When 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Outer Wilds launched last year, it first appeared to be another action-adventure game with some space exploration elements, similar to what we have seen in the past decade. Developed by Mobius Digital and published by Annapurna Interactive, Outer Wilds quickly became a favorite game of mine, and it took a while to🅺 understand exactly why this was the case. Ultimately, the magic of the game boils down to the trust placed in the player to explore a vast puzzle hidden in a dying universe, without any hand holding whatsoever.
How Outer Wilds Breaks From Modern Game Conventions
In a manner of speaking, there is a tutorial at the start of the story, but it is unlike most other games. When a player first begins, they must spend some time walking around the village and speaking to the people who live there. This is necessary because it yields the information needed to reach the spaceship and begin traversing between planets, and along the way there is exposition provided by the NPC characters about the journey your character is about to go 🦩on. Players are shown briefly how movement works in the ship in the absence of gravity, but any kind of instruction abruptly ends there.
As soon as you are in the ship and blasting off for the first time, you are complet🙈ely alone, and when the sun in the center of the universe goes supernova every twenty-two minutes after playing, no one is there to explain that you are now in an unending loop between life and de🌃ath.
With every subsequent reincarnation and blast off, the clock speeds along as you land on a planet and begin to explore. Every bit of information gleamed from a ruin is saved in the ship’s computer, and in this way, you begin to unravel the massive mystery that is Outer Wilds. When finally one solves the mysteries of the game, the conclusion provides the most satisfying experience seen in gaming in yearꦯs.
Exploration Is Important, And Yet, Rare In Modern Games
Most games today nudgeꦆ or directly force players along a predetermined path. At times this is necessary to unfold the narrative structure in a game to give players meaning in their actions, but this is all based upon the constraints built by the developer, and it is not always appreciated. The most immersion breaking part of many games comes when one veers away from where they are supposed to go next, and an invisible wall prevents you from moving down a hall, with blaring letters on screen that you are not supposed to go this way, at least, not yet.
Most AAA games today are produced in a way to ensure that a franchise can continue to release sequel after sequel for as long as is profitable. Such development cycles are encouraged to lead players along a specific narrative path, but also do not provide any significant conclusion to the story. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Gears of War and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:World of Warcraft are two examples from different genres that exist within this pattern of development oཧn autopilot, where the story is present, but largely irrelevant and spoon-fed to its pl💧ayers.
Other games try to offer a mix of both open-world exploration and a single, main quest for the protagonist to embark on, as seen in Fallout 3, or various releases in the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Far Cry series. These are certainly better, though too often everything apart from the main quest can be considered irrelevant in the grand sc🐈heme of things.
Outer Wilds makes its notable mark by embracing the opposite of these gaꦇmes and focusing completely on exploration and discovery, and it is reminiscent of some of the best games ever made.
Zork, Myst, And Beyond
It is not immediately apparent, but playing Outer Wilds is much like playing Zork, Myst, or any of the other classic action-puzzle titles that dropped unsuspecting players into unknown worlds with nothing to help them, save for thei🅘r wits and natural curiosity. Defeating these early games took patience and a desire to explore, because nothing was given freely, and everཧything could be a clue, a trap, or clever misdirection meant to waste your time.
These games became instant classics and have inspirited countless others since Zork first appeared in the 1970s, and Outer Wilds embodies ⭕the same spirit of trusting its player to explore, discover, and piece together a puzzle that is satisfying and far beyond the scope of what is teased in the trailer.
Other Games That Have A Similar Feel
Outer Wilds is not unique in its theme, as there are other titles that offer players the opportunity to go out and explore as they see fit, but it is one of the best titles we have seen in years. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:No Man’s Sky initially gained massive popularity in the months before its release, only to fall flat for several reasons, one of which was its unsatisfying use of the exploration. The game has since become far better after further development 🔯and patching, and it too offers players a sense of intrigue as they go out and wander in the unknown.
Others have also done well in similar theme, with The Long Journey Home, Astronomer, and Obduction. These are well-made titles that have embraced the desire to present a puzzle to their pla🗹yers, and at the same time, trust them to figure out how best to go about uncove𓄧ring its secrets.
What Lies Ahead
AAA games, particularly those in or with the potential to become long-running franchises, will probably never embrace the true exploration and discovery themes seen in games like Outer Wilds, and that is perfectly fine. Not every player wants that type of experience, and the formulaic, step-by-predicable-step progression they offer are ඣclearly profitable.
Like the games mentioned above, it will likely fall to Indie developers to keep the themes of exploration and discovery alive in future games. Hopefully these types of titles continue to release, because in the sea of game sequels and massive marketing campaigns, there really is nothing better than the feeling one gets from discovering another pieඣce of the larger puzzle created by a passionate developer.