Outer wilds

Outer wilds has been an unusual and refreshing take on the exploratory sandbox genre. This game is an absolute treasure trove for lovers of mystery and unravelling stories, and for me personally it tied in really well with my methods of learning. The scenery of this small yet expansive solar system was mind blowing and it displayed some of the most awe inspiring sights I’ve seen in games to date. The sheer originality of planets dancing around each other and affecting each others topography was impressive enough from space but to see a constantly changing and dynamic new world from each planets surface was even more breath taking. Knowing your time is limited only adds to the curiosity, building tension and desperation as you find more and more clues. You won’t want to leave any stones unturned for this one, but be careful, you don’t have all day.

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Platform and Languages

Outer wilds is available on PC, Xbox, Playstation and Switch. I personally wouldn’t recommend the Switch version as much purely based on the size and beauty of the areas you’ll be searching. It’ll normally set you back around $20-25.

Language can be set to a variety of choices in the main menu settings and also includes options such as text size and type rate if preferred.

Glossary

Usability

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In my usual fashion I went into Outer wilds blind and was pleasantly surprised by the early stages of the game. I spent a few hours wandering around Timberhearth and chatting to the locals trying to better understand my objectives before I got into full swing. The UI is clean yet stylistic and makes reading the lines a breeze. I wasn’t disappointed with the lack of voice acting, as I feel the whole game is quite serene and wouldn’t have fit this, but with the repeatability of each line it would have been phenomenal. I also love how the comedy and personality of each Hearthian (At home and further afield) comes through, adding variety to reading styles and levels of politeness and respect. While there aren’t too many NPCs to speak to there is plenty more to fill this gap and it makes each interaction more memorable and special.

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A funny story for you all, one that can portray me as an idiot or a trendsetter proven right. When I started playing Outer Wilds I was completely unaware that the game was set in a time loop (Don’t ask me how, I just didn’t). From my first moments I thought I’d try my usual challenges so I started speaking to the NPCs and whenever I came across a word I didn’t know I added it to my dictionary and swiftly jumped in the nearest geyser. This continued for a few days on an off, as I was being persistent and wanted to get all the way to the ship knowing as many of the words as possible, until I finally triggered the Nomai statue and went on my merry way. Soon after setting off into space I met my demise. If I remember right, that time I had shot into the see of Giant’s deep and in my excitement left the ship sans spacesuit (Moronic, I know).

Then, through the glare of a spooky mask I had yet to see so far, my life flashed before my eyes and I was transported back to the campfire. Let me remind you, I had manually reset the game by horrific, boiling geyser diving about 100 times at this point only to find that the game had this repetitive learning mechanic already instated…

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Following many deaths I did manage to make it to the Observatory, which also doubles up as an expansive Nomai Museum. This area provides a chunk of space and technological vocabulary in the form of numerous artifacts. These items seem unusual and untoward to begin with however they provide valuable insights into how to clear the game’s puzzles later on, even though these won’t come to fruition for some time. You can easily pass your time here gathering words relating to history, physics, biology and language, all of which will be strengthened by the variety of records found on your adventures to follow.

Across each planet, moon and structure circling the solar system you’ll find countless oddities and phenomenon worth noting down. Whether it be you making the notes or the Nomai and Hearthians before you, you’ll never be short of things to read. You can find scribblings of Nomai text that can be read with your nifty translator, data logs left behind by the Outer Wilds Venture’s team (Typically Reibeck’s) and all of this will be recorded in your ship’s log. The ship’s log is often a repetition of what you’ve found “in the field” but such is the way of a log. What does prove beneficial (For both your language learning and solving the mysteries of the game) is that each found extract is visibly tied to its location with additional images, deepening your knowledge and vocabulary. One additional thing I would recommend is that you set the option for time and the world around you to stop while text is being shown. This works for NPC interactions and translations and comes in incredibly handy as otherwise you would reach the end of a time loop before you’ve read a dozen entries.

Outerwilds holds its strength in the fact that the language is absolutely vital to the enjoyment of the game. All obstacles of the game are impossible (or at least unlikely) to overcome without first understanding the mechanic or route that allows you to traverse them. In fact, the gameplay itself, other than looking at nice things, is nothing without reading and understanding. Your reliance on reading also ties in to your feelings of satisfaction once you manage to untangle the next knot in the mystery. As if this wasn’t enough in itself to make this a great game for learning, the time loop feature makes repeatedly reading the same or similar aspects, especially in multiple styles, even more effective. All in all, you’ll definitely want to add this exploratory gem to your trove.

Challenges and Methods

Living a new life

Captain’s log

Previous Posts

Additional images