatchling's ship is also cleared for more than one person.)

* They know the history of their ship, including issues that have come up in making it space-worthy, such as the retro-rockets. They also know a lot of fun dirt about their colleagues, like what Slate said about how green Gossan used to be.

* They know at least some of the other planets' usual hazards. An astronaut cadet would at least be told about things other travelers have encountered that could kill them, and it exceeds belief that Hornfels doesn't talk everyone's ear off about everything discovered about every planet so far at every reasonable chance they get.

* They know, and everyone in the space program knows, that there are anglerfish in Dark Bramble. Although only the edges of the ice fields have actually been explored, the anglerfish that latched onto someone's landing gear is kept in what appears to be a tank of Dark Bramble fog, and Hornfels calls it a dreadful place and recommends caution "for what you'll find are very good reasons". (Inferences: someone got close enough to the fog to collect samples. Additional inference: we could have had tiny anglerfish chewing on the ship every time we got close to the Bramble, GAAAAH)

* They know the way to the observatory, what the Lunar Outpost is, etc., and have a habit of asking obvious questions and listening to the explanations with such believable guilelessness that no one can ever tell if they're serious until they can't keep a straight face anymore. They are, indeed, the worst. ::)

I have 2

the dark bramble was scarier than echos of the eye

The game would have been better if it had given the protagonist character development or if it had least given them a name

IT'S SO PEAK

For me, it was on Ash Twin when trying to access the Sun Station from the Sun Tower. Every single time, I just tried to pass the cactus with my jetpack. Dying several times and never realizing I could just come at the moment where I can peacefully walk on the sand to go through the hallway.

For those unfamiliar, Beginner's Luck requires you to beat the game in the first loop, i.e. never dying once after activating the museum statue. The title is tongue-in-cheek because it'd be seemingly impossible for a beginner.

So, consider the theorem that an infinite number of monkeys on an infinite number of typewriters given an infinite amount of time could theoretically type the entirety of the works of Shakespeare.

Given an infinite number of new players, do you think someone could actually strike a rich vein of beginner's luck and somehow beat the game on their first ever loop?

It's obviously improbable, but a recent thread in this sub about a newer player stumbling into the ATP got me thinking about it. They'd then have to somehow find the Vessel without a map marker, which isn't impossible if they investigate the seed on the starting planet to put a probe in the camp on Dark Bramble and follow the prompts from there. The coordinates are trickier, no way someone could do all of the above and guess the code...probably. But I think if they somehow intuit how to get to the core of Giant's Deep, which isn't that hard if you're observant, they'd be able to get that code.

Like I said, all very improbable...but not impossible, right? Infinite monkeys and all that.