I’m considering player Outer Wilds, the game with the 22 minute repeating cycle. That’s all I know about it other than to avoid all spoilers, which I’m definitely trying to do. I have a couple questions that I don’t think will spoil me.
Does the game allow saving anywhere?
Is there any permanent log of my progress? If things are resetting, is there some kind of quest or information log to help me? I mean, I can do pen and paper, but hoping the game does write some stuff down for me.
I’m most likely going to play on Switch. Does this game work fairly well on console with a controller?
I might start a thread with my thoughts if there is enough interest.
Note: Not Outer Worlds, the Fallout like game. I’ve played that already along with all of its DLC’s.
I don’t quite remember the save system. I pretty sure it just auto saves at the start of each cycle. There’s not really a need to save mid-cycle since you’ll get reset anyway.
Yep, there’s a log of progress kept in your spaceship. And it lets you know when there’s still something to discover in a an area.
I played it on PS5 with a controller no problem. Take some time to practice the spaceship controls (there’s a tutorial area at the start).
I really tried and wanted to play that game but I just could not handle the controls, specifically trying to navigate to the planets. I have since heard that there is an autopilot, so I do plan to revisit it at some point.
As far as saving, I don’t think there is any saving mechanic. I never got very far but my impression was that the loop always reset to the same state, meaning there was literally nothing to save. But I could be wrong.
Yes. Everything you uncover that’s relevant to the plot gets saved in your log permanently. But the areas that you can explore always reset each cycle.
Oh, and not much of a spoiler, but there is nothing of note to be found inside the active geyser you encounter at the very beginning of the game in case you were curious like I was. The only thing you will find is death. But you get to at least see what it looks like inside before the screen fades to black.
Also, the 22 minute cycle doesn’t start until after a certain event in the early game, which will become readily apparent when it happens. So feel free to spend as much time as you want getting used to the mechanics through the various practice activities you encounter at the very beginning of the game.
You can spend a lot of time poking around the tutorial and intro activities without any saves taking place. I had to exit the game before autosaves were triggered, and thus I had to redo (at speedrun pace) all the required intro bits from scratch.
I played on Switch. The framerate is very poor, but I got used to it after a while and stopped noticing. Controls felt quite natural and comfortable on the Switch.
The log system does what you want regarding keeping track of things.
I went into the game knowing as close to nothing about the game as possible. I just saw the high praise it had received and that it had a unique feel, which was enough for me to try it.
With that in mind, the 22 minute cycle part of the OP is sort of a spoiler for new players generally. Maybe you’re supposed to know that going in? I didn’t, and I’ll just say that figuring out that I was in a pure loop and organically realizing that it’s a fixed interval was enjoyable.
I did not unshaded the spoilers in the previous post since I am trying to look at it blindly.
Are the controls really that bad? A few spoiler-free reviews seemed to incidate space travel is extremely difficult to master. I presume it can be done, though.
It certainly could not be done by me. I found it nigh impossible, and then gave up because of it.
Couple years later I mentioned this on Reddit and someone replied to me that there is an autopilot. See if you can figure out autopilot. I would have kept playing if I didn’t have to manually fly to the planets.
Outer Wilds is on of my top games of the last 20 years, particularly with the amazing Echoes of the Eye expansion content. The flight controls take a little practice, but within 5 minutes or so it will feel natural, and there’s no real consequences to crashing over and over.
For interplanetary travel, use the autopilot, matching orbital velocities is not for beginners.
This is what directly caused me to rage quit and not go back since. Manually trying to match orbital velocity felt like a sisyphian nightmare. I did finally manage to succeed, though I don’t think it was for the planet I was originally trying for. But then I said to myself “if this is the game it’s not for me” and quit.
My post’s spoiler boxes are only repeating what you already said in the OP. I guess more directly I was trying to say that this thread probably deserves some mod edits to spoiler-ize those pieces of info in the OP and subsequent posts. But also maybe I’m just too twitchy over spoilers.
The controls are great. Core movement should be mastered quickly. More advanced maneuvering just takes a little practice, and it was fun becoming more and more nimble and bold with the spacecraft. One thing I liked a lot about the game is how it mixes disparate genres in this way. But it’s not a super hard thing. Just don’t ignore the autopilot or the “lock to target” and “match velocity” controls that you learn about early in the tutorial sections. The game is meant to be played with those features. (I suspect more than the autopilot that those who found the controls maddening were also not using the lock/match controls.)
I enjoyed it, even though it wasn’t my favorite genre of game. Agree that the tutorials were useful.
The primary thing that changes in the game is your knowledge as the player. What seems impossible in 22 minutes becomes possible when you know exactly what to do.
I am not the sort that generally cares about spoilers, but I went into the game completely blind and the reset mechanic was a surprise, and honestly the most interesting mystery of the game.
I found flying the model spaceship in the starting practice area very difficult, but the actual spaceship flying and navigation pretty easy. I do not recall if I was using an autopilot at all. I remember it took a little to figure out, but nothing like KSP (or Orbiter!). I struggled a lot more with a couple if the puzzles to be honest.
Its a charming game, strong art style, whymsical, a little melancholy.