Outer Wilds is An Existential Masterpiece

space is one of the last places left for mankind to explore looking out from our little rock we can see a galaxy we know very little about that's why space has always held a sweet spot in media the foundation star wars dead space prey alien firefly you name it we love to use these platforms to explore the endless possibilities of space to theorize and to imagine what could and very well might be that brings us to the topic of today's video the outer wilds the outer wilds and i'm not being dramatic is one of the most beautiful games i've ever played i encourage anyone who hasn't already to play it before watching this video even the act of saying you need to play this game feels like i'm detracting from the unique experience it offers because then you still have an inkling that this game will be more than you expect now it's hard to make a narrative analysis for a game that's so heavily based on experience but i wanted to make this video i wanted to share my experiences with what is easily one of the most memorable games i've played probably ever in summertime to explain this game's beauty i'm going to be taking you through each planet and explaining what they offer starting with our home planet where the story begins outer wilds opens the player waking up in the stars above a station explodes ejecting an unknown object into deep space turning around we see a campfire softly burning with our buddy slate roasting and marshmallow he informs us that it's takeoff day today we're launching into space but first we have to get the launch codes from the observatory so that's where we head the villager timber hearth serves as the games tutorial there's a model ship you can fly around to practice the flying mechanics you can even fly the thing right off the planet and into the sun somehow it's significantly harder to control the drone than the actual ship but i crashed that [ __ ] like 20 times before i got it under control i feel like this was done on purpose to add more tension to your first takeoff which everyone will lose to be in a suicide mission these kids want to play hide and seek and we have to use our signal tracker to hunt down the radio they bring with them we find this engineer here we get to practice maneuvering in 0g and learn how the repairs work it's a huge tutorial without being invasive you're not forced to learn a single mechanic and i love a game that manages to explain core mechanics in a way that's natural without huge text dumps or weird immersion breaking tutorials the game always keeps us anchored within the world that's something you should get used to the world is happening around you in outer world you are not the center of the universe once we're satisfied with the game mechanics we head to the observatory upon entering an ancient statue of the noma can be seen there are weird species almost goat-like and this particular statue seems to have quite an interest in us why and what this means we don't know yet the ground floor of the observatory has been converted into a small museum it serves as a visual contact center explaining some of the key features of the galaxy i haven't had this much fun in a museum since modern warfare out back we find a quantum shard every time you turn around it jumps to a different stand [Music] quantum of solace heading upstairs we grab the launch pad codes and that means we're clear for takeoff so it's time to head to our ship taking off in timber heath is an iconic gaming moment like leaving the vault in fall out or climbing the tower with your brother and assassin's creed 2 it's a moment that will stick with me we know from flying the model ship that is not going to be a cake walk but we also know we can do whatever we want [Music] the game begins with no goal no location to head towards or bad guys to defeat we're just explorers with a small galaxy at our fingertips some players will fly off to the furthest planet others will immediately crash and burn some crazy [ __ ] probably flew straight into the sun it doesn't matter the game is telling you that the direction and actions of the story are your choice without uttering a single word while the average player will begin by darting straight off into space like an excited pre-team before we head off we're going to focus on the rest of our native planet and the locations you can find there flying north one of the first encounters we make is the small woodland growth setting a ship down we read the signs and discover we're in the quantum grove there's a small path heading down to the grove so we follow the track arriving in this grotto it contains some trees another quantum shard a wooden sign it's clear something isn't right here but we don't know what just yet [Music] oh well that's troubling here we see the same quantum properties displayed in the museum except now we have a sense of scale it doesn't just affect shards but also objects around it not only that but it can move them pretty far i think this area was implemented to visually display the scale of the quantum movement it's also pretty unsettling it might take a new player a few turnarounds to really understand what's happening in the grove and it sets the standard that we as the player should be cautious and even suspicious of our surroundings at all times next up young bark crater this is an easy location to spot from the sky because it looks like [ __ ] is going down there's a giant seed crashed into the ground with brambles spreading across the area speaking with this guy we discovered that the seed is infecting the planet he also suggests that maybe we should shoot our probe into the entrance of the seed which seems reasonable what could possibly go wrong launching a scout reveals a much larger space with the skeleton of a large creature and what appears to be a camp where and what this location is we don't know yet but a seed containing a larger interior section is a mechanic we'll need later where is this camp how is the inside of the sea so large what is this doctor who [ __ ] answering these questions is the fuel for the early game but that's all we can gather from this area for now the final location on timber hearth is mining site 2b here we get our first real look at the past civilization of the nomine whose statue had great interest in us this was their mining camp from thousands and thousands of years ago it's clear that the nomi were a very advanced race and the caves are scattered with their scripts providing a huge amount of information most important and curious of all is mentions of something known as the ash twin project all of the ore taken from these mines was required to construct this project creating an impenetrable core the notes also address our in-game species it turns out back in those days we were nothing more than little tadpoles in a lake and that the nomad had hoped we would grow into sentient life somewhere down the line this just goes to show the amount of time that's passed since this species was in the galaxy long enough that a species of little more than bugs were able to evolve and grow into sentient species capable of space flight speaking of space flight we're done with our home planet it's time to break our mortal shackles and blast into space the next logical destination the atlarock a small moon orbiting timber hearth this lunar outpost is where an adventurer called eska lives [Music] there's a small forested camp that used to serve as a pit stop for harthians making their first space flight there's a wooden lodge and even a campfire where you can roast some marshmallows it's a nice little space eska offers few conversations and he even admits to sometimes shooting little probe scouts to the village when he feels lonely ah one of the more interesting structures is this no my ruin after some investigation we discover it's a device used to track different planets [Music] it was created with the aim of tracking a mysterious object known as the eye of the universe we have no idea what this is or its importance but from using this device it clearly can't be found when tracking the eye the device swirls endlessly without clear direction yet more mystery and more questions further around the moon we find a large crater the impact side of a large ice shard here we find a recording from shirt another explorer who decided to investigate the crater schertz hypothesis is that a fifth ice planet used to exist which dramatically imploded due to the expansive growth of an infectious seed raising the question is timber hearth in danger of meeting the same fate stumped and feeling a bit overwhelmed with the day we walked back round to the lunar outpost and by this point you might have noticed the sun is looking a bit different it's growing and it's turning a dark red gradually this beautiful soundtrack kicks in [Music] [Music] it's a staggering piece of music a mixture of sadness and optimism you know instantly that something is happening something significant but what [Music] the sun has gone supernova and collapsed in on itself this is the end of life for our section of the galaxy [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the statue we saw in the museum we see it again except this time it's showing us our actions the life we lived in our final moments played is still images in reverse all the way back to the beginning of our first day from the moment we wake up seeing the same space station exploding we're in a loop and the galaxy is ending in 22 minutes this is the base of the game story finding answers from this point every time you die whether that's from the sun going supernova or your own careless actions you'll be brought back in time to this moment the simple mechanic of having the images of your day playing back when you die is just beautiful sometimes they're funny three short slides where you hit a tree and blow up other times it's almost emotional in the short 22 minutes you get to see the incredible achievements you've made the progress the discoveries and the awe-inspiring sights yes i'm being philosophical here but this concept really hits home to me as someone who's super aware of the limited time we have on this planet seeing how much or how little can be achieved in those short 22 minutes is a weird mixture of inspiring and terrifying it represents the ultimate reality of our lives we don't know how much time we have some have a lot other unfortunate souls have much less but the choices we make and the adventures we have along the way define the quality of any time spent there's a quote from lucius seneca that reads life if well lived is long enough and i think that that quote really captures the emotions that this game is ultimately trying to provoke the loop mechanic is implemented very well in the outer wilds better in my humble opinion than recent games like death loop [Music] because of how expansive and off the rails the open world is the end of loop has countless options for carnage fly a ship into a sun jump into a black hole or just sit on the moon roast a marshmallow and watch the world end it doesn't matter because you have another day death luke's decision to break the time mechanics into different segregated locations without the day progressing in real time massively limited the impact yeah sure it's less frustrating than actually being timed but it also removes all tension it feels like you're some sort of time god and death loop giants deep a planet consisting of murky waters small islands and countless water cyclones it's an intimidating planet to land on in fact i wasn't even sure you could land on it when i first flew over i was worried i was gonna smash straight into a small green rock like a giant floating pea hovering outside the planet you can actually see the cyclones throwing the different islands into the air it's a nice touch you realize that the mechanics of this world are taking place in real time rather than just being scripted set pieces arriving at the small island we see a camp this is gabriel's island he saw it first it's his and he doesn't want to share it speaking to gabriel we learn that we're not the only people repeating the day gabriel himself saw no my statue similar to the one we saw and now he is also repeating the same 22 minutes this gives us a lot to think about we're not the only people experiencing a time loop i think this was done to reinforce the idea that we're not the center of this universe we're not the special chosen one we're not the champion of an alien species which is another cog accidentally caught up in something we don't yet understand in an interesting touch every traveler you speak to has two sets of dialogue one for your first loop and a second set once you're aware of the loop it's a nice attention to detail armed with this new knowledge we head off to explore the rest of giants deep one island dons a giant frozen jellyfish and tangled and twisted brambles the path is blocked by a web of ghost matters so reaching it requires a careful path to be tread we still don't know what ghost matter is at this point but merely touching it is enough to instantly kill organic life there isn't much to see here we find an old camp belonging to expert explorer feldspar who left the log boasting about making it to the core of giants deep get used to seeing the past remnants of felspar he's the best explorer of the bunch and appears to be miles ahead of us in his travels next up island three consisting of two landmasses we see an abandoned settlement and the strange remnants of a nomi structure after landing we head over a broken bridge to the main island there's a door here but it's broken to [ __ ] apparently they can keep graveless working for 200 000 years but a door hinge no that's got them stumped around the side we see these glowing purple rocks it turns out these puppies shift the gravitational pull letting us walk on walls like spider-man or jesus the ruins at the top don't offer any clue as to what's going on here we find a vent and using our camera we're able to see a huge chamber below now the obvious question is how do we get there well as anyone who's ever played tomb raider knows the answer is always under the water [Music] this room is where the no my statues were commissioned the same devices that are bringing us back when we die here we learn that the statues were built to store memories but they were only designed as a backup almost like a usb for memories that still doesn't explain why we're in a loop and what the hell happened to the nomi the context and information and outer wilds is mostly gathered through these know my notes the curves lines we find scattered throughout the galaxy apparently they invented time travel before mobile phones actually wait maybe a society without phones on social media is the only way to advance to the space age it makes sense these dialogues are packed with personality you end up feeling like you know the characters and you can honestly sense their desperation and their hopes and struggles just through the text we also get our first look at a form of looking glass technology which will project the location relating to the conversation [Music] it's kind of spooky and more than once i walked off the edge of a platform or blinded with a projection this species really didn't care about health and safety but we've gathered all the details we need from the workshop the last island of giants deep a construction yard one of the most important buildings on the planet it's notable because of the distinct structure sticking out from the water this is the most intact structure we've seen so far exploring we make a few key discoveries a device known as the orbital probe cannon was being built here the same station we see exploding at the start of each loop in a stroke of genius the gnome i realized they could use the natural cyclones to throw built components into space what i love about the lore in this game is that it's actually implemented you'll eventually notice a cyclone coming towards you and it's a pretty ominous sight if they manage to catch you you'll be launched into the air along with any islands in their way there are pads scattered around the island standing on them keeps you anchored to the spot failing to reach one in time could result in being chucked out into the depths of space the game doesn't spoon feed you this information it trusts the player will have the good sense to figure this out your ship isn't immune to the laws of nature either each island has a gravity pad it's wise to land on these spots unless you want to risk your ship being flung out into space while you're on the ground trust me you won't be able to get that bad boy back there is something hopelessly entertaining about the first time you lose your ship the ship lets you track all the different plot points laid out in a kind of mind map this terminal is crucial for understanding where to head when you're feeling lost it also stores your space suit which you have to remember to put on every time a loop begins the amount of times i forgot to put that on and died in a vacuum of space is honestly enough to make a grown man cry back at the construction yard we find out that a piece of the orbital cannon somehow managed to sink to the core of giant's deep something previously thought impossible because of the impenetrable currents the researchers in particular unknown michael daz discussed their worry about overpowering the cannon when it fires which could cause the station to break under the strain and finally we learn the cannon project has been put on indefinite hiatus resulting in the lead researcher cassava deciding to head to brittle hollow to research the phenomenon of reaching giants deep having learnt about the orbital cannon that's our next logical destination arriving in orbit and the station is in ruin clearly daz's fears about overpowering the station were well warranted when the cannon fired the station was torn apart but again we have more questions than answers what activated the probe cannon after its long hiatus and why did they allow the station to be overpowered if they knew it would be destroyed entering the ruin through an airlock we can explore the remaining compartments starting with the control module the first note we discover starts with evans speaking to their partner where they use the term my better 50 percent this seems like a stupid line but it's very clever for two reasons firstly it humanizes the species it's important to establish that these were loving caring kind creatures but it also shows how mathematical and science-based these species were they don't say my better half they work strictly in accurate numerical phrases even when it comes to love it's a subtle but clever touch you'll see emulated across all of their languages they take common phrases and represent them with accurate scientific phrases in this dialogue we discovered that the cannon was being created in order to fire a probe into deep space in an attempt to locate the eye of the universe the same unknown and mysterious object the gnome i were hunting for on the atlarock exploring deeper we discovered that the cannon was abandoned because the nominals couldn't supply it with enough power a caveat that doesn't make sense at this point because we know that the station's fired the only other module left intact is the launch module here the nominal says that destroying the cannon doesn't matter because they only need to fire at once to find the eye this seems overly optimistic given the size of space and how elusive this eye appears to be finding it with one shot should be impossible they either know where they're firing it which by all accounts they don't or they know something we don't it's also revealed that the results of said probe can only be viewed from the probe tracking module the very same module that sank to the bottom of giant's deep bugger how many plot threads can one man handle let's head to brittle hollow and find out a large dark planet the surface of brittle hollow is extremely dangerous slowly breaking apart from a barrage of lava balls spewed from the hollow's lantern a molten moon orbiting the planet when these chunks of earth break away it reveals a planet's core a black hole that gobbles up anything that gets near it as the loop progresses more of the surface will be consumed eventually the planet is a little more than a black hole with a few land masses surrounding it it radiates cosmic horror it's a lovecraftian fear of the unknown whether that's being sucked into a giant typhoon or slowly falling towards a black hole the bizarre unique experiences you encounter mean you never know exactly what to expect and with no ability to save there's always the potential of losing a whole loop's progress these moments of exploring the unknown can genuinely shake you the planet's surface is mostly barren under the surface is a different story because this planet is home to the hanging city [Music] a large no my settlement dangling just above the black hole with a lot of opportunities to form the real challenge with this planet is exploring and timing your jumps the city has a few key locations to explore and namely the meltwater school and eisshein district these three levels make up the bulk of the hanging city they were the living quarters of the nomad these areas give you a lot more insight into the life of the past civilization up to this point they'd appeared almost godlike but seeing their homes it personifies them makes them feel less like omnipresent beings they ate they slept they were just extremely clever scientists the meltwater district mainly consists of a large control room used to raise and lower the black hole forge [Music] it also has dialogue talking about the creation of warp cause and the large known my ship that's actually stuck at the center of dark bramble one that only needs a new warp chord to function if some brave adventurer were strong enough to bring it one the eye shrine is an interesting place it's a shrine for the eye of the universe confused trivago finding the eye the universe was the ultimate goal of the nomi an object that existed before time itself an object whose faint signal actually brought the nomide to this part of the galaxy in the first place what exactly is it and how can it be reached we don't know yet it's clear that their hunt for the eye was bordering on obsessive something that they were solely dedicated to discovering the school district is where the no my kiddies would learn stuff i mean it's a school what were you expecting this area outlines more about the history of the nomad presented as educational classes for the children primarily a festival that this species used to have they value science and discovery above all else every 10 years the nomad would gather from all across the universe to share and revel in their recent discoveries it also talks about the universe its constant state of expansion and that the galaxy will one day in the future cease to support life the black hole forge here the scientists would create warp drives powerful devices capable of instantly moving objects across the galaxy there's more mention here of the ash and twins project and we also discover that a special super powerful warp drive has been created to fuel the project getting to the black hole forge is an absolute ball lake it's dangling just above the black hole and the journey there will almost certainly result in an unwanted trip to the black hole what does this mean will it destroy us will the game implode on itself and get permanently deleted after dropping through the black hole instead of dying you're blasted out into space confusing i know turns out we've been sent through a white star these two entities are inseparably linked i looked into black holes after playing this game and it's actually a real theory that black holes and white holes could be linked however current theories believe that the pressure of a black hole would reduce any material sent through into an atomic paste another interesting fact scientists think if you stare just at the precipice of a black hole looking to your left and right you'd actually see the back of your own head because the gravitational pull of the black hole will cause light photons to bounce off the back of your head and bend round to your own eyeballs yes i watched a single kirkstadt video i'm a pseudoscientist sumi arriving at the white hole we're in a bit of a pickle because we have limited oxygen and our ship is miles away but do not despair traveler the key night will spot a small station orbiting nearby exploring this station we learn that falling through the black hole and being stranded in space was a regular issue for the nomad you know building a city above a black hole and all so they built this station to instantly teleport people back to brittle hollow you just have to align it with the pad as it orbits in the sky back to exploring the hollow and our next destination is the observatory the dome-shaped building we can see from the surface once inside we learn about a place called the quantum moon a large planet that constantly changes position and appears to be linked to the eye with its quantum properties but most importantly we find the research that cassava left giants deep to conduct about reaching the core it turns out that certain tornadoes the ones spinning anti-clockwise actually launch objects downwards rather than into the air this is vital information we will need later so it's time to head to the ashen twins the planets whose name we see appearing everywhere in regards to the elusive ashen twins project these planets are inseparably linked one is covered in sand and the other is a barren rock over the course of the loop the sand will pour from the ash twin into the ember twin slowly filling it with sand it's a giant hourglass metaphor and represents the loot beautifully the ember twin is up first a grand canyon style surface with deep ridges separating the north and south poles the ridge is the same line the pouring sand will follow and you do not want to get caught under that flow you'll be real dead real quick a great design philosophy of the game is giving every planet a specific challenge to overcome be that falling sand or an unstable surface each location offers a unique challenge to make them stand out the first location you'll want to visit is shirts camp located on the north pole and settled on a large rock the scenery here is beautiful with the planet's location so close to the sun you get a lovely vista especially when the sun is going supernova it's a sight to behold this is shirt or as his friends call him shirts he likes to play the drums and have a good time he's a local expo and will offer information about the planet namely that there's a crashed escape pod on the north pole and that there appears to be a city hidden deep underground having pestered him enough we leave shirt to play his drums under the sea escape pod 2 can indeed be found crashed on the north pole big up shirts for the tip traveling through the pod we can read the crash logs which informs us about their crash landing on the planet once on the surface the sun proved too intense for the nomad so they decided to head beneath the surface to escape the heat in this cave we find a few scribble notes alluding to a place known as the sunless city we need only follow the path deeper the cave is a complex maze it's easy to get lost but the no might left notes along the way to help us get through there's a problem because sand is being poured into this planet the cave and the infamous sunless city are slowly being filled take too long and you're dead it's a great mechanic it gives a kind of indiana jones race against a clock vibe to each visit although it does force you to spend a few loops here because there isn't enough time to explore the entire area in one run before it's filled with sound but i suppose that adds a bit of pacing to the game's discovery after traversing the complex maze we find ourselves at the front door of the sunless city there are stairs over to the left mind so we head up them and see what looks like a sort of viewing platform shooting in a pro for some light we get this harrowing sight this is a bit of foreshadowing but not that we have to worry about for now it's clear that we can get into that cave but there's no way in sight so instead we head to the sunless city damn they weren't joking the city do be sunless thankfully there's a device here that will turn the lights on here we see a city similar to the brittle hollow but we gotta go fast because the central chamber is filling up with sand real quick so we don't have long on the wall behind we find one of the most important scripts we've read up to this point the domy scientists in order to generate the extreme amount of energy required for the ashen twin project and orbital cannon they're building a sun station it's unclear the exact purpose of this station but what is clear is that the no my scientists are reluctant to build it because they claim the station will bring about the annihilation of the star system it's the most promising lead so far if this station is causing the sun to go supernova to fuel the project maybe there's a way to shut it down maybe there's a way to stop this loop and save our corner of the galaxy it's certainly possible but for now we have to finish exploring the sunless city there's not a huge amount you can find in the remains of the main chamber some children scribble secret notes for one another talking about the games they would play in the old fossil of the anglerfish apparently the kids were able to find a secret way into the cave by placing a lantern in the skeleton's mouth so we head back to the outlook and send our probe into the mouth and make our way to stepping stone cave now we can see a small hole in the roof with a light shining through very clever you could try and jet pack your way up there but i'm a lazy gen z so i sit there and let the sound carry me up once in we learn that this ancient race of angler fish are both extremely deadly and extremely blind like a mole rat with a switchblade that might seem like menial information but we'll need it later last up is the high energy lab you'll have to sprint there straight away from the beginning of a loop or the path will be blocked off by the sound fall the tunnel leading to the lab is claustrophobic by design multiple large cacti zzz's blocked away and the only way over is allowing the tunnel to fill up with just enough sand to get past it's clever it never really caught me out but it makes the journey feel a lot more dangerous than it actually is one of the biggest killers while you're exploring is your oxygen levels once you leave your ship you're on a timer it's a simple enough mechanic but it adds a lot of tension to the deep cave exploration the high energy lab is a very important place this is where the no my we're experimenting on black holes warp drives and why toast always lands face down all the important [ __ ] here they made a crucial discovery that items sent through a black hole appear through a white hole a tiny fraction of a second before they actually leave the black hole in essence a very mild form of time travel interesting we see here a discussion between ramy and pai who discuss if based on these discoveries it would be possible to create a warp drive powerful enough to send items back in time by 22 minutes that's a huge piece of information that clearly alludes to our current loop situation that's the last piece of information we'll grab from the ember twin but before heading to the ash twin we need to explore the sun station based on everything we know if there's any chance of stopping the annihilation of our star system it's there now there are two ways to reach this station option one is via a teleportation pad on the ash twin but we're not [ __ ] we're goddamn space pirates so we get there the old-fashioned way with stick and shift it's significantly harder to reach the station this way but i highly recommend it it's an epic gamer moment you can't fly straight at the station or you'll almost certainly miss and be destroyed by the sun so instead you have to line up your shot with the orbit of the station and skim across the surface of the sun only an inch away from missing your shot or burning to a crisp exploring the station and we get some truly stunning visuals the observation deck is the main room which has a permanent view of the sun it's a great sight up to this point we have a pretty good idea that the station was built to cause the sun to go supernova the same event that our time loop is centered around reading through the notes we make a horrific discovery the sun station was never operational they couldn't cause the sun to go supernova it wasn't possible they had failed this is one of the most devastating plot moments because now we know that the sun explosion the supernova it's not being induced it's a natural occurrence the sun is simply at the end of its lifespan up to this point there had always been some hope that the sun could be saved that the galaxy could be spared but there's no way to stop it no machine to turn off no station to destroy your evil alien race to defeat the sun is at the end of its natural life cycle and the galaxy is finished this leaves one big question what the [ __ ] happened to the nomi well another series of messages found on the station provides us with one more lead the interloper an icy comet floating in the galaxy was the last discovery of the nomad upon the comet entering the galaxy three no my scientists defeated with the sun station's failure were sent to the interloper to see what discoveries could be made so that's where we head next flying over the surface there isn't much to find but with our knowledge from the sun station we know that there's a way beneath the surface [Applause] the tunnels here are icy and hostile they're filled with ghost mata and only a few tunnels out of the countess you can take won't lead to your death you need to tread the path carefully with your scout drone until you make your way to the central chamber and discover the dead bodies of clary pie and poke here we make yet another harrowing discovery this comet was the source of all the ghost matter found in the star system when the comet arrived in the system the core was building up pressure and reaching critical mass pi and poke realized this and ran to inform the rest of the nomad but unfortunately they were too late the comet exploded shower and ghost matter across the entire galaxy killing the entire noma civilization instantly that's why every no my body we wander across is preserved in a state of panic and escape because of the sudden unexpected destruction of the galaxy they were all running to find some form of cover i had assumed that the ghost mata would have some deeper meaning or that perhaps it was in some way linked to the spirit to the past knowing my civilization but that's part of the genius of this tale nothing is important in the grand scheme of the universe the nomi much like our species thousands of years later were little more than victims of an unfortunate and unavoidable cosmic occurrence even the music when this revelation is made perfectly conveys the meaning behind the discovery it's melancholy and sad [Music] the music in outer wilds is as phenomenal as it is integral for the experience it was created by andrew prallow and he deserves major props for this soundtrack you've done an amazing job and created such an amazing range from happy and uplifting to creepy and disturbing i did reach out to him on twitter but he didn't reply it's fun speaking generally the soundtrack is super optimistic yet sad and lonely there are a ton of example of the finer details one example i liked is the infrequent soundtrack that plays while exploring space [Music] when this song kicks in it's a beautiful track but what makes it special is you can faintly hear the theme from your home planet playing quietly in the background i feel like this was done on purpose it reminds the player of where we've come from and how far away yet close our home planet is music and video games can make such a huge difference it really sets the tone for what the player is going to experience and i think of late a lot more people are noticing and praising good music there are some great analysis videos popping up it really it makes the difference between a good and a great game at times armed with our previously discovered knowledge we make our way back to giants deep one last time first up the giant cyclone it's hiding something we don't know what but it must be pretty good i mean it's hidden in a giant [ __ ] cyclone flying into it there's now flying under it does not either that only leaves one option buckle in baby we're flying over this [ __ ] damn that's a big tower welcome ladies and gentlemen to the tower of quantum trials how very imposing to simplify this area it's a tutorial on the mechanics of quantum objects the same type we saw on our home planet as we know they're slippery buggers when they're not being looked at they can relocate to another position this can be stopped by either staring at them or looking at an image of them meaning we can use our trusty pro camera to keep a quantum object stationary these puzzles are very well thought out they're challenging but not frustrating each level of the tower requires a player to manipulate a quantum gate in order to reach it and drop down through the tower this information might seem redundant but it will come in handy later for now let's focus on getting to the planet's core to get to the core we need to implement our knowledge of the counterclockwise tornado which launches us downwards you can actually do this at any point just by accident i'd love to see how confused people would be if they accidentally got shot into the core on their first run once through we see that the core is protected by another impossible wall this time an electric one with jellyfish regularly passing through i have to admit you normally figure out how to pass through this wall of the dark bramble which i haven't visited yet so we're gonna have to temporarily skip a step just for the flow of this video what you have to do is get out of your ship jet the jellyfish and ride from the inside past the electric wall this was a bit of a brain scratcher for me because touching the top of the jellyfish will hurt the player but the tentacles don't which is actually the polar opposite of how jellyfish work in real life i just assumed that if the head hurt the player the whole body would but waiting inside the jellyfish was my tense mostly because my head kept on clipping through his body and i was convinced it would glitch out and fry my brains [Music] the core of the planet it's dark it's eerie there's little sound and even less light exploring we find the missing cannon part the probe tracking module and here we learn that the eye of the universe has been located the coordinates are now in our possession in the form of three separate symbols this is big [Music] now it's time to head for one of the last locations of our journey and one of the hardest locations to reach the quantum moon it changes location every time you look away from it even if you stare at it the whole time when you fly into its surface you'll end up going straight through the moon and it will disappear the annoying bugger is like one of those squiggly lines you see out the corner of your eyes the first challenge is how do we get there the average beta male will log its every move and work out a pattern of movement and predict where it will land real alpha males will fly over to giants deep play a game a red light green light and then it'll appear lovely that's problem one solved issue two when we fly through its atmosphere our vision is blurred so it disappears how do we fix this well this is where our knowledge from the quantum trials really becomes vital because as we've learned even if we can't see a quantum object an image will do this is another example of how outer wires provides you with subtle information and allows us to implement that knowledge to progress the surface of the moon is small and all the objects on the surface will randomly teleport around you after exploring for a while this tower will appear there's a switch at the back that turns light off and on we can use this to make the moon jump between planets a really cool feature here whatever planet the moon is currently orbiting the moon's surface will take on its properties if you're outside giants deep the ground will be covered in water whereas if you're outside the ash twin the ground is covered in sand and you can see the faint remnants of sand pillars flowing into the sky the quantum properties are really shining here and the devs use this opportunity to really be creative and have fun with the moon's design it's a great feature but after jumping around the galaxy we eventually arrive at the sixth location outside the eye of the universe following the twisted path to discover a shocking sight this is the last know my in existence a nomad that's been trapped on the quantum moon for an unknown period of time here we can ask them questions through symbols which makes sense we don't have a live translator tool so we can't communicate to each other verbally there's a bunch of different combination of these slates it was actually really hard to track what combinations i hadn't tried but these are the key details they explain that they have no idea how long they've been on the quantum moon but they're pretty sure that they're technically dead they're a quantum version of themselves the eye of the universe appears to be the starting point of all life and existed before the formation of the galaxy this person considers us friends ha ha what a cutie patootie there are a lot of other anecdotes but they more or less cover information that we already know so it's not worth going over them in detail with our conversation out of the way there's only one thing left to do jump into the clouds of the eye of the universe [Music] unfortunately we don't land in the eye instead we land on another part of the moon with a corpse of a know my traveler it actually changes position every time you look away and i still can't decide if that's hilarious or terrifying what makes the intricate detail so great is the passion of the development team i know it's easy to swoon but mobius studio consists of a very small group and yet they've pumped out such a detailed and loving world weirdly the game studio was developed by massioca the actor that controls time in the tv show heroes i did not expect that careful clearly this is a talented man with a lot of interest a fair play to him the game itself was primarily the brainchild of alex beecham this game started as his graduate thesis a combination of different smaller projects he worked on while studying noclip done a great documentary about mobius studio and their development process it is quality work i'll leave a link to their video in the description if you want to check it out they provide an unparalleled look into the development process it's super informative very entertaining and well worth a watch this prep we had this prompt called uh do something with the uncertainty principle and that led to this prototype of there's the cabin and all these trees and they would move when you looked away in any case it's time to get some answers it's time to head to the ash twin home of the elusive ash and twin project there isn't much you can do on this planet at the start of the loop it's not until a ton of sand is poured into the ember twin that the long buried structures will begin to reveal themselves there are multiple towers that serve as teleportation pads to all the different planets each tower will visually represent the planet they're connected to we know the project is hidden on this planet even at this point though i still had no idea how to reach it it turns out you have to wait by these two towers which represent the hourglass planets then when the sand passes overhead you have to get swept into the flowing sand and get pulled up onto the roof of the second broken tower as smaller man and myself figure that out but finally we're here the center of the ash planet and the core of the ash twin project is an imposing site a rotating platform star-like walls and bright pulsing power cables this place has you on the edge here we finally find where the statues are stored the same ones we see every time we die but most important of all this here long panel is chock or block with no my writings and it basically serves as a summary of the plot points one that concludes all the threads and lays out a clear narrative for anyone that hasn't been able to piece it together just yet you should have a pretty clear idea by this point what's happening and you've probably already forged your own theories and conclusions but for those of you that haven't this is what's happened thousands of years ago the nominee were brought into the star system in search of the eye the ship crashed in the dark bramble and they were forced to settle in our star system driven by an obsession with knowledge and scientific progression the no my fixated on firing the eye at some point they developed the ability to store their memories by linking their brains with machines at the same time while creating their warp drives the nomin made the interesting discovery that objects sent through a black hole would appear slightly before they departed this is where they came up with the genius idea of creating a device with a powerful enough warp core to send something back in time by 22 minutes this idea matched up perfectly with the nominees plans to create an orbital cannon one that can shoot a probe into deep space in order to find the eye while it was initially impossible due to its extremely low probability of success and high energy cost by launching the probe and setting the results back in time they could theoretically fire the probe an infinite amount of times without a single second passing the problem is this device required a huge amount of power so much power that only the energy generated from a sun-going supernova would suffice so while the nomad built the ash project and the orbital cannon the rest of the species began work on the sun station building a device capable of forcing the sun to go supernova a last disaster was yet to rear its ugly head just as the orbital cannon was created and the ash twin project complete the sun station was concluded a disaster it won't work they couldn't cause the sun to go supernova at the same time the interloper arrived in the galaxy and in an instant the entire race was extinct for generation the orbital cannon and twin project lay stagnant forgotten by time until the sun through the end of its natural life cycle went supernova inadvertently kick-starting this complex procedure which by sheer chance were entangled with it's an extremely interesting plot because contrary to what the game alludes to we've never gone back in time in fact technically nothing has ever happened other than the final playthrough the last time we leave our home planet is actually the first all previous expeditions and our knowledge of them are memories of events that never happened sent back through time in memory vaults one of the best lines that really drives this home comes from selenium is tempting to linger in this moment while every possibility still exists but unless they're collapsed by an observer they will never be more than possibilities but back to the project following the walkway to the other end we find what we're here for [Music] so now we have a powerful warp core we know that there's a ship and dark bramble and we also have the coordinates for the eye of the universe itself that only leaves one option stealing the special warp core and making our way to the dark bramble the implication of taking the warp core is never openly discussed despite having such immense meaning by taking this core the player is making an active choice we're choosing to end all life relying on the sun just to seek out the eye just to hunt for further knowledge the last piece of knowledge left for us to learn our friends our home world will all be wiped from existence when we take that core by not only accepting that fate but causing it it's fantastic writing when you take the core and all the sound stops [Music] oh damn you know you're in the end game next stop is the dark bramble flying across space for the final time the music we've come to love and loathe kicks in except this time is not bittersweet we know this is the last time we'll hear it it plays as a last farewell to the star system [Music] it's a genius choice this tune has been a song that plays to let us know that the day is up but we still have tomorrow and now it's a song played to remind us that this is our last day i'm not crying you are the first time you enter the bramble it's foggy and you can only see a few meters from your ship a few faint lights illuminate the distance driving closer you get this horrific sight a giant [ __ ] anglerfish are they not scary enough in real life why are you gonna be making them big these buggers will chase the ship and eat it whole an especially concerning problem now that the ash twin project is shut down thankfully from our research we know that the fish are blind they hunt on sound to pass through alive we have to make as little noise as possible that means floating through the expanse with little to no thrusting slowly moving through the fog and seeing these giant celestial beings floating past you is beyond tense you can't adjust your course or they'll hear the engine in attack you just have to hope you've aimed your floating in the right direction and cross your fingers [Music] [Music] this is a bit more of that cosmic horror i talked about earlier it does so much with so little it's the definition of less is more with video game scares the seeds have a bright glow we can use to find our way the catch is the angler fish also have a large attracting light much like their real life counterpart and with the dense fog it's hard to know if you're heading towards your death or a seed to progress it's pretty disturbing to fire your scout at a light source only discover this giant horrific beast spelled spars camp is one of the only other important locations in the bramble this is the location we see when we first fired our scout through the seed on timber hearth feldspar is an interesting character he's a larger than life explorer and definitely has a grand sense of self-worth he will be missed finally and with the fade to the galaxy resting on our shoulders we reach the vessel unfortunately to get there we have to head through the nest note which is found in the red glowing seed the red glow is perfect for warning because this is the most dangerous node in the bramble and possibly the most dangerous area in the entire game it's called the nest node because it's where the anglerfish eggs are laid eggs that literally glow bright red were these fish not creepy enough it's an impressive ship and despite being ensnared in the bramble for all these years it's in pretty good wack first order of business replacing the broken warp core task two getting this [ __ ] moving the device at the front deck is where the coordinates have to be inserted the ones we discovered at the core of giants deep these three shapes have to be drawn with the ball doing this will activate the jump to the eye of the universe obviously the coordinates being a shape system is pretty weird it's a primitive design for an advanced alien race it's like an raf pilot having to fly a fighter jet by using one of those etch-a-sketch kids toys you know but hey it's the only plausible way to allow our species who have no idea how their technology works to actually pilot an ancient spacecraft so i'll suspend belief who cares we have an eye to see the eye center of the universe and the only entity to exist before time itself two hundred thousand years of planning from a long dead civilization and an unknown amount of time from a lone wanderer have led to this moment the time loop doesn't matter here anymore we're so far removed from the galaxy that the supernova event has no effect on us in fact if you reach the eye around the same time the loop ends you can look to the stars and actually see your star system dying millions of light years away there was always a fear that the surface would be underwhelming in comparison to all the hype build up but the area really delivers lightning strikes constantly hit the ground and objects are brought in and out of sight from all around the galaxy there's a sense of momentum and build up as you progress forward towards the bizarre storm pulling away from the eye arriving at this bizarre structure and much like the quantum moon we hedge our bets and decide the best course of action is to jump into the storm in the sky how are we not dead yet we're crazy [ __ ] [Music] whoa that's some trippy [ __ ] again i don't know i keep saying this but the visuals this game creates are second to none the r direction and style somehow managed to provide better experiences than some of the biggest budget aaa games out there this quantum version of the museum is used to the same effect as the long wall of dialogue in the ash twin project the plaques are used to conclude any plot points a player may have missed or might be confused at by this point once happy we know what's going on we take a ramp to the observatory roof where we get one more amazing visual [Music] now we're dropped into a forest after playing funny buggers with the campfire we see our old buddy esker from the attle rock or at least a quantum version of him this is the last puzzle of the game using our scanner we can find the signals from multiple instruments the same ones all the different adventurers are using when we find them in the galaxy tracking grabbing each instrument brings their owner to the campsite but getting them isn't a cake walk they all have their own puzzle to solve some are easy like opening up a building but a few of them were actually challenging like making these skeletons stack by looking at a star then back at them that that had me stumped for a little while pun intended but one by one all our friends are recreated around this campfire each one ready to play their own instrument it's one of those sad but cute full circle moments the few people we meet along the way are all here and we know something big is about to happen but what [Music] so [Music] so [Music] uh [Music] [Music] um [Music] [Music] so what the hell does all that mean what did we just witness well it appears that time is up for the whole galaxy by viewing this quantum object and closing every reality we've created a big bang the same one that formed our universe billions of years ago in the final scene we see new life forming with new planets beginning to form and in the last instance we see a new primitive life form gathered around a fire pit staring into space it's a circle of life and death [Music] the eye appears to have some amount of sentience when the universe comes to the end of its natural cycle it begins sending out a signal one that will attract any sentient life form once the species manages to find its way to the eye it uses its quantum properties to present every possible outcome for a new universe to the conscious observer these millions of quantum possibilities once observed are collapsed together into one reality causing a big bang bringing life back into a dying universe other than the eye physically resembling a humanized shape it could easily be argued that the eye is also an analogy for an object that requires a sentient life form to view to fulfill its purpose [Music] outer wilds tells a tragic tale of cosmic coincidence and ultimately how insignificant we are among the grand schemes of the universe but it's more than that it's a game about hope the beauty of discovery and the importance of enjoying what limited time we have but these are just the main endings of course a game that's lovingly made will have a few extra endings did you expect anything less example a space and time a bit of a bummer right or persistent and rule based why not i don't know break it you get this ending in the high energy lab the area where we see the duplication experiment if you remove the core before the first probe disappears there will be two of the same object in the world space and time is not a fan of this boom [Music] the kazoo version of the theme song really just makes this video it's just a tear trolling the self ending to get this you need to jump into a black hole at the exact moment the loop ends now you're basically cursed because if this loop ends in any way other than you jumping into the advanced warp core you break space and time because the second version of you can't exist in any other way a loop within a loop actual hell there's some pretty funny dialogue you can have with yourself it's well worth checking out there's a lot of screaming very funny very good finally you can actually drive far away enough from the supernova to avoid the blast you need to drive to the outer rim of space after deactivating the ashen twin project to get this ending yeah that's a nice way to go just floating through space starving to death in an empty galaxy you'd love to see it it's just nice when developers reward goofing around and even better that these endings actually play into the science and law of the universe attention to detail [Music] hi hello welcome to the end of the video if you made it this far firstly thank you i know it's a commitment of your time and i really do appreciate it because the game's so meaningful to me i wanted to make the conclusion a bit more personal you know stop by check in see how you're getting on in these troubling times the outer wilds is one of the best games i've played in a really long time and in a way i feel sorry for them because they just so happen to release basically the same time as a game called the outer world basically they stole the entire limelight outer wilds to this day still hasn't got the recognition i believe it deserves the people that have played it love it it has a hardcore fan base the first time i saw the outer wilds was when i was looking for the outer worlds and i saw the outer world pop up and i was like what is this this isn't what i'm looking for and i moved on and it wasn't till about two years later that i played it for the first time and i just hope that this video has done the game the justice it deserves it was like a video game revelation for me i felt like games had become so stale predictable and boring that when i played that game it was like i needed it you know i needed a game that reassured me that there are still people making them because they want to make amazing experiences not because they want to make quick money so everyone make sure they're showing mobius studios some love and if we ever see a sequel i'll do my bit to shill it as much as possible and hopefully because of this video more people will give it a chance again if you've made it this far i really do appreciate that it's crazy to me that anyone would spend that long watching the video um and if you have thank you you're beautiful just to update people who want to know what's going on with the channel i know i'm uploading less frequently but i think that this is going to kind of be what i do from now on to be honest i had lost passion for making videos because i was trying so hard to make what i thought people wanted to see and i was just putting out stuff that my heart wasn't in so now i'm going to only make videos i'm passionate about i'm going to do quality over quantity and i hope everyone can appreciate that the videos are going to be better they're going to be more detailed and hopefully overall just more watchable so i hope people respect that change i think you'll like the content that i've got planned i'm going to continue to mix up the stuff there's going to be some gaming stuff my next video is going to be a movie review we haven't done that on the channel yet it's going to be a good one some of the weirdest movies you've ever seen my next gaming video is going to be one on the manhunt franchise i know a lot of people were looking forward to that i hope that makes sense i hope you're there for the journey thank you if you are like and subscribe if you're new and want to see more from me and i'll see you in my next video thank you very much for watching bye [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Applause] [Music] my [Music] so [Music] you

Channel: TotallyPointlessTV

Views: 241,647

Keywords: Outer wilds, outerwilds, outer wilds explained, TotallyPointlessTV, outer wilds story, the best indie game, space, exploring space, the best space game, outer wilds, postal, outer wilds beautiful, outer wilds the movie, angler fish, Outer Wilds, the suffering, Outer Wilds Is The Most Beautiful Game You'll Ever Play, A Horrific (And Beautiful) Game About Existentialism, manhunt, Existentialism in video games, Existentialism

Id: Ga-oMRAcWCY

Length: 70min 7sec (4207 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 16 2022