Some pathways can only be found if you’re willing to let the planets and their carefully thought-out physics do their thing, and sometimes the journey can get lonely. Ironically, sometimes you need exactly what Outer Wilds doesn’t endorse – patience. That may sound very stressful, but a weird tranquillity sets in wherever you’re creeping through a cave on the hunt for left-behind messages or meet a previous explorer on his lonesome near a campfire. You go out to uncover the history of a prior civilization in your little solar system, because solving the mysteries they themselves were working on it the only way to save everything you’ve come to know from certain doom. Seldom has a game captured the feeling of giddy discovery as well as Outer Wilds. Games are about exploration, about traversal, and about uncovering secrets.
