Outer Wilds: Death, Inevitability, and Ray Bradbury

Where are you?
I don’t know. How can I? Which way is up? I’m falling. Good God, I’m falling.

Kaleidoscope, Ray Bradbury 1942

Visual Media used: Outer Wilds

Music used: Première Prise (Vincent Leibovitz), Mental Caverns without Sunshine (The Caretaker), Various tracks from Outer Wilds OST (Andrew Prahlow)

[severalcakes]

"Come, sit with me and watch the stars die."

[Ichigo]

After watching the first 5 minutes of this video, I stopped it and went and got myself a copy of Outer Wilds. I just finished it and came back here to rewatch this video. What a ride.

[thoventhegamer]

Spoilers for the game...


The moment that really got me in my playthrough was when I had explored nearly the whole system, discovered the secrets of this ancient civilization and was nearly ready to make my journey to the eye of the universe when I decided to visit the Interloper. The wandering comet that had seemed unrelated to the entire mystery unfolding before me. I died many times before reaching its core. And I finally reached the center. I discovered a recording of a deadly material contained in the comet I was currently floating in amongst the corpses of dead nomai surrounding me. As I listened a slow realization overcame me. These nomai, this ancient civilization capable of near time travel, was not destroyed by their own technology or their own ambition, but simply a wandering comet. Their downfall was random chance, a volatile comet hurtling through space that happened to hit the nomai at the height of their achievements. And just as it was random chance that they were destroyed, it is random chance that the sun's death happened to coincide with your voyage, triggering the nomai's failed technology and allowing you to complete their journey thousands upon thousands of years later.

[chasejimenez]

"i look at the supernova, like i have many times before, and begin to run."

[Timetravelghost]

"Inside is a quiet love note to someone I'll never meet" That got me, there's something in that which is so haunting yet peaceful and beautifully tranquil it gives off an emotion I can't describe. Like any relic from a time gone by in real life, past civilizations, ruins, even cave paintings, but that quote specifically is just so human and heart warming but equally sad.

[adhars]

I did not want this video to end. Outer Wilds was not just a game, it was an experience of a lifetime. I doubt anything like this is can ever come into existence again. I don't want it to. I'll remember this game fondly all my life and the childlike joy and fear I had playing it. If this game was $60, I'd still buy it; again and again for every death I had. I never knew something as dark as death could make this game shine as bright as it does. There's something, or everything, in this game that changed my perspective on life, and on death. And that's just one aspect of it. The mysteries, details, control (or lack thereof) all come together to make a masterpiece the faults of which don't seem like bugs or glitches but the imperfections just this life has. I want to forget it and start all over again.

[IronianKnight]

This game feels like the premise concept of Majora's Mask elevated to a new, higher level. It's incredible.

[tommystorm]

You know, I really like 6:32, it's super poetic.
But it's *so* annoying, knowing that right below you there is a switch to turn the teleporter around, making it work.

[ANewShadeOfBlue]

Sir, you have a flair for the melancholy.
Can't wait to see more.

[generalrubbish]

Holy shit. You perfectly encapsulated how I felt playing Outer Wilds myself.

Fortunately(?) for me, I discovered the way to enter the Ash Twin Project way after I'd already discovered the Nomai Mothership and the location of The Eye of the Universe, and thus, when I found that warp core at the center, I immediately knew what to do with it. Still, it was a mad, heart-pounding race against time as I tried to navigate the eldritch labyrinth of the Dark Bramble, knowing that for the first time in my journey, I'm truly mortal. What would happen if I died now? Would the game delete my save, wipe all my progress? I mean, technically, you never really have any progress to lose since you only have 22 minutes every time before you're sent back to the beginning, but the thought still scared me.

Trying to sneak past those horrible anglerfish was the most terrifying thing I've ever done, becase this time, I was truly afraid of death. This time, I had no idea what would happen after. And I'm not ashamed to admit this - the first two or three tries, I accidentally alerted the anglerfish by trying to rush through too fast, and I just straight-up Alt+F4'd out of the game before they could get to me, that's how terrified I was of dying. In a VIDEOGAME. Where dying is usually just a mild inconvenience at best or a frustrating failure at worst, but never an existential nightmare. I don't think any other game has ever made me fear death so intensely, or so organically, and I think that's because it made me fear death for the same reason we fear death in real life - because we don't know what happens after, but we know there's no going back. And you'll never convince me that wasn't intentional.

Outer Wilds really does revolve a lot around death, doesn't it? And yet, it's also so very beatiful and peaceful. I think that might just be the whole point of the game. Death is inevitable no matter what we do, both in Outer Wilds and in real life, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy the beauty of everything else the world has to offer, and then face death calmly and contentedly. And you do just that at the end of the game, which also holds an important lesson - yes, the universe ends and everyone you ever knew dies, but a new universe comes right after, full of life just like yours was, only different. That's also, I think, a profound allegory for real life - you'll die one day, and that will be the end of everything for you, but the world will carry on, and countless other people will be born, live, and die, only to be replaced by other people still.

Outer Wilds was the only game to make me fear death, but it also teaches you how to accept it in the end, and that's the most beautiful thing about it I think.

[Leadhead]

God I'd love to analyse this game, but I know I couldn't top this video

[MrMEOLA]

You captured this masterpiece perfectly.

[dango]

Best part is: even the 'good' ending of outer wilds isn't a happy one. Its a bittersweet one.

[glub]

To quote the best description of Outer Wilds that I've ever seen:

"We start the game wanting to know everything. We finish the game wanting to forget everything and start again."

- Some random Steam review

[lorekeeper]

“And I start to run” why does this mess me up so much?

[groovie]

I tried to escape that cursed world once. I jumped in my ship, hit the pedal and start to move towards the outer space. I flew like 15 minutes, faster and faster! I thought I cheated the system. It was horrifying when I saw that glitchy, stretched blue texture slowly crawling at me, despite the fact I gained insane amount of velocity and the game let me do that. It was horrifying, brutal.

[MoondustManwise]

Beautiful and horrifying all at once, thank you for a gorgeous existential crisis

[MapMan]

“I will not say do not weep, for not all tears are an evil.”

[wiiiilsoooon]

I just watched a video about a game I've never even heard of and was captivated the whole time. You, sir, are one of the best content creators on YouTube. Phenomenal.

[KaX]

Fiction, fanfiction or otherwise, i have never read a story with a timeloop where the main character breaks the loop accidentally, and contemplates their own sudden and inevitable mortality. This was a beautiful video, and your own narrative was amazing.