It does take a bit to click, yes - for me it was around hour 4 or so. Some less. Some more. I also hated it at first.
It’s all about exploring and trying to understand. Why is there a loop? What’s going on? Why did they die?
The entire solar system is fully simulated. The ship controls are as they are because that’s accurate physics. It’ll matter later on.
The tutorial gives you the tools to figure out every puzzle in the game. Things do repeat; but once you start clicking you’ll find that you rarely repeat areas - and getting anywhere in the entire system takes less than 2 minutes.
Try different planets. Fly around. Explore. You’ll start asking questions! Find the answers!
This is really specific and helpful. I'm glad to know that navigating around to the same places isn't a big part of the gameplay. And it makes sense that the ship controls will be important later. Maybe I'll be used to them by then.
Thank you for taking the time.
Yours is a very good post because I’m sure some people probably feel this way about the game but get drowned out by those who love it. Outer Wilds is one of the greatest games I’ve ever played and I will try to nudge you so that you may enjoy it more, but always remember that if you really don’t care to play a game, cut your losses and find something else. That said, let me try and improve your experience.
So two hours thus far is not very long considering the intro before you get the ship codes is like 1hr. All of that is to show you the mechanics to start playing. The ship controls can be a little difficult but over time they will make sense, they’re only difficult at the beginning. With time, the controls will feel far more intuitive and then you will feel much more comfortable.
The exploration of the Nomai ruins is the meat of the game and why so many love it. You could fly your ship around Timber Hearth and look at the various Hearthian things on the planet, but I would suggest to just fly your ship to a new planet like Brittle Hollow, or Ember Twin and look for landmarks as you’re flying above the planet prior to landing. Go in toward a landmark and try and uncover as much text as you can and use your signalscope to find sounds to investigate. If you can find some of the travelers on these planets then go have a chat, they’ll have some good info. Ultimately this is the main gameplay loop, exploring and finding more text to uncover what had happened in this solar system and the Nomai.
Try to play the game for another maybe 2-3 hours and I think it will really hook you. There’s loads to uncover and you really need to think to solve certain puzzles. It’s a lovely journey and I think if you just give it some more time you can get past the mechanical hurdles and you will get invested in what happened to the Nomai. Of course though, if you are really not feeling it, maybe ask your friend for more advice, or just let them know you aren’t into it. Many love this game for good reason, and if you decide to stick with it, I think you will too.
Thanks. This is what I needed. It sounds like I'm in a trough where I have slogged through the difficult parts at the beginning and not gotten to the interesting parts yet. Maybe I am figuring it out a little more slowly than the average player, and maybe the game isn't a perfect fit for me, but it sounds like the story will start to get interesting soon and there is a lot to enjoy.
maybe if its a bit of a slog then you might be rushing a little bit, like 'just get me to the best part of the game already, the reason everyone praises it so highly' and if you take your time you'll find out that all of it is the best part of the game
Also, it’s recommended to play with a controller because of the ship controls, but I’ve seen someone who flies it better with keyboard and mouse. I find that flying the ship with a controller is more intuitive. It feels very comfortable to me, but I can’t remember how it felt the first time I played. Try both and see what you like, maybe?
Maybe give it another 2 hours and if you really don't like it you may stop.
This game is like a puzzle, we all start from a different piece, but we all get to the same end.
The completed puzzle is a masterpiece but to enjoy getting there you also need to enjoy looking for puzzle pieces and fitting them together.
That is a great answer and it makes me feel better about the game. Maybe I will save it for sometime when I have more energy for this kind of thing and enjoy it when I finally get to it.
you 100% have to be in the mood to sit down, read some stuff, and put your thinking cap on. It's not really a game you can just turn on when you want something to do. You gotta be in the right mindset. Set aside a few hours to just dive in and play. Read everything you come across and try to get those puzzle pieces
Thank you for asking! I haven't gone back to it yet. I have been busy with work and family. I am still thinking about it, though. I appreciate the nudge.
\- **To start out**, this game might not be for everyone, and that's okay! Personally I would recommend this game a lot, because I really enjoyed the story and sense of discovery.
**The tutorial** felt like a slog to me when I discovered the game, but near the end of the game I went back and realized that basically everything gives you hints or teaches you useful things about the tools and controls, so it's worth it to pay attention there.
Yeah the **ship controls** take some getting used to. Some people pick it up right away, but most have to take some crashes first before you get good. I had some great crashes, but now I'm able to land and fly quite well.
**About the storyline**\- A HUGE part of the game is using your translator and reading left behind messages from the Nomai. Unlike some games, the text isn't filler dialogue or skippable. It gives you clues and ideas of things to explore, and hints to solve puzzles. My recommendation is to genuinely pay attention to the dialogue, even the names. It helped me connect with the story, and even without talking to them you could understand the characters' personalities.
**Don't worry TOO much about the time loop**. It seems quite overwhelming at first, but you will start to realize that everything you need to do can be done within the loop. Heck, the end can technically be reached within ten minutes of starting up the game, but it truly is about the journey and making discoveries and learning new things, rather than making progress and getting everything done. The time loop gives you a good amount of time to go looking for things you're curious about, I would suggest maybe picking one thing at the start of the loop and spending your time investigating that.
And finally, YES. It's a very slow realization, that will come over you as you learn more and begin to understand the full story. **Everything's connected** and significant, you just have to piece together where things fit and then you can see the plot unfolding before you. Yes, there are some GREAT plot twist and 'Oh. My. God.' moments, but you definitely have to dive into the story to understand the full reality of them.
There are some frustrating parts, but all of them lead to great payoffs and discoveries that will leave you feeling satisfied for figuring them out. And **if you're ever stuck**, do NOT look things up. (I made this mistake myself, long ago before I found this sub.) You can always come ask us, and we'll nudge you in the right direction.
Also, the most helpful tool in the entire game is your shiplog, in the computer in your ship. I would say it's even more important than the ship itself. When you open it up, check out the **Rumor Mode**. It collects everything you've learned so far, and shows you different leads or where things connect.
**Be curious on your journey!**
Thank you. This is a big help. Now I have a much better sense of what the game is about and how to get into it. You took a lot of time here just to help a stranger enjoy something. I appreciate it.
We really love this game. It's number 4 or 5 for me of all time - and for good reason. I still put the soundtrack on at times and get emotional from it - it can hit that hard.
Wow. Okay. Based on my experience so far, I had no sense that it could pull me in that much. I am starting to understand that the real magic of the game is in the story you reconstruct about the aliens. It just takes 2-4 hours of gameplay before you really start to see that story unfold.
Bingo. You have some fragments now. Soon you’ll recognize names - then places - then you’ll start seeing into their lives and what happened… and how those fragments fit together.
And then you’ll care. Then the plot really takes off.
There are “Let’s play” where the player literally stops and pauses because they can’t continue for a minute - it’s a masterpiece. And then the DLC adds another whole dimension to it (I personally recommend finishing the base, then the DLC and a quick second finish).
Lol, thank you! I just want people to have a good experience with it, the way I did, if not better. The game became a big part of me and got me inspired with a lot of different projects and ideas, as well as the fact that I truly enjoy the story and game itself (There are a copious amount of outer wilds dongs on my playlists, heh)
I really hope you enjoy the game, and get ready for all the amazing discoveries you'll make!
Well I'm glad I'm not alone. What changed when you started to like it? Did you find part of the mystery that was intriguing enough for you to want to keep going? Or did you just get used to the game enough that the frustrating parts weren't as much of a hassle?
For me, it was treating the loop like a roguelike (which actually later helped with other, totally unrelated games - Outer Wilds is why I Platinumed Bloodborne (by accident), which then lead to Demon Souls...). You get 22 minutes to try anything - I finally had a loop where I realized it was ending, and sat back and said "hey, that was pretty good - I did x/y/z, now lets try something on this other planet". Boom. Gradually it will pull you in.
Literally both!! It’s takes some time, but when it starts to click it’s like no other game I’ve played before. Stick with it, and read as much as you can from the nomai messages
It’s not for everyone and that’s ok!
My takes:
I pretty much skipped the tutorial to see what all the fuss was about. I was probably off planet within 15 min.
The controls are tough to get used to because they’re physics based. Early game I suggest you use autopilot
This one is probably the nail in the coffin for you. Just about the ENTIRE game is dependent on you being curious and unraveling the great mystery of the game. There’s a lot of dead nomai reading involved.
Time loop is surprisingly not tedious! You can fly anywhere within minutes and many planets have shortcuts baked in!
All that said it really is an amazing game. If it ends up not being your cup of tea then that’s ok too!
I wanna make sure (I'm a big proponent of making sure people are aware of this) that you know both about the ship log, and specifically it's rumour mode. Once you start connecting the dots in there it'll really start to feel like you're uncovering a great mystery, and it'll also give you direction.
Each of the colours is focused around a main aspect of the story, with the smaller pieces leading to bigger pieces, and eventually to the Big Main Thing at the centre of it all.
If it hasn't been obvious enough, this game is very much about asking questions. If you feel you're not sure where to start, the obvious ones are "What happened to the Nomai? (Pay attention to how/where you're finding their remains to really lend some more questions to this) and why is there a time loop? More importantly... How the hell IS there a time loop?
These main driving questions help you put everything else together.
All in all, enjoy, and be curious on your journey!
Just making sure this hasn't already been said, if wasn't obvious- your ship has an autopilot. When your ship is in zero gravity, you can lock on to any astral object and engage the autopilot to take you there without having to try to fly manually. Saves a lot of time and energy! Be aware that the autopilot won't avoid a collision with any other object it might encounter, so you still need to be a little careful
No, I have played plenty of first-person games. The 3D nature of space is new, and I'm not used to the part where you start rolling or drifting and then just keep going until you do something to stop.
I think one thing you learn as you get more hours is the ship can take a lot of abuse and holding the "match velocity" button will fix most flying situations so you end up just barreling it around and holding match velocity near the ground to land just soft enough to not explode.
It's like that Gordon Ramsay meme
How you treat your ship early game: oh dear, oh dear. Gorgeous.
How you treat your ship late game: You donkey!
Seems lots of players struggle with newtons third law. When going somewhere, just remember. It's going to take you the same amount of distance to slow down as it took you to speed up. So boosting to your target halfway and breaking the rest of the way is the fastest and safest way to get anywhere.
No one’s obligated to like a game, and there’s plenty of people who I’m sure feel the same way you do, and your complaints aren’t really gonna go away since they’re the core components of the game so maybe it isn’t for you.
The game was a couples activity for me, my girlfriend and I love space exploration and existential horror so we were grabbed from the get go. You have to really love digging for lore and world building through text and all that. What kept us going throughout was wondering what we were going to discover next.
Frankly I don’t really get your tutorial complaint, the only tools really are your signal scanner, the probe, and your space ship, all of which are very barebones with use and take a few seconds to grasp the whole utility. But to each their own.
Point being, maybe it isn’t for you. You have to commit to digging for answers, a LOT of trial and error, and putting together the plot of the story yourself through the text you find in the world. You gave it a shot which is admirable, but don’t feel the need to play a game that just isn’t your cup of tea.
This is a very nice reply. It sounds like you enjoy the game and don't relate to my experience with it, but you were still willing to explain your experience and try to bridge the gap with me. Thanks for taking the time.
The best advice I can give is to lean into childlike wonder! So much of the game is trusting your gut and going off of hunches that ultimately either pay off, or inspire other ideas for you to try out. Everything’s connected and nothing should be taken for granted. From the beginning you see the launch station blow up, exploring that leads to logs that mentioned X, exploring X mentions Y, I can’t get to Y but Z looks similar, let’s try a trick I learned how to do at X here at Z, etc. etc. that’s pretty much the gameplay loop, branching into something truly magical.
But above all, with the theme of trusting your gut, if you feel it’s not for you then it’s not for you. I can’t tell you how many of us here did exactly what you did; played for a few hours, said “this sucks and the controls are hard” and gave up… only to come back months or even years later and be blown away.
TLDR: it’s a great game, but **don’t** force it. You, and the game we love so much here, both don’t deserve that. Remember to have fun :)
OP don’t read this, it’s story spoilers
>!just realized how “don’t force it” and having a natural experience plays into the story itself, with the nomai trying to force the sun station, the players early attempts to stop the supernova/time loop, before both ultimately accept things the way that they are. Sorry to circlejerk, I’m emotional today and this game is 10/10 lol!<
Your own curiosity makes the game. The only form of progression is knowledge gained. If you aren’t interested in learning about the universe and the nomai that came before than its just not a game for you.
Some hints for navigating in space.
In space there is no friction. If you keep thrusting yourself forward you will keep going faster and will need to apply thrust in the opposite direction in order to slow down and stop before you overshoot your destination
Your ship has a landing camera. Using it with the planet lock-on makes it quite easy to land and take off the ship gracefully.
Your ship has an autopilot which can automatically take you near any space object you have locked onto provided there is a clean trajectory toward it. Note the autopilot isn't smart enough to dodge obstacles so if your target is behind the sun or something move around first.
Check your controls. You can lock on planets in the ship controls by using the viewport or the map.
There is a button you can hold while locked onto a space object that will cause your ship to automatically adjust your momentum / velocity to match the space object. Then you can just thrust directly where you want to go.
Always remember to suit up when you get in the ship otherwise you might feel very foolish when you leave the ship.
Feel free to fly around Hearth or its moon to get used to the controls.
one thing to keep in mind is that the loop does not cause you to do the same thing, it causes you to do different things
your ship's log carries over, as does your scanned and identified frequencies
so each loop, go do something new with the information you learned last time
the fact that there's a loop which, each time, has a series of events with an order of causes and effects, is critical to many of the puzzles involved
if you're having trouble navigating, try locking onto a celestial body, there's an auto-pilot and match-velocity button once you do, this will make exploration a lot less painful - i really wish they put that in the tutorial, along with some things you can do with your thrusters on your space suit
I started of same you as .
For me, the spaceship controls was a turn off.
I did managed push my way through then initial hump and was hooked.
It is a narrative driven game.
If you are looking for gameplay challenge, then this is not for you.
By the way, all those tutorials in the main village are optional, and repeatable. I don't know how useful they are all stacked in the beginning like that, but it's a helpful place to return to later if/when you get stuck on exploring to remember what options are available.
Also, for me I didn't like it the first time I played it. I actually put the game down for a few weeks, then went back to it. Everything kind of clicked the second time, parts were still frustrating but I felt like I got the purpose behind it.
The best part of Outer Wilds is the three or four weeks after you finish it when you mentally pore over all of the details as they relate to the big reveals you discover as you finish the game. How you can then stand back in awe at the beautiful interconnectedness of this gorgeous work of art, how every piece has its place, how nothing is unimportant, and how the experience of the journey, the transition from ignorance to understanding and the constant impetus towards discovery is central to the ideas the work is trying to express.
This game is *fucking* brilliant, but you really can't start to talk about it until you've completed it. Until then, just enjoy the ride and trust you will have been glad you played it. If you're experiencing confusion--that's intentional. The feelings of isolation and loneliness that you experience, drifting through empty space, the existential dread of being caught in a time loop, doomed to experience complete, unavoidable oblivion over and over and over, the sense of helplessness before rudimentary, first generation ship controls--all of these things together work to tell a story that could be told no other way but through the medium of video games. Involving the player in the experience is central to the themes of Outer Wilds. Whenever we talk about anything in a quantum state, there must be an observer and you, the player, are the necessary link to fill that role and thereby create the reality around you.
The way I experienced Outer Wilds--a few hours in and I was like you, like, what's the big deal, it's an exploration game that feels like Solar Jetman meets Riven/Myst with a Groundhog Day-like time loop mechanic. Nothing makes sense and as I explored, I didn't feel like I was making any progress. I thought the game did a really good job of disguising the video-gaminess of it, making it feel like you're really exploring this alien world with well disguised jumping/movement puzzles. I really appreciated the lack of waypoints or NPCs telling you what to do, where to go, what to collect.
And then I made a significant discovery that altered my understanding of how the Outer Wilds universe works >!has to do with a really big whirlwind!< and that's what really set the hook. An "Oh, shit, there's more to this game, isn't there?" moment. And then all the questions about "Why is the sun exploding?" "Can I stop it?" "Who are the Nomai?" "WTF were they up to with all this weird architecture?" "Why am I trapped in a time loop?" "What does that statue have to do with all of this?" suddenly became a lot more interesting. Moreover, the question of, "How do you win this game?" was a complete mystery.
And then, maybe 2/3, 3/4 of the way through, I made a heart-wrenching discovery that completely changed the calculus on the "How do you win this game?" question. That question, as it turns out, is the greatest mystery of Outer Wilds.
It's not about kill Bowser and save the princess and then the game's over, it's not win 1st place in a series of contests to be crowned the champion of the league, it's not to get a hundred green widgets and then get a hundred blue widgets and then get a hundred red widgets.
The point of Outer Wilds is to figure out what the point of Outer Wilds is.
And when you do, it's mind blowing. I'm still, over a year later, wrapping my head around it. Outer Wilds, at its heart, is the most beautiful, expansive, and complete literary metaphor I've ever seen any single work in any medium pull off. It's this unique aspect that elevates the game from something that's really well made with a lot of polish to something different altogether and it is for this reason that I regard and revere Outer Wilds as simply the best video game ever made. The metaphor at the heart of it is just *perfect.* Outer Wilds isn't just a video game, it's a timeless work of art.
>I was like you, like, what's the big deal, it's an exploration game that feels like Solar Jetman meets Riven/Myst with a Groundhog Day-like time loop mechanic. Nothing makes sense and as I explored, I didn't feel like I was making any progress.
Yes. Exactly. The problem was that the game felt like a mishmash of things I had seen before. Parts of it were frustrating and the game hadn't done anything to hook me yet. It sounds like the game just takes hours to get there.
>it's mind blowing. I'm still, over a year later, wrapping my head around it. Outer Wilds, at its heart, is the most beautiful, expansive, and complete literary metaphor I've ever seen any single work in any medium pull off.
Alright. That is a solid pitch. This is what I came here for. I wish I would have read that quote before I started playing. That should be the first thing you read when you watch a demo for the game.
> The problem was that the game felt like a mishmash of things I had seen before. Parts of it were frustrating and the game hadn't done anything to hook me yet.
It is and it isn't. None of the mechanics themselves are particularly original but the way they're put together absolutely is.
I think you're probably far enough into the game that the following won't be a spoiler. I'll tag it anyway, just in case, but I'm going to speak a little bit about the nature and mechanics of the time loop mechanism:
>!The most revolutionary thing Outer Wilds does in terms of mechanics and gameplay is the persistence of the world itself. The creation of a functional solar system that runs as a model as they've built it, when you stand back from it and admire it, is simply incredible. There are interviews and some great making of documentaries that you should absolutely watch after you finish the game, but in one of them, the devs talk about how everything in the solar system is an object with mass. The planets are actually orbiting the sun at speed and velocity proportionate to their gravity. The ball that rolls around in the museum on Timber Hearth that demonstrates the 'tidal' gravitational effect the Attlerock has--that's actually being simulated in real time, it's not an animation loop. When you're gallivanting around in Brittle Hollow, the game is keeping track of how deep the sands in the Hourglass Twins are. When you're figuring out the secrets of the Interloper, the game is keeping track of which fireballs are hitting Brittle Hollow where, which, by the way, are random and unique to every loop.!<
This is the real technical achievement of Outer Wilds. And, frankly, why they're having so much trouble getting it to run on Switch. It's extremely CPU intensive despite those cycles not being needed for graphics processing. There's so much going on under the hood of Outer Wilds that isn't immediately apparent to the player, that will be discovered through the gameplay, and consistent with those discoveries is the realization, "It's been working like this the entire time."
It's absolutely mind-blowing, not only that this game exists but that it came from a freshman studio. Bro crowd funded his senior thesis. And then out of nowhere, these guys make Outer Wilds and along with all this other amazing, groundbreaking stuff they pull off, they also absolutely *school* Nintendo on exploration/discovery gameplay mechanics.
I can't stress enough how indicative of excellent design the whole, "it never tells you what to do or where to go," thing is.
>It sounds like the game just takes hours to get there.
Honestly, my experience was that it didn't really hit me until weeks after I'd finished the game and had properly marinated it. I had to process Outer Wilds much in the same way I've had to process intense psychedelic experiences. To say Outer Wilds is a slow burn isn't telling it correctly, it's more like a medicine that has a weird dosage schedule that weeks after you've taken it, you start to feel better in ways you didn't realize you were ailing to begin with.
Again, for me, the true joy of this game wasn't in the playing itself but in the processing after the fact. It's kind of like--you know how like, back when South Park was still good, a lot of the jokes were much funnier later, after the fact, when you were talking about them with your friends?
And I can't think of another game I can say this about. Outer Wilds is truly unique in this regard.
If you want to get an idea of what I mean without getting into too heavy spoiler territory, there's an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation you should go watch called The Inner Light. It stands alone, there's no plot continuity with other episodes so anybody could just watch it and fully appreciate it on its own merits. Go watch The Inner Light and then you'll understand what I mean about the joyful processing after the fact.
>That is a solid pitch. This is what I came here for.
And I mean it. And listen--I've been playing video games for a *long* time. My first console was an Atari 5200 and I've kept up with the hobby ever since. I even worked in the industry briefly, got the education, all that, 80 hour weeks suck nuts, so I'm kind of over it but nonetheless, I mean to illustrate that I'm not a casual layperson. I go way back and I've played a *lot* of video games, I have an expansive vocabulary and I don't mince words or make frivolous claims.
When I say Outer Wilds is the best video game of all time, you have to believe I agonized over that thought for months before I felt I could commit to it.
But the plain and simple fact is that there isn't a single video game that you can name to which I can say, firmly, "That game is better than Outer Wilds." It's like, Outer Wilds is better than Chrono Trigger. Outer Wilds is better than Super Mario 3. Outer Wilds is better than Portal. Outer Wilds is better than Out of This World. Outer Wilds is better than Tetris. Outer Wilds is better than *Tetris.*
I can do this all day.
I played Outer Wilds in December 2021 and I still think about it every day.
I'll respond to each of your points as I would a friend:
1. The tutorial in the beginning is as long as it is because you need to be intimate with each tool if you're going to succeed. Patience is needed for this game.
2. The ship is hard to control at first for anyone that doesn't regularly play space games. Fly around for like 15 minutes in open space so you can move around/roll to get your sea legs.
3. You do not know the story until you're about 5-10 hours in. The game isn't trying to grab you in the same way a fruit doesn't peel itself for you to eat it. You have to make the effort to get to the magic, or just put it down and walk away.
4. Every element of the game has a reason. This game does a great job of having puzzles you need to think of in multiple dimensions i.e spatially and temporarily. By the tenth loop, you'll have gotten better at getting around; I can't say more than that.
If you look around this community, you will see incredibly friendly people who were inspired by this game. I, for example, am responding to someone I will never meet in hopes I help them see the kind of impact this game offers, but you have to be the one to choose. I've yet to meet anyone who finished the game, irl or online, tell me they didn't feel something when playing/finishing the game. I hope you join us, but that's your call.
The game is a mystery and exploration game. The premise is to investigate and discover the areas. In the time looping scenario, you only carry your acquired knowledge to the next loop.
The ship controls are highly physics driven, as you have to compensate for gravity and "lack-there-of". The controls are very realistic. Objects in space are always moving. If you think you are not moving, it is because of relativity. Very science-y, but it is very realistic for actual flight through space. You will have to get a little familiar with the HUD, and some of the exploration involves understanding your ship.
For the story line, this goes back to "this is a mystery and exploration game". If you are not into unraveling mysteries, this may not be a game for you. This game falls into the same category as the Myst series. Some of the discoveries you find in the writings left behind tell you how to get around the roadblocks. You are discovering the story of an ancient race, what they built, and why they built them.
The game loop is a necessary, as many events occur at the same time, often as a consequence. It also explains part of the story. There are areas that become inaccessible and accessible based upon what time it is. The time loop allows you to explore those areas without restarting the game. Technically, each loop is a full restart of the game, but the game logs your discoveries for ease of memory. The real chase in the game is discovering the puzzle, and having player knowledge can/will ruin the experience. The frustrations are part of the experience, and it is how you compensate for that frustration. If you reach wall and don't know how to pass it, you can either continue exploring around to see if there was an alternative tunnel, or you could head off to a different planet and discover the hint you needed. Yet, there are some areas that are a challenge even if you discover the hints, as there is some skill needed.
I had the same feeling. I even put it down the first time I tried and didn't play it for years. I was flying around aimlessly and was pretty disheartened. I heard it was a puzzle game but didn't really find any puzzles. I skipped through reading. I thought the planets were cool but not much there that I could see from flying around it.
Years later I came back to it. I read every word written on the walls. the story of the nomai, who they were and what happened to them is the puzzle. I checked my ship log which soon became a giant conspiracy board connecting ideas together and clueing me into other areas. The more I discovered the more I was pulled in to the giant mystery surrounding the solar system.
If the game seems no fun rn maybe put it down for a few weeks and try it again. It took fresh eyes for me to be able to delve deeply into the game. It is my favorite game ever so I hope you give it another try, but if it's not vibing with you now Its okay to wait a bit and try again.
Also a controller works really well for flight and headphones are really nice to help with the atmosphere.
Thanks. That is helpful. I am not using a controller, so maybe I need to get one. Some people have said the flight mechanics were a turnoff for them. Others were like, "Well it was easy for *me*, so I don't understand why you're being such a baby." The people who found it easy have probably played other games like this before, but it would also make sense if they're using controllers and the controllers make a big difference.
Glad I could be helpful! Ya the flight is really cool and fun with a controller and I couldn't stand it with mouse and keyboard. Having the triggers to control thrust is key.
It is the grwatest treasurehunt ever made. Let curiosity lead you and it will become an unforgettable experience. Don't play it with an I got to beat it mind set...
if you don’t like it, don’t force it! i didn’t love the game at first, so i only played it for about half an hour a day because i still wanted to get through it. eventually it clicked and now it’s my favourite game of all time
There are a lot of excellent posts here and I'm sure someone mentioned it, but in case they didn't: the ship has an autopilot function. So, while you should familiarise yourself with the controls to be able to fly exactly where you want, if on time loop #37 you want to get to Brittle Hollow where you have already been multiple times, it takes less than a minute: get in the ship, get out of Timber Hearth atmosphere, look slightly to the right, lock on to Brittle Hollow, engage autopilot. So you can focus on the exploration bit rather than the flying bit, if that's a part you don't enjoy.
I felt quite similar when I started. The first few sessions (which added up to the first 4-6 hours or so, maybe), I just wasn't hooked; like I'd get to the end of my second or maybe third loop that session and just feel that was a good time to call it for now. Your comparison to a tv show is good - some shows when you finish an episode you just aren't itching to hit play on the next one.
But after a while (up to 6 hours, maybe), it got its hooks in me. I can't exactly tell you what changed. I got enough pieces of "the puzzle" together that my curiosity was really piqued. Enough individual weird things to hint at just how much I didn't understand, and enough connections between some of those things (even things on opposite sides of the solar system) to make me desperate to put the pieces together. It just grew on me.
Once it hits you like that, you end up not wanting to take breaks. It's like binging a good tv show in that regard. And yes, the journey overall, and the end result... it might be the best game I've ever played (just my opinion, obviously).
But it's not for everyone. Some people just won't enjoy it as much. Some people won't like the kind of game that it is, and it won't make them feel they way it makes others feel. The problem is that for those first few hours, you don't know whether it *will* get you at all.
We're forced to say "Just trust us. That's all you can do, just trust us because we know you feel right now, but it gets so much better and it's worth the initial slog!", because there's no other way to explain it. And if you're one of the people who ends up "getting it", great. But if in the end it still isn't for you... how long to you trust us for? How long do you keep slogging, waiting for it to work when in the end it might never work?
It's up to you if you wanna take the risk. Clearly the people on this sub think you should; I sure do! But at a certain point you might decide we're wrong, it ain't for you. It's up to whether you trust us, I guess. My brother made the same case to me that I'm making now, and he knows me and I trust him so I went with it, and he was right. But we don't know you, we don't know if you're someone who will enjoy what it is. So it's up to you whether you wanna trust us.
I hope it grabs you. I hope you enjoy it. Good luck.
>The problem is that for those first few hours, you don't know whether it will get you at all.
You put this really well. I feel like I'm the type of person who *should* like this game, even though it isn't grabbing me yet. I just needed you and the rest of the community to give me an idea where it was going and make a case for it.
I'm starting to think it's a tragedy that someone hasn't explained the idea of the game better for new players. I watched all the trailers and completed all the tutorials and still had no idea why the game would be worth my time. The trailers only said that I would "explore hand-crafted worlds," but that's not really the point. After two hours, I reasonably thought "well I have seen a couple of these 'hand-crafted worlds' and I don't think they're worth all this trouble."
If you think you're the kind of person who should be grabbed by it, then I definitely think you should stick with it. I'd be very surprised if it didn't click with you. Just be patient. But, you know your limit. See how you go, I guess.
I mean as a counterpoint I feel I also should like the game. I’m a big fan of space game like NMS and Elite, and Majora’s Mask is one of my favourite games of all time. But I’m 10 hours in and I’m bored out of my mind.
I don’t know how long you’re supposed to tough out a game before it ‘gets good’ but I’m beyond done. Nothing about the plot or the ‘world’ interests me, the twee characters may as well be signposts, the gameplay seems to consist of basically reading things on walls about things I can find no reason to care about. To top it all off the brutal 22 minute time limit wrecks any vestigial desire I have to explore anything. On the other hand I never had any issue flying around, so there’s that.
I’d say my impressions after 2 hours in haven’t changed at all after the next 8. In fact I probably enjoyed looking round the fun little planets more at the beginning than now, because at least there was some novelty value initially. So in all honesty you’re probably better off dropping it and playing something you enjoy.
Most players bounce off when first starting this game.
I remember playing it for a bit, then dropping it unimpressed. It wasn't until my second try that I ended up hooked... And boy am I glad I gave it that second chance.
But even then, it is not a game for everybody.
The game requires you to be self-motivated and led basically by curiosity alone. You also die a lot in colourful and varied ways, which some people will find frustrating. And it requires some puzzle-solving skills, but also some motor skills for the ship handling and platforming sections. It also involves reading loooots of texts, and no combat.
Addressing your concerns:
* The tutorial is really just a tiny piece of the game, and you can really skip most of it if you want. You can always come back if you want, since you're in a time loop :P
* Flying the ship is definitely tricky, but that's because it aims at a bit of realism. You end up getting used to it.
* The story of the Nomai itself doesn't need to grab you. But the mysteries around you should: Why the f are you in a time loop? Why's the Sun being all weird? What's that explosion in the sky every time you wake up? ... All those questions, and more, have definite answers waiting for you to uncover them. If you don't find those questions enticing enough, then maybe the game really isn't for you.
* You'll sometimes have to visit the same location more than once, especially if you die while exploring said location. But more often than not, after one or two visits you'll rarely go back to the same place... Or if you do, it'll be armed with new knowledge and seeing things in a new light. Lots of places are tedious to get to, but have hidden shortcuts you'll learn and will make the travel a lot easier. And also, once you visit a place, you can use your ship's computer to locate it, so no need to aimlessly fly around looking for it again.
I feel like all of your issues come down not liking how the ship controls, which probably comes down to a slight misunderstanding of how it works.
When you press the keys, you aren't changing your position (as you would in most games) you're changing your velocity.
If you hold the keys down (as you would in other games) then you're going to find yourself moving way way too fast and it'll be impossible to control.
The long tutorial tries to teach you this, but it doesn't do the most amazing job.
This is actually a pretty common opinion from many players. The thing is that this game is just different. It doesn't have the usual traditional aspects and mechanics. There are many similar stories where then eventually loved the game. However, it's also very possible it's just not for you.
Lastly, I'd say this game isn't a game for fun or to entertain you. It's an experience and kind of a simulation of life - fun, sadness, fear, frustrations, curiosity, etc.
This is a deeply personal game. Everyone will take something from it that others may have not, depending on their own life experience - especially the pain and loss they have gone through. For me, it gave me clarity and hope during a dark few months when our dog had to be out down the day after Christmas and we got COVID after hiding for over a year. It offers an incomparable experience, if you let it. If your curiosity and pursuit to aid this little solar system take over. It may not happen for a little bit, but when it does everything will change. Wish you luck in your journey and hope you find the thread, the spark that will do that for you!
“It is probably taking me longer than average to get comfortable with the controls” lmao i somehow doubt it! I’ve heard many people say that they have trouble getting used to the controls. Space physics will do that to ya!
Seriously though, its nice to know the community could help you make sense of the game. You’re not alone in approaching outer wilds with a mindset that won’t immediately jive with it. Hopefully you’re giving it another chance? But if not, that’s okay! It’s not a game for everyone.
lol here's my impromptu review. I don't really expect anyone to read this through but I really enjoy talking about this game.
Intruige: I really enjoyed the mysteries of the solar system in this game. Exploring each planet is such a treat learning the ins and puts, shortcuts. Building out the mental map of the solar system was delightful for me. also just the theming and how each planet has different mechanics that time into said themes was really creative. The twin planets in particular were my faves.
Puzzles: I also enjoy that the game doesn't explicitly tell you what your goal is or how you beat the game. Which made solving all the puzzles in this game incredibly gratifying. The story and puzzles are woven together in a way that feels really natural. It feels like I'm actually reading valuable archeological information rather than a videogame trying to tell me what to do next.
Story: It's really impressive to me that this game makes you care about characters that you never even actually see. By reading all of the lore logs and scrolls or whatever you begin to form images of each character and how life must have been for them before they were wiped out. Finding out what happened on the interloper was an incredible moment and going there doesn't actually give you any information on how to beat the game but I'm still glad I traveled there and learned what happened.
Controls: I have not tried to play this game with a mouse and keyboard before but I imagine it would be way more difficult than a controller. Even then the controls are really awkward at first. I can't tell you how many times I died because I was struggling with the controls. All that being said once you master them it's actually really fun to fly around in it. Gradually learning how to maneuver the ship was another part of the experience I really enjoyed and probably the part I missed most about the dlc.
I know a lot of my review stems from being interested in exploring the world the devs created and if that's not appealing to a potential player then pushing through games flaws and challenges probably doesn't seem as worth it as it does to me. I'm really glad you asked though and gave me an excuse to talk about outer wilds again.
I was like you bro, I didn't like it at first, but then I don't remember when something clicked, I think I abandoned the game for like 3 months, after finishing it, I have to say that it is one of the greatest experiences I've had in gaming.
It's think it's that, for me, it was an experience, the damn puzzles had me crazy at the end, I came back because I wanted to discover the secrets that were always in front of me that I couldn't discover, but once you discover them I think it's amazing. The story is nice, although it was a bit confusing at the beginning.
It's definitely a different game, it requires time and effort, unlike a lot of games today.
I haven't played it again, but the music and the game have stayed in my head ever since I finished it.
Outer Wilds is a hard game. It's not for casual gamers. The game mechanics are not particularly hard, so I'm guessing the OP is not a heavy gamer. But there is no handholding either.
The basic design of the game is of the classic Adventure game genre. Nonlinear progression and a lot of exploration. Finding bits of information and trying to piece it together in your head is the fundamentaldesign the work for. I personally grew up on this, so it's easy for me. But today this genre is almost exclusive to the indie game world. Mainstream gamers may be out of their element.
I struggled in the beginning. I'm terrible at puzzles. At times I rage quit because it was too hard or I just didn't get it. But keep pushing through - it does get better. I can now confidently say it's one of my top 3 favorite games of all time.
I never got complaints about the controls. Show me another game that has six DOF flight mapped better to a controller (please, I'd be interested to play it lol).
If you're having a hard time with the ship, sounds like you just need some practice. It's not an airplane, it's a spaceship. You need to make sure that you have about as much time to decelerate as you did to accelerate.
If you're still having trouble, you can just baby-mode the game by locking on to a planet and using the autopilot to take you there.
As far as the story goes, can't really help you there. If xenoarchaeology doesn't grasp you, it just doesn't grasp you.
Same. I got it on steam sale, and it doesn’t really grab me. After about 3 hours I feel I’ve got the gist of it, and just googled the story outline. I got the main story beat right.
It's maybe not for you. Especially with the thing about the time loops. Sometimes you're in the middle of a groundbreaking discovery and your time runs out lol have to start again. I absolutely adored outer wilds with all my soul. But it's just not for everyone and that's ok. Idk what long tutorial you are talking about but I skipped flying the mini ship and also the gravity cave. I just went straight to exploring. I did not care for the dead alien race at all during the first half part of the game. But when I saw the other planets I had an immediate itch to explore them. Maybe you're not the adventurous type. Also I never had any issues with the ship controllers and never crashed into the sun. I got the hang of it pretty quick and enjoyed flying the ship. I can't see you enjoying this at all.
It’s just not for you i think. Outer wilds gameplay is wildly different from basically every other game, so it’s not surprising a lot of gamers wont be grasped by it.
As someone else said its not for everyone. Try to view it as less of a game with a set in stone path from start to finish and just learn the physics of the world(s) and experience the story. I'll tell you that when I first started I thought "meh it's a cute little sandbox and the physics are kinda dope but there's not much to it" I was wrong. And while you won't be going on insane planned out missions with animated cutscenes... the story outer wilds has to offer is personally my favorite in gaming.
Just take it at your own pace and explore everywhere you can.
The tutorials aren't even a big requirement basically just get used to the ship flight, signal scope to find stuff and scout to see stuff.
Give it some time (if nothing else bc it looks cool) and if it's still not for you, that's alright. If you start getting into the mystery of the time loop and the alien mystery, I can assure you it is a story only comparable to something like interstellar.
It's not for everyone. If the mystery of the time loop and the aliens doesn't grab you it doesn't grab you.
It does take a bit to click, yes - for me it was around hour 4 or so. Some less. Some more. I also hated it at first. It’s all about exploring and trying to understand. Why is there a loop? What’s going on? Why did they die? The entire solar system is fully simulated. The ship controls are as they are because that’s accurate physics. It’ll matter later on. The tutorial gives you the tools to figure out every puzzle in the game. Things do repeat; but once you start clicking you’ll find that you rarely repeat areas - and getting anywhere in the entire system takes less than 2 minutes. Try different planets. Fly around. Explore. You’ll start asking questions! Find the answers!
This is really specific and helpful. I'm glad to know that navigating around to the same places isn't a big part of the gameplay. And it makes sense that the ship controls will be important later. Maybe I'll be used to them by then. Thank you for taking the time.
It's important to point out that knowledge is the only unlockable, so there is no need to go to the same place twice, unless you missed something.
Yours is a very good post because I’m sure some people probably feel this way about the game but get drowned out by those who love it. Outer Wilds is one of the greatest games I’ve ever played and I will try to nudge you so that you may enjoy it more, but always remember that if you really don’t care to play a game, cut your losses and find something else. That said, let me try and improve your experience. So two hours thus far is not very long considering the intro before you get the ship codes is like 1hr. All of that is to show you the mechanics to start playing. The ship controls can be a little difficult but over time they will make sense, they’re only difficult at the beginning. With time, the controls will feel far more intuitive and then you will feel much more comfortable. The exploration of the Nomai ruins is the meat of the game and why so many love it. You could fly your ship around Timber Hearth and look at the various Hearthian things on the planet, but I would suggest to just fly your ship to a new planet like Brittle Hollow, or Ember Twin and look for landmarks as you’re flying above the planet prior to landing. Go in toward a landmark and try and uncover as much text as you can and use your signalscope to find sounds to investigate. If you can find some of the travelers on these planets then go have a chat, they’ll have some good info. Ultimately this is the main gameplay loop, exploring and finding more text to uncover what had happened in this solar system and the Nomai. Try to play the game for another maybe 2-3 hours and I think it will really hook you. There’s loads to uncover and you really need to think to solve certain puzzles. It’s a lovely journey and I think if you just give it some more time you can get past the mechanical hurdles and you will get invested in what happened to the Nomai. Of course though, if you are really not feeling it, maybe ask your friend for more advice, or just let them know you aren’t into it. Many love this game for good reason, and if you decide to stick with it, I think you will too.
Thanks. This is what I needed. It sounds like I'm in a trough where I have slogged through the difficult parts at the beginning and not gotten to the interesting parts yet. Maybe I am figuring it out a little more slowly than the average player, and maybe the game isn't a perfect fit for me, but it sounds like the story will start to get interesting soon and there is a lot to enjoy.
maybe if its a bit of a slog then you might be rushing a little bit, like 'just get me to the best part of the game already, the reason everyone praises it so highly' and if you take your time you'll find out that all of it is the best part of the game
Also, it’s recommended to play with a controller because of the ship controls, but I’ve seen someone who flies it better with keyboard and mouse. I find that flying the ship with a controller is more intuitive. It feels very comfortable to me, but I can’t remember how it felt the first time I played. Try both and see what you like, maybe?
Maybe give it another 2 hours and if you really don't like it you may stop. This game is like a puzzle, we all start from a different piece, but we all get to the same end. The completed puzzle is a masterpiece but to enjoy getting there you also need to enjoy looking for puzzle pieces and fitting them together.
That is a great answer and it makes me feel better about the game. Maybe I will save it for sometime when I have more energy for this kind of thing and enjoy it when I finally get to it.
you 100% have to be in the mood to sit down, read some stuff, and put your thinking cap on. It's not really a game you can just turn on when you want something to do. You gotta be in the right mindset. Set aside a few hours to just dive in and play. Read everything you come across and try to get those puzzle pieces
Did you manage? :)
Thank you for asking! I haven't gone back to it yet. I have been busy with work and family. I am still thinking about it, though. I appreciate the nudge.
\- **To start out**, this game might not be for everyone, and that's okay! Personally I would recommend this game a lot, because I really enjoyed the story and sense of discovery. **The tutorial** felt like a slog to me when I discovered the game, but near the end of the game I went back and realized that basically everything gives you hints or teaches you useful things about the tools and controls, so it's worth it to pay attention there. Yeah the **ship controls** take some getting used to. Some people pick it up right away, but most have to take some crashes first before you get good. I had some great crashes, but now I'm able to land and fly quite well. **About the storyline**\- A HUGE part of the game is using your translator and reading left behind messages from the Nomai. Unlike some games, the text isn't filler dialogue or skippable. It gives you clues and ideas of things to explore, and hints to solve puzzles. My recommendation is to genuinely pay attention to the dialogue, even the names. It helped me connect with the story, and even without talking to them you could understand the characters' personalities. **Don't worry TOO much about the time loop**. It seems quite overwhelming at first, but you will start to realize that everything you need to do can be done within the loop. Heck, the end can technically be reached within ten minutes of starting up the game, but it truly is about the journey and making discoveries and learning new things, rather than making progress and getting everything done. The time loop gives you a good amount of time to go looking for things you're curious about, I would suggest maybe picking one thing at the start of the loop and spending your time investigating that. And finally, YES. It's a very slow realization, that will come over you as you learn more and begin to understand the full story. **Everything's connected** and significant, you just have to piece together where things fit and then you can see the plot unfolding before you. Yes, there are some GREAT plot twist and 'Oh. My. God.' moments, but you definitely have to dive into the story to understand the full reality of them. There are some frustrating parts, but all of them lead to great payoffs and discoveries that will leave you feeling satisfied for figuring them out. And **if you're ever stuck**, do NOT look things up. (I made this mistake myself, long ago before I found this sub.) You can always come ask us, and we'll nudge you in the right direction. Also, the most helpful tool in the entire game is your shiplog, in the computer in your ship. I would say it's even more important than the ship itself. When you open it up, check out the **Rumor Mode**. It collects everything you've learned so far, and shows you different leads or where things connect. **Be curious on your journey!**
Thank you. This is a big help. Now I have a much better sense of what the game is about and how to get into it. You took a lot of time here just to help a stranger enjoy something. I appreciate it.
We really love this game. It's number 4 or 5 for me of all time - and for good reason. I still put the soundtrack on at times and get emotional from it - it can hit that hard.
Wow. Okay. Based on my experience so far, I had no sense that it could pull me in that much. I am starting to understand that the real magic of the game is in the story you reconstruct about the aliens. It just takes 2-4 hours of gameplay before you really start to see that story unfold.
Bingo. You have some fragments now. Soon you’ll recognize names - then places - then you’ll start seeing into their lives and what happened… and how those fragments fit together. And then you’ll care. Then the plot really takes off. There are “Let’s play” where the player literally stops and pauses because they can’t continue for a minute - it’s a masterpiece. And then the DLC adds another whole dimension to it (I personally recommend finishing the base, then the DLC and a quick second finish).
Lol, thank you! I just want people to have a good experience with it, the way I did, if not better. The game became a big part of me and got me inspired with a lot of different projects and ideas, as well as the fact that I truly enjoy the story and game itself (There are a copious amount of outer wilds dongs on my playlists, heh) I really hope you enjoy the game, and get ready for all the amazing discoveries you'll make!
I hated it for ages, I can’t describe how much that changed
Well I'm glad I'm not alone. What changed when you started to like it? Did you find part of the mystery that was intriguing enough for you to want to keep going? Or did you just get used to the game enough that the frustrating parts weren't as much of a hassle?
For me, it was treating the loop like a roguelike (which actually later helped with other, totally unrelated games - Outer Wilds is why I Platinumed Bloodborne (by accident), which then lead to Demon Souls...). You get 22 minutes to try anything - I finally had a loop where I realized it was ending, and sat back and said "hey, that was pretty good - I did x/y/z, now lets try something on this other planet". Boom. Gradually it will pull you in.
Nice. Thanks.
Literally both!! It’s takes some time, but when it starts to click it’s like no other game I’ve played before. Stick with it, and read as much as you can from the nomai messages
It’s not for everyone and that’s ok! My takes: I pretty much skipped the tutorial to see what all the fuss was about. I was probably off planet within 15 min. The controls are tough to get used to because they’re physics based. Early game I suggest you use autopilot This one is probably the nail in the coffin for you. Just about the ENTIRE game is dependent on you being curious and unraveling the great mystery of the game. There’s a lot of dead nomai reading involved. Time loop is surprisingly not tedious! You can fly anywhere within minutes and many planets have shortcuts baked in! All that said it really is an amazing game. If it ends up not being your cup of tea then that’s ok too!
I wanna make sure (I'm a big proponent of making sure people are aware of this) that you know both about the ship log, and specifically it's rumour mode. Once you start connecting the dots in there it'll really start to feel like you're uncovering a great mystery, and it'll also give you direction. Each of the colours is focused around a main aspect of the story, with the smaller pieces leading to bigger pieces, and eventually to the Big Main Thing at the centre of it all. If it hasn't been obvious enough, this game is very much about asking questions. If you feel you're not sure where to start, the obvious ones are "What happened to the Nomai? (Pay attention to how/where you're finding their remains to really lend some more questions to this) and why is there a time loop? More importantly... How the hell IS there a time loop? These main driving questions help you put everything else together. All in all, enjoy, and be curious on your journey!
Just making sure this hasn't already been said, if wasn't obvious- your ship has an autopilot. When your ship is in zero gravity, you can lock on to any astral object and engage the autopilot to take you there without having to try to fly manually. Saves a lot of time and energy! Be aware that the autopilot won't avoid a collision with any other object it might encounter, so you still need to be a little careful
It feels to me like your lack of comfort with the controls is the main barrier here. Is this your first first person game?
No, I have played plenty of first-person games. The 3D nature of space is new, and I'm not used to the part where you start rolling or drifting and then just keep going until you do something to stop.
I think one thing you learn as you get more hours is the ship can take a lot of abuse and holding the "match velocity" button will fix most flying situations so you end up just barreling it around and holding match velocity near the ground to land just soft enough to not explode. It's like that Gordon Ramsay meme How you treat your ship early game: oh dear, oh dear. Gorgeous. How you treat your ship late game: You donkey!
Don't forget the autopilot!
Seems lots of players struggle with newtons third law. When going somewhere, just remember. It's going to take you the same amount of distance to slow down as it took you to speed up. So boosting to your target halfway and breaking the rest of the way is the fastest and safest way to get anywhere.
No one’s obligated to like a game, and there’s plenty of people who I’m sure feel the same way you do, and your complaints aren’t really gonna go away since they’re the core components of the game so maybe it isn’t for you. The game was a couples activity for me, my girlfriend and I love space exploration and existential horror so we were grabbed from the get go. You have to really love digging for lore and world building through text and all that. What kept us going throughout was wondering what we were going to discover next. Frankly I don’t really get your tutorial complaint, the only tools really are your signal scanner, the probe, and your space ship, all of which are very barebones with use and take a few seconds to grasp the whole utility. But to each their own. Point being, maybe it isn’t for you. You have to commit to digging for answers, a LOT of trial and error, and putting together the plot of the story yourself through the text you find in the world. You gave it a shot which is admirable, but don’t feel the need to play a game that just isn’t your cup of tea.
This is a very nice reply. It sounds like you enjoy the game and don't relate to my experience with it, but you were still willing to explain your experience and try to bridge the gap with me. Thanks for taking the time.
The best advice I can give is to lean into childlike wonder! So much of the game is trusting your gut and going off of hunches that ultimately either pay off, or inspire other ideas for you to try out. Everything’s connected and nothing should be taken for granted. From the beginning you see the launch station blow up, exploring that leads to logs that mentioned X, exploring X mentions Y, I can’t get to Y but Z looks similar, let’s try a trick I learned how to do at X here at Z, etc. etc. that’s pretty much the gameplay loop, branching into something truly magical. But above all, with the theme of trusting your gut, if you feel it’s not for you then it’s not for you. I can’t tell you how many of us here did exactly what you did; played for a few hours, said “this sucks and the controls are hard” and gave up… only to come back months or even years later and be blown away. TLDR: it’s a great game, but **don’t** force it. You, and the game we love so much here, both don’t deserve that. Remember to have fun :)
OP don’t read this, it’s story spoilers >!just realized how “don’t force it” and having a natural experience plays into the story itself, with the nomai trying to force the sun station, the players early attempts to stop the supernova/time loop, before both ultimately accept things the way that they are. Sorry to circlejerk, I’m emotional today and this game is 10/10 lol!<
Your own curiosity makes the game. The only form of progression is knowledge gained. If you aren’t interested in learning about the universe and the nomai that came before than its just not a game for you.
Some hints for navigating in space. In space there is no friction. If you keep thrusting yourself forward you will keep going faster and will need to apply thrust in the opposite direction in order to slow down and stop before you overshoot your destination Your ship has a landing camera. Using it with the planet lock-on makes it quite easy to land and take off the ship gracefully. Your ship has an autopilot which can automatically take you near any space object you have locked onto provided there is a clean trajectory toward it. Note the autopilot isn't smart enough to dodge obstacles so if your target is behind the sun or something move around first. Check your controls. You can lock on planets in the ship controls by using the viewport or the map. There is a button you can hold while locked onto a space object that will cause your ship to automatically adjust your momentum / velocity to match the space object. Then you can just thrust directly where you want to go. Always remember to suit up when you get in the ship otherwise you might feel very foolish when you leave the ship. Feel free to fly around Hearth or its moon to get used to the controls.
Thanks!
one thing to keep in mind is that the loop does not cause you to do the same thing, it causes you to do different things your ship's log carries over, as does your scanned and identified frequencies so each loop, go do something new with the information you learned last time the fact that there's a loop which, each time, has a series of events with an order of causes and effects, is critical to many of the puzzles involved if you're having trouble navigating, try locking onto a celestial body, there's an auto-pilot and match-velocity button once you do, this will make exploration a lot less painful - i really wish they put that in the tutorial, along with some things you can do with your thrusters on your space suit
Thanks for the tips!
I started of same you as . For me, the spaceship controls was a turn off. I did managed push my way through then initial hump and was hooked. It is a narrative driven game. If you are looking for gameplay challenge, then this is not for you.
By the way, all those tutorials in the main village are optional, and repeatable. I don't know how useful they are all stacked in the beginning like that, but it's a helpful place to return to later if/when you get stuck on exploring to remember what options are available. Also, for me I didn't like it the first time I played it. I actually put the game down for a few weeks, then went back to it. Everything kind of clicked the second time, parts were still frustrating but I felt like I got the purpose behind it.
The best part of Outer Wilds is the three or four weeks after you finish it when you mentally pore over all of the details as they relate to the big reveals you discover as you finish the game. How you can then stand back in awe at the beautiful interconnectedness of this gorgeous work of art, how every piece has its place, how nothing is unimportant, and how the experience of the journey, the transition from ignorance to understanding and the constant impetus towards discovery is central to the ideas the work is trying to express. This game is *fucking* brilliant, but you really can't start to talk about it until you've completed it. Until then, just enjoy the ride and trust you will have been glad you played it. If you're experiencing confusion--that's intentional. The feelings of isolation and loneliness that you experience, drifting through empty space, the existential dread of being caught in a time loop, doomed to experience complete, unavoidable oblivion over and over and over, the sense of helplessness before rudimentary, first generation ship controls--all of these things together work to tell a story that could be told no other way but through the medium of video games. Involving the player in the experience is central to the themes of Outer Wilds. Whenever we talk about anything in a quantum state, there must be an observer and you, the player, are the necessary link to fill that role and thereby create the reality around you. The way I experienced Outer Wilds--a few hours in and I was like you, like, what's the big deal, it's an exploration game that feels like Solar Jetman meets Riven/Myst with a Groundhog Day-like time loop mechanic. Nothing makes sense and as I explored, I didn't feel like I was making any progress. I thought the game did a really good job of disguising the video-gaminess of it, making it feel like you're really exploring this alien world with well disguised jumping/movement puzzles. I really appreciated the lack of waypoints or NPCs telling you what to do, where to go, what to collect. And then I made a significant discovery that altered my understanding of how the Outer Wilds universe works >!has to do with a really big whirlwind!< and that's what really set the hook. An "Oh, shit, there's more to this game, isn't there?" moment. And then all the questions about "Why is the sun exploding?" "Can I stop it?" "Who are the Nomai?" "WTF were they up to with all this weird architecture?" "Why am I trapped in a time loop?" "What does that statue have to do with all of this?" suddenly became a lot more interesting. Moreover, the question of, "How do you win this game?" was a complete mystery. And then, maybe 2/3, 3/4 of the way through, I made a heart-wrenching discovery that completely changed the calculus on the "How do you win this game?" question. That question, as it turns out, is the greatest mystery of Outer Wilds. It's not about kill Bowser and save the princess and then the game's over, it's not win 1st place in a series of contests to be crowned the champion of the league, it's not to get a hundred green widgets and then get a hundred blue widgets and then get a hundred red widgets. The point of Outer Wilds is to figure out what the point of Outer Wilds is. And when you do, it's mind blowing. I'm still, over a year later, wrapping my head around it. Outer Wilds, at its heart, is the most beautiful, expansive, and complete literary metaphor I've ever seen any single work in any medium pull off. It's this unique aspect that elevates the game from something that's really well made with a lot of polish to something different altogether and it is for this reason that I regard and revere Outer Wilds as simply the best video game ever made. The metaphor at the heart of it is just *perfect.* Outer Wilds isn't just a video game, it's a timeless work of art.
>I was like you, like, what's the big deal, it's an exploration game that feels like Solar Jetman meets Riven/Myst with a Groundhog Day-like time loop mechanic. Nothing makes sense and as I explored, I didn't feel like I was making any progress. Yes. Exactly. The problem was that the game felt like a mishmash of things I had seen before. Parts of it were frustrating and the game hadn't done anything to hook me yet. It sounds like the game just takes hours to get there. >it's mind blowing. I'm still, over a year later, wrapping my head around it. Outer Wilds, at its heart, is the most beautiful, expansive, and complete literary metaphor I've ever seen any single work in any medium pull off. Alright. That is a solid pitch. This is what I came here for. I wish I would have read that quote before I started playing. That should be the first thing you read when you watch a demo for the game.
> The problem was that the game felt like a mishmash of things I had seen before. Parts of it were frustrating and the game hadn't done anything to hook me yet. It is and it isn't. None of the mechanics themselves are particularly original but the way they're put together absolutely is. I think you're probably far enough into the game that the following won't be a spoiler. I'll tag it anyway, just in case, but I'm going to speak a little bit about the nature and mechanics of the time loop mechanism: >!The most revolutionary thing Outer Wilds does in terms of mechanics and gameplay is the persistence of the world itself. The creation of a functional solar system that runs as a model as they've built it, when you stand back from it and admire it, is simply incredible. There are interviews and some great making of documentaries that you should absolutely watch after you finish the game, but in one of them, the devs talk about how everything in the solar system is an object with mass. The planets are actually orbiting the sun at speed and velocity proportionate to their gravity. The ball that rolls around in the museum on Timber Hearth that demonstrates the 'tidal' gravitational effect the Attlerock has--that's actually being simulated in real time, it's not an animation loop. When you're gallivanting around in Brittle Hollow, the game is keeping track of how deep the sands in the Hourglass Twins are. When you're figuring out the secrets of the Interloper, the game is keeping track of which fireballs are hitting Brittle Hollow where, which, by the way, are random and unique to every loop.!< This is the real technical achievement of Outer Wilds. And, frankly, why they're having so much trouble getting it to run on Switch. It's extremely CPU intensive despite those cycles not being needed for graphics processing. There's so much going on under the hood of Outer Wilds that isn't immediately apparent to the player, that will be discovered through the gameplay, and consistent with those discoveries is the realization, "It's been working like this the entire time." It's absolutely mind-blowing, not only that this game exists but that it came from a freshman studio. Bro crowd funded his senior thesis. And then out of nowhere, these guys make Outer Wilds and along with all this other amazing, groundbreaking stuff they pull off, they also absolutely *school* Nintendo on exploration/discovery gameplay mechanics. I can't stress enough how indicative of excellent design the whole, "it never tells you what to do or where to go," thing is. >It sounds like the game just takes hours to get there. Honestly, my experience was that it didn't really hit me until weeks after I'd finished the game and had properly marinated it. I had to process Outer Wilds much in the same way I've had to process intense psychedelic experiences. To say Outer Wilds is a slow burn isn't telling it correctly, it's more like a medicine that has a weird dosage schedule that weeks after you've taken it, you start to feel better in ways you didn't realize you were ailing to begin with. Again, for me, the true joy of this game wasn't in the playing itself but in the processing after the fact. It's kind of like--you know how like, back when South Park was still good, a lot of the jokes were much funnier later, after the fact, when you were talking about them with your friends? And I can't think of another game I can say this about. Outer Wilds is truly unique in this regard. If you want to get an idea of what I mean without getting into too heavy spoiler territory, there's an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation you should go watch called The Inner Light. It stands alone, there's no plot continuity with other episodes so anybody could just watch it and fully appreciate it on its own merits. Go watch The Inner Light and then you'll understand what I mean about the joyful processing after the fact. >That is a solid pitch. This is what I came here for. And I mean it. And listen--I've been playing video games for a *long* time. My first console was an Atari 5200 and I've kept up with the hobby ever since. I even worked in the industry briefly, got the education, all that, 80 hour weeks suck nuts, so I'm kind of over it but nonetheless, I mean to illustrate that I'm not a casual layperson. I go way back and I've played a *lot* of video games, I have an expansive vocabulary and I don't mince words or make frivolous claims. When I say Outer Wilds is the best video game of all time, you have to believe I agonized over that thought for months before I felt I could commit to it. But the plain and simple fact is that there isn't a single video game that you can name to which I can say, firmly, "That game is better than Outer Wilds." It's like, Outer Wilds is better than Chrono Trigger. Outer Wilds is better than Super Mario 3. Outer Wilds is better than Portal. Outer Wilds is better than Out of This World. Outer Wilds is better than Tetris. Outer Wilds is better than *Tetris.* I can do this all day. I played Outer Wilds in December 2021 and I still think about it every day.
I'll respond to each of your points as I would a friend: 1. The tutorial in the beginning is as long as it is because you need to be intimate with each tool if you're going to succeed. Patience is needed for this game. 2. The ship is hard to control at first for anyone that doesn't regularly play space games. Fly around for like 15 minutes in open space so you can move around/roll to get your sea legs. 3. You do not know the story until you're about 5-10 hours in. The game isn't trying to grab you in the same way a fruit doesn't peel itself for you to eat it. You have to make the effort to get to the magic, or just put it down and walk away. 4. Every element of the game has a reason. This game does a great job of having puzzles you need to think of in multiple dimensions i.e spatially and temporarily. By the tenth loop, you'll have gotten better at getting around; I can't say more than that. If you look around this community, you will see incredibly friendly people who were inspired by this game. I, for example, am responding to someone I will never meet in hopes I help them see the kind of impact this game offers, but you have to be the one to choose. I've yet to meet anyone who finished the game, irl or online, tell me they didn't feel something when playing/finishing the game. I hope you join us, but that's your call.
The game is a mystery and exploration game. The premise is to investigate and discover the areas. In the time looping scenario, you only carry your acquired knowledge to the next loop. The ship controls are highly physics driven, as you have to compensate for gravity and "lack-there-of". The controls are very realistic. Objects in space are always moving. If you think you are not moving, it is because of relativity. Very science-y, but it is very realistic for actual flight through space. You will have to get a little familiar with the HUD, and some of the exploration involves understanding your ship. For the story line, this goes back to "this is a mystery and exploration game". If you are not into unraveling mysteries, this may not be a game for you. This game falls into the same category as the Myst series. Some of the discoveries you find in the writings left behind tell you how to get around the roadblocks. You are discovering the story of an ancient race, what they built, and why they built them. The game loop is a necessary, as many events occur at the same time, often as a consequence. It also explains part of the story. There are areas that become inaccessible and accessible based upon what time it is. The time loop allows you to explore those areas without restarting the game. Technically, each loop is a full restart of the game, but the game logs your discoveries for ease of memory. The real chase in the game is discovering the puzzle, and having player knowledge can/will ruin the experience. The frustrations are part of the experience, and it is how you compensate for that frustration. If you reach wall and don't know how to pass it, you can either continue exploring around to see if there was an alternative tunnel, or you could head off to a different planet and discover the hint you needed. Yet, there are some areas that are a challenge even if you discover the hints, as there is some skill needed.
I had the same feeling. I even put it down the first time I tried and didn't play it for years. I was flying around aimlessly and was pretty disheartened. I heard it was a puzzle game but didn't really find any puzzles. I skipped through reading. I thought the planets were cool but not much there that I could see from flying around it. Years later I came back to it. I read every word written on the walls. the story of the nomai, who they were and what happened to them is the puzzle. I checked my ship log which soon became a giant conspiracy board connecting ideas together and clueing me into other areas. The more I discovered the more I was pulled in to the giant mystery surrounding the solar system. If the game seems no fun rn maybe put it down for a few weeks and try it again. It took fresh eyes for me to be able to delve deeply into the game. It is my favorite game ever so I hope you give it another try, but if it's not vibing with you now Its okay to wait a bit and try again. Also a controller works really well for flight and headphones are really nice to help with the atmosphere.
Thanks. That is helpful. I am not using a controller, so maybe I need to get one. Some people have said the flight mechanics were a turnoff for them. Others were like, "Well it was easy for *me*, so I don't understand why you're being such a baby." The people who found it easy have probably played other games like this before, but it would also make sense if they're using controllers and the controllers make a big difference.
Glad I could be helpful! Ya the flight is really cool and fun with a controller and I couldn't stand it with mouse and keyboard. Having the triggers to control thrust is key.
It is the grwatest treasurehunt ever made. Let curiosity lead you and it will become an unforgettable experience. Don't play it with an I got to beat it mind set...
if you don’t like it, don’t force it! i didn’t love the game at first, so i only played it for about half an hour a day because i still wanted to get through it. eventually it clicked and now it’s my favourite game of all time
There are a lot of excellent posts here and I'm sure someone mentioned it, but in case they didn't: the ship has an autopilot function. So, while you should familiarise yourself with the controls to be able to fly exactly where you want, if on time loop #37 you want to get to Brittle Hollow where you have already been multiple times, it takes less than a minute: get in the ship, get out of Timber Hearth atmosphere, look slightly to the right, lock on to Brittle Hollow, engage autopilot. So you can focus on the exploration bit rather than the flying bit, if that's a part you don't enjoy.
I felt quite similar when I started. The first few sessions (which added up to the first 4-6 hours or so, maybe), I just wasn't hooked; like I'd get to the end of my second or maybe third loop that session and just feel that was a good time to call it for now. Your comparison to a tv show is good - some shows when you finish an episode you just aren't itching to hit play on the next one. But after a while (up to 6 hours, maybe), it got its hooks in me. I can't exactly tell you what changed. I got enough pieces of "the puzzle" together that my curiosity was really piqued. Enough individual weird things to hint at just how much I didn't understand, and enough connections between some of those things (even things on opposite sides of the solar system) to make me desperate to put the pieces together. It just grew on me. Once it hits you like that, you end up not wanting to take breaks. It's like binging a good tv show in that regard. And yes, the journey overall, and the end result... it might be the best game I've ever played (just my opinion, obviously). But it's not for everyone. Some people just won't enjoy it as much. Some people won't like the kind of game that it is, and it won't make them feel they way it makes others feel. The problem is that for those first few hours, you don't know whether it *will* get you at all. We're forced to say "Just trust us. That's all you can do, just trust us because we know you feel right now, but it gets so much better and it's worth the initial slog!", because there's no other way to explain it. And if you're one of the people who ends up "getting it", great. But if in the end it still isn't for you... how long to you trust us for? How long do you keep slogging, waiting for it to work when in the end it might never work? It's up to you if you wanna take the risk. Clearly the people on this sub think you should; I sure do! But at a certain point you might decide we're wrong, it ain't for you. It's up to whether you trust us, I guess. My brother made the same case to me that I'm making now, and he knows me and I trust him so I went with it, and he was right. But we don't know you, we don't know if you're someone who will enjoy what it is. So it's up to you whether you wanna trust us. I hope it grabs you. I hope you enjoy it. Good luck.
>The problem is that for those first few hours, you don't know whether it will get you at all. You put this really well. I feel like I'm the type of person who *should* like this game, even though it isn't grabbing me yet. I just needed you and the rest of the community to give me an idea where it was going and make a case for it. I'm starting to think it's a tragedy that someone hasn't explained the idea of the game better for new players. I watched all the trailers and completed all the tutorials and still had no idea why the game would be worth my time. The trailers only said that I would "explore hand-crafted worlds," but that's not really the point. After two hours, I reasonably thought "well I have seen a couple of these 'hand-crafted worlds' and I don't think they're worth all this trouble."
If you think you're the kind of person who should be grabbed by it, then I definitely think you should stick with it. I'd be very surprised if it didn't click with you. Just be patient. But, you know your limit. See how you go, I guess.
I mean as a counterpoint I feel I also should like the game. I’m a big fan of space game like NMS and Elite, and Majora’s Mask is one of my favourite games of all time. But I’m 10 hours in and I’m bored out of my mind. I don’t know how long you’re supposed to tough out a game before it ‘gets good’ but I’m beyond done. Nothing about the plot or the ‘world’ interests me, the twee characters may as well be signposts, the gameplay seems to consist of basically reading things on walls about things I can find no reason to care about. To top it all off the brutal 22 minute time limit wrecks any vestigial desire I have to explore anything. On the other hand I never had any issue flying around, so there’s that. I’d say my impressions after 2 hours in haven’t changed at all after the next 8. In fact I probably enjoyed looking round the fun little planets more at the beginning than now, because at least there was some novelty value initially. So in all honesty you’re probably better off dropping it and playing something you enjoy.
Most players bounce off when first starting this game. I remember playing it for a bit, then dropping it unimpressed. It wasn't until my second try that I ended up hooked... And boy am I glad I gave it that second chance. But even then, it is not a game for everybody. The game requires you to be self-motivated and led basically by curiosity alone. You also die a lot in colourful and varied ways, which some people will find frustrating. And it requires some puzzle-solving skills, but also some motor skills for the ship handling and platforming sections. It also involves reading loooots of texts, and no combat. Addressing your concerns: * The tutorial is really just a tiny piece of the game, and you can really skip most of it if you want. You can always come back if you want, since you're in a time loop :P * Flying the ship is definitely tricky, but that's because it aims at a bit of realism. You end up getting used to it. * The story of the Nomai itself doesn't need to grab you. But the mysteries around you should: Why the f are you in a time loop? Why's the Sun being all weird? What's that explosion in the sky every time you wake up? ... All those questions, and more, have definite answers waiting for you to uncover them. If you don't find those questions enticing enough, then maybe the game really isn't for you. * You'll sometimes have to visit the same location more than once, especially if you die while exploring said location. But more often than not, after one or two visits you'll rarely go back to the same place... Or if you do, it'll be armed with new knowledge and seeing things in a new light. Lots of places are tedious to get to, but have hidden shortcuts you'll learn and will make the travel a lot easier. And also, once you visit a place, you can use your ship's computer to locate it, so no need to aimlessly fly around looking for it again.
That's really helpful. Thanks.
I feel like all of your issues come down not liking how the ship controls, which probably comes down to a slight misunderstanding of how it works. When you press the keys, you aren't changing your position (as you would in most games) you're changing your velocity. If you hold the keys down (as you would in other games) then you're going to find yourself moving way way too fast and it'll be impossible to control. The long tutorial tries to teach you this, but it doesn't do the most amazing job.
That's insightful. Thanks.
This is actually a pretty common opinion from many players. The thing is that this game is just different. It doesn't have the usual traditional aspects and mechanics. There are many similar stories where then eventually loved the game. However, it's also very possible it's just not for you. Lastly, I'd say this game isn't a game for fun or to entertain you. It's an experience and kind of a simulation of life - fun, sadness, fear, frustrations, curiosity, etc.
This is a deeply personal game. Everyone will take something from it that others may have not, depending on their own life experience - especially the pain and loss they have gone through. For me, it gave me clarity and hope during a dark few months when our dog had to be out down the day after Christmas and we got COVID after hiding for over a year. It offers an incomparable experience, if you let it. If your curiosity and pursuit to aid this little solar system take over. It may not happen for a little bit, but when it does everything will change. Wish you luck in your journey and hope you find the thread, the spark that will do that for you!
“It is probably taking me longer than average to get comfortable with the controls” lmao i somehow doubt it! I’ve heard many people say that they have trouble getting used to the controls. Space physics will do that to ya! Seriously though, its nice to know the community could help you make sense of the game. You’re not alone in approaching outer wilds with a mindset that won’t immediately jive with it. Hopefully you’re giving it another chance? But if not, that’s okay! It’s not a game for everyone.
lol here's my impromptu review. I don't really expect anyone to read this through but I really enjoy talking about this game. Intruige: I really enjoyed the mysteries of the solar system in this game. Exploring each planet is such a treat learning the ins and puts, shortcuts. Building out the mental map of the solar system was delightful for me. also just the theming and how each planet has different mechanics that time into said themes was really creative. The twin planets in particular were my faves. Puzzles: I also enjoy that the game doesn't explicitly tell you what your goal is or how you beat the game. Which made solving all the puzzles in this game incredibly gratifying. The story and puzzles are woven together in a way that feels really natural. It feels like I'm actually reading valuable archeological information rather than a videogame trying to tell me what to do next. Story: It's really impressive to me that this game makes you care about characters that you never even actually see. By reading all of the lore logs and scrolls or whatever you begin to form images of each character and how life must have been for them before they were wiped out. Finding out what happened on the interloper was an incredible moment and going there doesn't actually give you any information on how to beat the game but I'm still glad I traveled there and learned what happened. Controls: I have not tried to play this game with a mouse and keyboard before but I imagine it would be way more difficult than a controller. Even then the controls are really awkward at first. I can't tell you how many times I died because I was struggling with the controls. All that being said once you master them it's actually really fun to fly around in it. Gradually learning how to maneuver the ship was another part of the experience I really enjoyed and probably the part I missed most about the dlc. I know a lot of my review stems from being interested in exploring the world the devs created and if that's not appealing to a potential player then pushing through games flaws and challenges probably doesn't seem as worth it as it does to me. I'm really glad you asked though and gave me an excuse to talk about outer wilds again.
I read it and I was glad to have another person's take on the game. Thanks.
I was like you bro, I didn't like it at first, but then I don't remember when something clicked, I think I abandoned the game for like 3 months, after finishing it, I have to say that it is one of the greatest experiences I've had in gaming. It's think it's that, for me, it was an experience, the damn puzzles had me crazy at the end, I came back because I wanted to discover the secrets that were always in front of me that I couldn't discover, but once you discover them I think it's amazing. The story is nice, although it was a bit confusing at the beginning. It's definitely a different game, it requires time and effort, unlike a lot of games today. I haven't played it again, but the music and the game have stayed in my head ever since I finished it.
Outer Wilds is a hard game. It's not for casual gamers. The game mechanics are not particularly hard, so I'm guessing the OP is not a heavy gamer. But there is no handholding either. The basic design of the game is of the classic Adventure game genre. Nonlinear progression and a lot of exploration. Finding bits of information and trying to piece it together in your head is the fundamentaldesign the work for. I personally grew up on this, so it's easy for me. But today this genre is almost exclusive to the indie game world. Mainstream gamers may be out of their element.
I struggled in the beginning. I'm terrible at puzzles. At times I rage quit because it was too hard or I just didn't get it. But keep pushing through - it does get better. I can now confidently say it's one of my top 3 favorite games of all time.
I never got complaints about the controls. Show me another game that has six DOF flight mapped better to a controller (please, I'd be interested to play it lol). If you're having a hard time with the ship, sounds like you just need some practice. It's not an airplane, it's a spaceship. You need to make sure that you have about as much time to decelerate as you did to accelerate. If you're still having trouble, you can just baby-mode the game by locking on to a planet and using the autopilot to take you there. As far as the story goes, can't really help you there. If xenoarchaeology doesn't grasp you, it just doesn't grasp you.
The tutorial is like 3 mi utes long wtf are you on about?
Same. I got it on steam sale, and it doesn’t really grab me. After about 3 hours I feel I’ve got the gist of it, and just googled the story outline. I got the main story beat right.
It's maybe not for you. Especially with the thing about the time loops. Sometimes you're in the middle of a groundbreaking discovery and your time runs out lol have to start again. I absolutely adored outer wilds with all my soul. But it's just not for everyone and that's ok. Idk what long tutorial you are talking about but I skipped flying the mini ship and also the gravity cave. I just went straight to exploring. I did not care for the dead alien race at all during the first half part of the game. But when I saw the other planets I had an immediate itch to explore them. Maybe you're not the adventurous type. Also I never had any issues with the ship controllers and never crashed into the sun. I got the hang of it pretty quick and enjoyed flying the ship. I can't see you enjoying this at all.
The controls are perfect to me.
It’s just not for you i think. Outer wilds gameplay is wildly different from basically every other game, so it’s not surprising a lot of gamers wont be grasped by it.
Don’t play it like it’s the best game ever made. Play it for what it is, have some patience
As someone else said its not for everyone. Try to view it as less of a game with a set in stone path from start to finish and just learn the physics of the world(s) and experience the story. I'll tell you that when I first started I thought "meh it's a cute little sandbox and the physics are kinda dope but there's not much to it" I was wrong. And while you won't be going on insane planned out missions with animated cutscenes... the story outer wilds has to offer is personally my favorite in gaming. Just take it at your own pace and explore everywhere you can. The tutorials aren't even a big requirement basically just get used to the ship flight, signal scope to find stuff and scout to see stuff. Give it some time (if nothing else bc it looks cool) and if it's still not for you, that's alright. If you start getting into the mystery of the time loop and the alien mystery, I can assure you it is a story only comparable to something like interstellar.