4/5 ★ – nate_mckeever's review of Outer Wilds.

I like this game. But I want to like it way more than I actually do. The hard part is that it’s kinda hard to talk about the game without getting spoiler-y. But I have a few thoughts I think I can share. It’s a great game. Masterful design and execution. It’s brilliant, but frankly it also kinda gets in its own way imo. Like the traversal, they stick to a fairly technical movement system. You’re exploring a lot of Zero-G environments so it does make sense. But I don’t know that it’s necessary. To be fair, you do get used to it fairly quickly. But it’s a little clumsy and was one of the more frustrating aspects of my play through. There’s also a ton of systems layered on each other and the game doesn’t always do a great job of letting you know that certain tools are available. Which is frustrating, especially because there’s ton of things to stay on top of. Sooooo… I’ve gotta be honest, the story/mystery is pretty interesting but I’m not sure the ending is a great payoff. In some ways, it’s kinda the weakest part. The physics and the exploration are really special. The tl;dr- strong should-play energy. But it’s definitely not a game for everyone. I