Zippy BotSteam Deal: Save 50% off Outer Wilds, lowest record price
kryptonianCodeMonkeyI highly highly highly recommend two things to you if you haven’t played this game. 1) Play it. 2) Play it as absolutely blind as humanely possible.
One of my all-time favorite gaming experiences, and all the more precious because you can never have the experience again without suffering severe memory loss. The fun and the journey is in learning and understanding the world, the history, the science, and the mechanics that lead you to finding the ultimate ending. And oh what an ending it is (although there are a few alternates)!
Trust me, just pick it up and play without knowing anything at all about it. Don’t watch videos, don’t look up wikis, don’t read articles and don’t read forums. This game is best enjoyed without even the smallest spoiler. All of the information is in the game that you need and it’s all very very well thought out and executed. You’ll explore and find secrets that lead to more secrets. You’ll sometimes find yourself struggling to solve a problem, to put some pieces together, and then something will click into place and you’ll suddenly understand so much. It’s a great feeling. That’s what this game is about.
If you do need to get help, only look in fan forums or subreddits. People there are fans and understand the value of discovery in this game, so they will only give you some hints to point you in the right direction rather than outright answers, as it should be.
I really like the concept of this game, but in trying to keep up the mystery by not looking up walkthroughs etc I ended up abandoning it. I got maybe 20% of the map filled then not being able to find anything else just made me feel dumb as hell, kinda just gave up on it.
I have the same problem. There’s just a time when I don’t have any idea how to progress. Also its a bit over-hyped for my taste.
I saw a research thing from the creators once that said the thing that is most likely to keep players from finishing the game is failing to find one of the major secret locations in the first like 5-ish hours. They explore and find a bunch of information and places but don’t manage to have a break through quickly enough to have that moment that gets you really hooked. In fact so many players quit with being so close to that moment. And the players that have that moment are many time more likely to end up finishing the entire game.
Unfortunately, sounds like you fell into that camp. Only thing I can recommend, if you are interested, is come back at it with fresh eyes, read through the ship log again (everything listed there is significant in some way, none of it is a waste), poke at what makes your curious, maybe ask for a specific hint of you end up needing, and get that first big “Aha!” moment. See if you’re not hooked then.
And I one of the favorite past times of fans of the game, since we cant have that same discovery experience again, is watching other people play and have those “Aha!” moments too. There are a lot of people that have played this game to completion and I have never once heard any of them be any less that in love with the game by the end. I promise the hype is deserved.
I have this problem with every video game though, I played back through doom 2016 last, dunno why, but finding secrets and getting everything in the game is SO hard for me to do, even when the way to secrets are in front of my fucking face, I just miss stuff super often in every game genre. sucks to suck I guess.
So you’ve reminded me of another player. I’ve been watching a playthrough of the game recently on Chert’s Research Notes’s YouTube channel. He knows the game forward and backward, but he’s been having his girlfriend play the game completely blind. It’s been a good watch. She’s completed the main game and is a good way into the dlc now. But even after all this time, she still struggles with the simple things sometimes. Not just figuring out the puzzles, which are obviously challenging, but little stuff too. Navigating around places she’s been a dozen times, remembering she has certain tools, reading the button prompts right in the middle of the screen, noticing literally anything on the periphery of he screen… she has stared down secrets directly in front of her and didn’t notice on a few occasions. She has her boyfriend as moral support and backup, but even then she gets quite frustrated sometimes. But when she getting frustrated, they do a good job of stopping, setting the controller down, talking out the stress, and then either taking a break or going back to playing. It’s all target wholesome, I must say.
It can be taxing feeling like you’re beating your head against a problem, or struggling with the controls or navigation. Don’t let yourself get to the point of exhaustion or anger. If you’re starting to feel anxious or frustrated, just stop, collect your thoughts, talk it out with a friend, step away if necessary, then come back at it fresh. Reread the ship logs any time you’re confused, and go explore a space that it says you haven’t fully explored. The beauty of this game is that it takes notes for you and only collects information that you actually need. Everything in the logs is important. Maybe try to crack a different puzzle if you have one you just can’t figure out. You’d be Surprised how coming back to it later can really help. And of it’s really just not clicking, you can always ask for hints.
If it’s just not your thing, that’s fine too. Hope you are able up enjoy something else instead.