Outer Wilds launches into doomed miniature space today

After watching with an astronomer's practised, patient curiosity for over six years, Mobius Digital have finally launched their grand-yet-personal space adventure, Outer Wilds. Judging by the excited warbling I hear from the RPS treehouse and beyond, it's rather special. A grand but short space adventure (extended by time-loops), set in and around a series of tiny but detailed worlds full of strange and likeable people and puzzles to solve. Below, RPS video lad Matthew Castle shares his thoughts on the game. Plus, thanks to Epic's big sale, the game is half price until June 13th.

Brendan reviewed Outer Wilds just yesterday, and crowned it with our coveted Bestest Best sticker. A high accolade, as we're all getting grumpy and old. As Brandan says, "It’s Groundhog Day in an astronaut’s suit" although that sells the game a bit short. It's also Myst, a bit, and Lunar Lander at times. The titular Outer Wilds are what your species - slightly skittish but curious forest-dwellers - call the great expanse of space above. Playing as a blue, four-eyed test pilot, you launch just moments before your solar system explodes, which is an unfortunate first day in space.

Thankfully, there's a time loop, but only you know it. So, with the clock ticking, and you armed with the foreknowledge of your launch codes, you get to skip the tutorial and launch straight into space, and start piecing together how to avoid The Great Explodening. On the plus side, this means that you can do the kind of space experiments that have a 95% chance of you dying horribly without fear, and Brendan says you'll be doing that a lot. There's some trial and error involved in saving all life as you know it, but the game seems to have a sense of humour about it all.

Outer Wilds is out now and currently an Epic Games Store exclusive. It's extra cheap thanks to Epic's big sale. While normally £20/$25/€21, it's £10/$15/€11 until June 13th. It's published by Annapurna Interactive. While you're there, don't forget to snag City Of Brass free, a rather nice first-person swashbuckling roguelike by ex-Bioshock devs. It's the giveaway of the week.