If you haven’t played Outer Wilds, this post isn’t for you! Please go read this post instead.

Outer Wilds is extremely sensitive to spoilers, and I will be fully spoiling the main game and the Echoes of the Eye DLC in this post (though I’ll give an extra warning before spoiling anything from Echoes of the Eye).

This is your last chance to leave if you don’t want to get spoiled. Now without further ado…

The moment I realized how brilliant Outer Wilds is

I was hooked on Outer Wilds pretty quickly, only a couple loops in. But there were a few key moments that made the difference between “this is a really good game” and “this is an incredible game”.

After a while it was hard not to notice the death of the sun at the end of every loop. Surely, I thought, I would be able to find a way to stop it and save everyone. I had unlimited time to figure it out after all, being stuck in a time loop.

So that became my mission for a while. Find out why the sun was exploding, then find some way to keep it from doing that. Simple enough.

Of course, I did eventually find out the reason the sun was exploding: the natural lifecycle of the universe and some crap luck. I slowly realized I wouldn’t be saving anyone after all. It was a bit of an existential crisis.

But I kept going and eventually found my way to the Eye of the Universe where I realized something else. Sure, I may not be able to save everyone, and all things have their natural end. But it wasn’t for nothing. Collapsing the Eye’s infinite possibilities meant that I, and by extension everyone else I’d met during the adventure, would be leaving a mark on the future of the next universe.

Sometimes you have to make the best out of what you’re dealt. Just because you don’t see the impact you’re making, doesn’t mean it’s not there.

The way Outer Wilds shares that message and the impact it has are, I think, unique to video games as a medium. That’s why I love it so much. It would not have had the same meaning if I had watched somebody else play it or if I had read about some character who went through everything that I did. It’s the kind of experience that I think video games have always been meant for.

My unique Echoes of the Eye experience

Before I talk about Echoes of the Eye, know that I strongly recommend it. It’s not just more Outer Wilds, it feels a bit like a spin-off game that ties a new story into the existing one. The way this new story’s themes are reinforced through gameplay mechanics is very well done and is a big part of what makes Echoes of the Eye easy to recommend in my eyes.

If you haven’t played the Echoes of the Eye DLC yet, you may want to skip to the next section. Now, for some spoilers.

I started out playing through Echoes of the Eye on my own. I watched as The Stranger’s shadow swallowed up the sun on that first approach. Experienced that stunning moment of dropping into the river for the first time and just looking up and seeing all of The Stranger at once.

Not long after I started, my younger brother completed the main game on his own after my recommendation and loved it. He quickly got Echoes of the Eye too and that’s when we joined up with the excellent Quantum Space Buddies multiplayer mod.

Now we were exploring The Stranger together. I took the back seat for some time to avoid spoiling anything I already knew. Pretty soon though, my brother and I were on the same level and making new discoveries together, all the while madly speculating about what everything could mean. I think one of the few things better than the feeling of a breakthrough is having someone to share it with after the buildup of anticipation that comes from crafting theories together.

It was bittersweet when we finally finished and watched the credits roll. We’d been hundreds of miles apart and been communicating over voice chat the entire time, but somehow it felt like the end of a real adventure we had been sharing, more so than any other game we’ve played together.

I love what Echoes of the Eye added to Outer Wilds. The themes of fear and hiding from the inevitable feel like natural extensions of the themes Outer Wilds explored.

The music of Outer Wilds

It’s hard for me to talk about Outer Wilds without bringing up the music at some point. It’s easily one of the best game soundtracks out there, but to be honest I stopped thinking of it as just a game soundtrack a while ago. It’s a pretty common go-to whenever I want something instrumental to listen to.

The Echoes of the Eye soundtrack has especially grown on me too, and some of my favorite songs are from it. I especially love the last several tracks called The Lost Reels which were created by the game’s composer, Andrew Prahlow, as a sort of tribute after Echoes of the Eye released.

How to keep playing Outer Wilds after you’ve completed it

One thing you’ll always hear from Outer Wilds fans is how they wish they could experience it for the first time again. That much might not be possible (trust me, I’ve looked into it), but I’ve found there’s two really great ways to still keep enjoying Outer Wilds even after you’ve completed it.

The first is mods. The modding scene for Outer Wilds is just awesome, and you can tell everyone involved has a real passion for the game. If you want to get started, grab the mod launcher from outerwildsmods.com and it’s easy going from there.

Some of my favorite mods include…

• Quantum Space Buddies — This is the multiplayer mod I mentioned playing Echoes of the Eye with. I’m still surprised at how well it works.
• Nomai VR — An excellent mod that adds VR support to Outer Wilds. It’s definitely only for those with strong VR legs, but simply walking around and experiencing the true scale of Outer Wilds really is quite the experience.
• Astral Codec — An extremely well made story mod that adds more unique puzzles and locations to the original solar system. Parts of it will test your advanced knowledge of Outer Wilds but it’s a really easy one to recommend if you consider yourself a big fan.
• Dreambound — A fun short/medium length story mod that adds to Echoes of the Eye. This one is very impressive for a jam mod.
• Outer Wilds Flyover — This mod recreates the Island Flyover gamemode from Wii Sports Resort. It’s a fun mod to add if you’re planning on doing some exploring (though I was let down when I learned it’s not compatible with Nomai VR).

The other way I’ve found is to watch other people to play Outer Wilds. Because the game is so open, everyone really has their own unique experience with it, and getting to hear about or watch that unique experience is similar to experiencing it fresh for yourself. Just a few weeks ago my wife finished her playthrough of Outer Wilds and Echoes of the Eye, and we both had a blast.

Thanks for indulging me while I gush about why I love Outer Wilds. If there’s something about it you’d like to chat about, feel free to reach out!

— JP