Outer Wilds is an indie videogame by Mobius Digital in which you are a new astronaut in the Outer Wilds Ventures program, and get to explore your (kind of small) solar system and the ancient Nomai ruins scattered throughout it.
It's a 3D game, and the planetary physics are fully* simulated! It also has my personal favourite pop-culture "quantum mechanics", something that is usually a pet peeve of mine (as a current physics student). The spaceship and spacesuit controls are finicky at first, but you get used to them.
It's also quite story-driven, but it's primarily a curiosity-driven game - the only thing stopping you from being able to immediately reach the end of the game is that you don't know how (or why).
...and I can't say more than that without ruining the main plot point of the game. Like OneShot and Tunic, it's one of those games you should go into with as little information as possible.
If you're absolutely certain that you know what the "main plot point" of the game is, click here.
and no, it's not the Nomai statue or anything immediately related.
Yep, so the main gameplay loop is that you only have about 20 minutes before the sun goes supernova and destroys everything in the solar system.
Although conveniently, you've had a "spiritual experience" (actual quote from the game that you probably missed) with a Nomai statue that means that when you die, you are sent back to the start of the time loop! The goal of the game is then to figure out why this is happening, and hopefully also how to stop it from happening.
Who I would recommend it to
Science nerds (affectionate), especially physics nerds.
People who are curious in general
Why I like it
(In the following sections, click on the spoiler markers to reveal the spoilers)
I mean, I'm a science nerd (and a very curious person), so...
Also, as mentioned above, this game has (in my objective opinion) the best representation of quantum mechanics as a puzzle/plot mechanic in any sci-fi story ever, and I'm definitely not biased because of [SPOILERS].
Spoilers for the entire purple section in the ship log (rumor view)
...Solanum. Solanum is why I'm biased about the QM stuff.
Spoilers for the end of the game
The end of the game is stunningly profound, however that's not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about Final Voyage.
Throughout the game, every time a loop nears its end, you hear the track End Times as the sun goes nova. You hear this track so many times that the opening notes are burned into your brain by the end of the game, eliciting an instinctual stress about running out of time.
When you trigger the ending sequence of the game (by taking the Advanced Warp Core from the Ask Twin), you're understandably a little on edge - this is your one shot (hehe) to do this.
And then the game plays Final Voyage. A reprise of End Times.
It's always funny to see people react to Final Voyage for the first time, going "oh shit is the loop ending already?!" only to look at the (very nearby) sun and realise what's actually happening, but it genuinely still gives me shivers every time I hear it.
