(No spoilers in this review)

I’m honestly generally not a fan of space games. I find it’s an idea that just does not translate well to video games. If a game attempts to capture the scope of space I find it either swings and falls short, or it captures the scope but is unfun because of how empty it is. There have been a few exceptions: Mass Effect was great, although it still failed at hitting the mark of “space game” whenever it came to actually exploring planets and its success was more due to its narrative and lore. Outer Worlds is often bashed for being mediocre, but by focusing on human centric settlements and conflicts the setting managed to work. Same goes for Borderlands. Basically the only space games I’ve liked are ones that focus on the stories within the setting, not the setting itself.

But Outer Wilds was the first game that I’ve played that truly felt like a “space game” - exploring planets, exploring the unknown, and it managed to knock it out of the park. And I think the reason it worked so well was because of how scaled down it was.

The solar system is small, very small. In a minute you can witness several day/night cycles on a planet. You can walk from pole to pole. Angle your jet pack the right was and you can launch yourself into pseudo orbit and get there in 10 seconds. But it works. It goes so far in the opposite direction of how space games usually go and this allows the game to focus on depth. Every planet, even if small, is rich with stuff to discover and stuff to do. And it all feels meaningful.

Instead of focusing on size it focuses on depth, and it works wonderfully.

And not to mention just how creative the planets are. Every planet is truly memorable. One of the things about video games is that they can get away with crazier ideas than other mediums, and Outer Wilds fully takes advantage of that with their imaginative planets. Granted, at times the game felt similar to Subnautica in terms of being a non-horror game that ended up being a horror game, but the planets were still great once I got over my fears.

I feel like with such a small solar system, it should’ve felt lacking. But despite the map being objectively tiny, in essence it ended up being huge. I genuinely felt like I was exploring a solar system.

The game of course does several other things well (let’s just say it’s been a while since a game moved me like this one), but I feel like that’s been discussed a lot on this sub. I just felt like I needed to give this game its due praise. I’ve always liked the idea of a space game but for me this was the first game to truly actually capture the essence of exploring the unknown. This is something I’ve always wanted in a game and I wish there were more games like it.