Outer Wilds: An Endearing Tragedy

The first time I launched my ship in Outer Wilds was a unique experience.I lifted off from my backwater in my tiny spaceship patched together with wood and glass, quickly leaving the atmosphere and emerging into the vast sea of black which is outer space. A pleasant melody fills my ears as I peer towards each distant rock and select my destination. I spotted a large one with a green hue which appeared to be covered in dense clouds and decided to make this planet my first destination. The thrusters on my patchwork vessel began a muffled roar with the ethereal strings backing my adventure, as I bounded toward the planet. Within no time, I had traversed thousands of kilometers to end up face-to-face with this massive unknown. I blasted forward, breaking into the stratosphere, eager to discover what was ahead of me…

The music stopped the moment I broke into the planet. The vast reaches of space were replaced by the wild nature of which the planet was subjected to. Massive tornadoes crawled across the surface of the water, and the bleakness of the sky was like whiplash compared to the wondrous image I had just been present to. And the worst part? I was barreling toward the face of a mountain with no way to stop my trajectory. Upon impact, I died.

Outer Wilds is not a game for everyone. In fact, I’d be hard-pressed to recommend this game to anyone who plays video games casually. It is a game which makes strides to be it’s own entity, rejecting many of the attributes typically seen in modern gaming. Death in Outer Wilds is eminent, whether that be launching yourself into the side of a mountain, being swallowed by a black hole and thrown to the edge of the universe, being crushed by rising sand, or simply managing to live for 22 minutes, in which you will be destroyed by a supernova resetting the universe. You will die no matter how you decide to go about playing this video game. But death isn’t the end, merely an obstacle. After a few failures, your avatar, the nameless alien of the Hearthian race, begins to understand their existence is caught in the middle of a time loop. But given the fact you have this knowledge, you are able to discover significantly more information about the universe, science, and the nature of a long dead race of highly advanced beings known as the Nomai.

But because of how intimately the concept of death ties into the fibers of Outer Wilds, we are able to process the concept in so many different ways. My first death detailed above came out of nowhere. It was quick and sudden and… honestly kind of funny. To have my anticipation so thoroughly crushed in such a ridiculous manner only to wake up in the same location I began was, well, anticlimactic in a fun way. It’s not entirely different from the stories people will post online which regale us with the most obscure ways people have lost their lives. But death isn’t meant to make us smile. In any other situation, death is finality. The ultimate end. And Outer Wilds has no qualms delving into that territory.

While you initially don’t really understand what the overarching point of the game is, it soon becomes evident that everything you’re discovering links to figuring out why you’re stuck within the time loop, and how to get out of it. All of this inevitably returns back to the Nomai, who have left bits and pieces of information regarding the nature of the universe, the machinations of their scientific discoveries, and the personal relationships they shared among each other. The core of Outer Wilds’ story is about piecing together the mystery of the Nomai. But as you learn more and more about them, becoming more intimately familiar with their culture, it begins to shroud itself in a tinge of melancholy. The Nomai are gone. An entire species with sublime intelligence and a passion for discovery was wiped out before your story began. As you learn more and more about them, it becomes increasingly clear that they will never know you. There’s this somber atmosphere any time you find yourself in the ruins of one of their stations or settlements. They are filled with the aspirations of a group which can never further the work they’ve done. This is the other side of death in Outer Wilds. The void it creates within it’s wake.

But death can also be an expected reality which we must simply come to terms with. Within nearly every planet, you can find one other person from your planet who had began exploring space before you had. Finding them is as simple as whipping out an item, called the signalscope, which picks up signals of the travelers playing their instruments. During one of my expeditions into Ember Twin, I came across a city deep within it’s caverns where the Nomai had settled. However, as I explored, I noticed sand rising to fill every crevice of the city. It became apparent that I would not survive within this city, as it would eventually swell completely with sand, crushing me against the ceiling. Once the sand had reached a height where i could no longer comfortably traverse, I realized I was nearing the end of this time loop. But instead of sitting down and waiting for my fate, I decided to use my signalscope to look for another traveler. I picked up the signal of Gabbro, plucking away at his banjo without much of a care in the world.

While I did this as a means to listen to some music before my fate, it got me thinking about my own life and true mortality. How many times have I been in Gabbro’s situation? A situation in which I am at complete piece, yet someone elsewhere in this massive world is facing their end. It’s not exactly a happy thought, nor a very productive one, but that the simple, organic act of me trying to listen to music to pass the time was able to hit me in such a way says so much of this game’s brilliance.

Outer Wilds is coated with tons of discoveries as impactful this. There’s one bit where you have to land on a frozen comet, wait for it to loop toward the sun so the surface melts, and then proceed down a series of tunnels filled with ghost matter, an invisible and deadly substance which will tear you apart if exposed for more than a couple of seconds. If you manage to find your way to the heart of this comet, you will find the tragic scene of two Nomai, whose names you’d read in prior texts, floating lifelessly in front of a core which once emitted an extreme amount of ghost matter. It is here, through environmental details and through the records the two Nomai kept on them, where you discover why the Nomai were wiped out. It wasn’t the result of civil conflict or the entry of a more powerful entity into the system, or the intervention of some divine force. It was simply a natural occurrence which couldn’t be stopped. An occurrence which we’ve only deemed a minor obstacle to traversal. What seemed to be a gameplay mechanic used to allow for more creative level design is actually the driving force behind everything you do.

But the thing is, there is still hope for the Nomai. If you go through the absurdly complicated process of discovering the rules of quantum knowledge, you can land on the surface of the Quantum Moon, a constantly moving moon which will disappear and relocate itself when not being observed. If you trek across this moon and solve the complex puzzle (which I definitely didn’t need to use a guide for) which will slot the moon into an unknown location, you will come face-to-face with a living Nomai. This moment feels so powerful, as this means there is still hope. Even after the destruction of their race, we have living proof of a Nomai whom has lived on the Quantum Moon for thousands of years... except that really isn’t the case. The Nomai, named Solanum, predicts she may not actually be entirely alive, the presence you are able to see her in being one of many realities created through the nature of the Quantum Moon. You do, in fact, come across her corpse elsewhere on the moon. It’s a sort of bittersweet feeling, knowing that you can finally communicate with this being who holds so many answers to your quest, yet also being aware of the reality of her fate.

But perhaps no moment is more impactful than the entire ending sequence. After discovering how to end the time loop, you must make your way from Ash Twin to Dark Bramble in about ten minutes. This wouldn’t be too difficult given how small the solar system is, but once you reach Dark Bramble you come face to face with monstrous angler fish capable of swallowing your ship whole.

Through reading scripts on the Ember Twin, you learn these fish are blind, so the only way to make it through is to drift without using thrusters. Really, REALLY slowly. Needless to say, this is among the most tense moments in the game, and arguably in the gaming medium as a whole. These ferocious creatures are the only other living organisms you will come across, and they’re a terrifying force. Yet even in this moment, the game presents you with a second side to the story. After making it past three of these beasts, you will come across a cache of eggs which they were guarding. They don’t attack you out of viciousness or hunger, they attack you because they are protecting their children. It’s a small moment, but it makes you see the creature in a much different light.

After you eventually make it to the Vessel, a crashed Nomai spacecraft housing the capacity to reach the Eye of the Universe, a place you’ve had spoonfed to you throughout the entire game. Once you reach this untouched area, you are dropped in the forest where you must begin finding quantum versions of the very travelers who gave you respite over the course of the journey. Through the process of finding all of them, you listen to all of them play their instruments one last time next to a campfire. Even Solanum shows up if you manage to find her! After the session, a smoky sphere forms above the campfire for you to jump into. But on the other side, you witness a massive explosion.

You can’t escape the end of the universe. Chances are, you died by supernova a multitude of time on your adventure, but whereas the time loop allowed you to start over, this is the reality of Outer Wilds. You aren’t trying to save your race from the same fate as the Nomai. You aren’t attempting to stop the universe from dying. You are bringing much-needed finality to your story. During the explosion, a triumphant piece of music plays as if this was a success. The destruction of everything. As I said earlier, you will die no matter how you go about playing this game. Even if you know exactly what to do, there is no escaping fate. Yet, it does feel as though you’ve accomplished something truly spectacular. You’ve managed to solve the deep mysteries of the universe while simultaneously visiting gorgeous locales and meeting with wonderful people. In the end, maybe the fact you were able to end on such a note is the true triumph.