![]() I wish this trusty little spaceship was around for the end as well. There’s only one true ending to this game. They’re more often that not humorous and not meant to be taken seriously. Any endings in which you manage to avoid this in some way, like flying far away from the Solar System when the loops end, give you a single screen of text for your troubles. The meaningful and emotionally satisfying ending comes from choosing to warp to the Eye of the Universe, and triggering the destruction of the old Universe and the creation of a new one. It starts with the gut punch of a revelation at the Sun Station, and any information you uncover from that point will make it clear that there is nothing you can do to stop any of this from happening. All things must come to an end eventually. This message of companionship and warmth has the weight and substance that it does because of the game’s unflinching, unwavering insistence that the end of the Universe must happen. Outer Wilds would convey a very different message.īut by surrounding you with the warmth and coziness of home at the end of the Universe, by making it known to you that you’re not alone, the ending of Outer Wilds perfectly embodies the tagline of Night In The Woods, another truly great indie game - “At the end of everything, hold onto anything”. Imagine if none of this was present in the end of the game, and if the player character went through all of it alone, in the dark and in silence. The atmosphere is exactly as cozy as when you were first introduced to Timber Hearth in the game’s opening, with the homey wood-based aesthetic, warm characters and gentle, wholesome, slightly melancholic background music. The game’s final moments have you sitting with your fellow travelers around a fireplace, playing their instruments together, eating toasted marshmallows, and comprehending the end of all things. The game quite literally keeps you company during the end times. And then it holds your hand, tells you to look it right in the Eye and walks you through it all. It introduces you to the crushing, oppressive, sinking realization that everything is really going to end, everything you’ve seen, everyone you’ve spoken to, all that you’ve discovered and learned, everything it’s all going to end. This is the point at which Outer Wilds reveals what it was really about all along. Meaning that there is no way to stop the solar system from being wiped out. Meaning that the Ash Twin Project which became active after 281,042 years must have been triggered by the Sun going supernova for real. So you finally make it to the Sun Station, and find out that the attempt to induce the Sun into going supernova was a failure, dooming the Ash Twin Project. With everything that you know about the Ash Twin Project by now, the difficulty in reaching the Sun Station and even the music, it all feels undeniably climactic. You’re really not likely to be reaching the Sun Station by accident. ![]() There are several other critical end-game locations that a player might feasibly stumble onto by mistake, but reaching the Sun Station involves following a number of steps correctly under a tight time constraint that can only be done if you have most of the pieces of the puzzle. The Sun Station is probably the toughest location to reach in the game. ![]() So, obviously the game ends with you going to the Sun Station and shutting it all down, right? The time loop, the Sun going supernova, the reverse-playback of that loop’s activities at the end of the loop, it’s all because of this ‘Ash Twin Project’ created by the Nomai and being powered by triggering the death of the Sun. Such is their drive to see the project through that they consider harnessing the power of the Sun in supernova form, even if it means destroying the Solar System. One of these is a project that’s large-scale even by their standards and that they have no adequate power source for. Through the course of the game, you uncover more and more about the motives of the Nomai, a long-gone precursor race who lived in the solar system, and the true extent of their far-reaching projects. One of the first things you realize in Outer Wilds is that after 22 minutes, the Sun explodes in a supernova, wiping out the entire solar system, killing your character and restarting the loop from when you wake up for the first time in the game. It’s yet another of the game’s mysteries, another piece of the puzzle to keep in mind as you continue exploring. At some point early on, you’re likely to notice a little structure orbiting the Sun, and it’s also equally likely you don’t have the mechanical skill to land your ship on it, because the Sun’s gravitational pull is just too strong. Reaching the Sun Station is a huge emotional turning point in the game.
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