the best game i've ever played

i need to tell you about Outer Wilds.

i actually can’t say much about the game because this is the type of game you just have to jump into. that’s what my brother and i did. we had the single best collaborative experience playing a game we’d ever had over the time of several sessions. the game is single-player, but i must advise you sit down with someone you love to experience it together. you may need two brains, two thought processes, two angles, two ideas, an entire conversation. the amount of times my brother and i figured something out just by talking about how confused we were is something i couldn’t begin to count. the amount of “AHA!” moments we shared, how often we paused the game and stood up, the two of us recalling different critical details, the literal tears i shed sitting beside him—listen to me.

at the core it is a puzzle game. there are clues scattered around the given world, all available at once, and it’s your job to piece everything together and to figure out what the next step is and how to do it. as you play, you learn, and the gratification given as you solve something is major—but then you have to figure out the next thing, again and again, until you’ve finished. there is an answer somewhere for every question. the game is both linear and overwhelming when you open it for the first time. the balance is incredible. masterful.

and don’t even get me started on the art direction, which goes hand in hand with the “level design”/progression. no, actually don’t get me started. i can’t talk about any of that without spoiling something. everything is so clever.

Outer Wilds has some of the most phenomenal story telling i’ve ever seen in a video game. every aspect is used—dialogue, text, musical, environmental, audible, visible, etc.—and everything fits together so perfectly to push you along. that previously mentioned gratification comes from the storytelling as well as solving a puzzle because both are ever intertwined throughout the entire game. you must pay attention, you must care, and nothing feels like a chore because the investment is immediate. and the story itself is phenomenal, too. i cried so hard, twice.

the first time i cried was when we finished the game. not only was it emotional, but it hit me instantly that this is not an experience i could ever relive. once you’ve completed Outer Wilds it’s with you forever, but now you know. it becomes your duty to pass it on.

the second time i cried was when we played the DLC, and thank god there was a DLC. Echoes of the Eye is the best DLC i’ve ever seen in regards to how integral and intertwined it is to the base game. i can’t tell you anything about it, you’ve just gotta play Outer Wilds and then jump in. (maybe take a moment to process everything first.)

i cannot express how much happiness and affection fills my heart when i think of this game. when my brother plays particular songs from the soundtrack (every song is fantastic, all written by Andrew Prahlow; the music is critical), when we talk about the experience, when i recall just how amazing it was to play it together. he is the only person i will ever share that with. it’s a one and done thing, that first playthrough, that DLC. i’ll ever be grateful that he said to me one day, “hey, i think we should play this game together”.

and i think you should go play it too.