When I hear about a new game, I usually read the first sentence or two on Wikipedia. I rule out games described as certain genres or types, like soulslike or online-only multiplayer games. Then, I check reviews on a site like Metacritic. If the critic or user reviews (doesn’t need to be both) are good enough, I add it to a list to play.
I also do this with movies and tv. Obviously, with sequels/series I know a little bit more about the games/movies/shows but I still go in as blind as possible.
Outer Wilds. A game that is best gone into blind. Seriously.
I bought it! Idk anything about it, but it’s in a stack of about 5 physical games on my to play list. I’m also excited for Disco Elysium
I’ve literally said to my wife that if I ever have temporary amnesia to get me to play this again because it’s that special
Oh yeah, what an incredible game. I usually don’t mind spoilers for media, but I was careful to avoid them for this one, because everyone swore down how important it was to go in blind, and now I’ve played it, I completely agree. Sometimes I wish I could erase it from my memory so I could play it for the first time again, but actually, I don’t want that, because then I’d be a person who had never played Outer Wilds. It’s probably the most sublime game I’ve ever played.
And now I’m partaking in a key cultural touchstone amongst Outer Wilds fans: being aggravatingly cryptic when talking about one of my favourite games, what fun.
The only other part that gets close (but is never quite the same) is watching other let’s plays as people ponder, explore, and have those AHA moments. And experiencing second hand the emotional roller coaster as they realize something and then uncover something that completely changed their understanding again.
Eelis on YouTube does Supercuts of those and every now and again I’ll watch one just to experience it vicariously through them.
Same with No Man’s Sky. It’s one hell of an experience
I tried so hard to get into this game but just felt like I was blindly bumbling around for no reason half the time and got bored. I probably only made it 5 hours in so maybe it gets better but I just wasn’t even sure what I should do. Maybe I’m doing something wrong because I really want to enjoy it.
It’s different than a lot of games because it doesn’t tell you what to do.
You explore and, as you do, read the lore and start to see the threads of a mystery. As you pull on those threads you come across others.
Each time you’re going out exploring something you can potentially get stuck trying to figure out one thing. But in that case there are other clues you can look into and I find doing that helped a lot.
It does go against the grain since there are no power ups, upgrades, keys and abilities. All progression happens because of the knowledge you have. I can start a new game and go straight to the end because I have the knowledge and the knowledge is what you’re gaining when playing the game.
Because of that it goes against years of gameplay mechanic expectations. So many games “pad” content with text that when I first started I just tapped through the text looking for anything that was color coded as being important. Except that in this game it’s all useful. There is no color coding because it’s a narrative and mystery that you’re uncovering.
That being said as fantastic as it is not every game is for everyone. If you decide you want to give it another try let me know and I can give you some slight spoiler hints that may nudge you in a direction. A kind of “what about this” kind of thing that can set you down a path towards what the game is narratively doing.
Thanks I appreciate this. I’m busy with some other games right now but I will remember this comment and if I go back to it in the near future I’ll get ahold of you :)
I look forward to it if you ever do
Nah if you made it 5 hours then you got a good taste. If it doesn’t hook you by then, then it’s just not your type of game.
It really grabbed me personally, so I’m curious, what other games have you found really moving/enthralling/impactful/etc?
Always neat to hear from people with different tastes. :)