The game I have chosen to review is my favorite game of all time Outer Wilds. I have played a lot of this game already but for today, I decided to refresh my memory and play it again. As soon as you load into the game the menu fades in and as the music plays, it fills you with a sense of nostalgia even if its the first time playing the game. The entire soundtrack of this game invokes this familiar feeling and the art style fits into this as well. The game explores a very interesting concept not seen before in any other game where its a massive puzzle game spread out across an entire solar system.
It also implements a time loop idea that works extremely well and also plays into what makes this game unique. Since you start back at the beginning of the game at the end of a loop, once you figure out the puzzle of the solar system, it should only take around 20 minutes to beat it. This is because the 20-30 hours beforehand is used to piece together information to help you solve the final puzzle. Since it is a game about information, it is a game that you can only play once.
(After watching videos)
Doing some research about the game beforehand, I learned that this game is actually a college project that was picked up by a publisher to improve it for a full release. After loading up the game and looking through the menus, I noticed a cool detail where letters in the title where the letters started to drift apart after a little bit. The starting village also is incredibly well crafted teaching you all the mechanics of the game without bringing you out of the experience with pop ups telling you what to do.
Another detail that might not seem like much but is actually very integral is the Hud layout. It displays all information you need to know like oxygen levels, fuel levels, and health without taking up too much of the screen so you can stay immersed for longer. Another detail that I am surprised I never noticed was there is no loading zones or screens once you hit the play button. Usually games would have to have a loading zone in order to load the next section of the game you are trying to get to, but this one keeps it all one fluid and cohesive experience.