2019 has been a year of many experiments and surprises for Polygon, but one game is a clear standout for the peeps at the American video game website.
'The game excels because it's full of surprises'
In a review posted earlier this year, Polygon writer Colin Campbell regarded Outer Wilds as "one of the best releases of 2019," even adding that the space exploration puzzle adventure is a potential Game of the Year (GOTY) awardee.
"Partly, it's a game of skill which challenges players to master rudimentary space flight and low-gravity perambulation," he said in the review.
"It's also a clever narrative puzzle that plays with the laws of gravity and astrophysics," the reporter added.
Outer Wilds is not your typical player-centric game. Its narrative centers on humanlike aliens called Hearthians that seek to explore the solar system to solve the riddle of why the Nomai race died out. The challenge is they are stuck in a time loop: the universe ends and then resets every 22 minutes.
In the remaining 22 minutes of the solar system, the players are free to explore other planets, each of which has deadly dynamics. Among these death-trap planets are a set of sand-transferring twins, a gas giant with massive storms, and a dying planet bombarded with fireballs.
For Campbell, while the game leaves little linear guidance, it excels because it is full of surprises.
"No matter how I play, its narrative unfolds as a seemingly natural consequence of my own curiosity."
'One of the most ambitious tales of discovery'
Fast forward to December, Outer Wilds is officially crowned as the website's #1 GOTY. In a post published on Friday (Dec. 13), writer Chelsea Stark attempted to break down the reasons for the award.
"Games have long fixated on humanity's quest to play colonist, conqueror, or anthropologist, learning about and usually seeking to control everything beyond our own horizons," said Stark.
"But Outer Wilds delivers one of the most ambitious tales of discovery I've ever seen in gaming, without a focus on violence or domination," she added.
Stark also mentioned the many lessons one could learn from the game. In her article, she mentioned learning simple lessons, like not leaving the ship without a spacesuit, and bigger ones, like learning quantum physics to unlock mysteries of the solar system.
The Polygon reporter also emphasized the impact of the loop on the entire game. "Each planet contains enough secrets to fill several visits, but the time loop's limited window short-circuits any sense of aimlessness," she noted.
"If you don't know what you want to get done, you risk running out of time to get anything done. And that pressure builds when you realize that nothing in the solar system stays the same, even for just 22 minutes."
In a spoiler-free report, she hinted that the ending is a "haunting masterpiece" that made her cry twice. She added that the finale left a mark on her soul that would last longer than any GOTY discussions, but discouraged gamers from checking out the ending, which can be found on YouTube.
"Don't do yourself the disservice of seeing the ending before playing the game itself. The journey is more than the destination, and it gives the story's resolution so much more weight."
About Polygon's Game of the Year
Game of the Year is Polygon's annual awards program for their top 50 best games on PS4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PC, and mobile. On their website, the newsgroup advised their audience not to "worry too much about the ranking," adding that the program is merely a "fun and light" exercise. Polygon's top 10 games of the year are:
1. Outer Wilds
2. Control
3. Devotion
4. Baba Is You
5. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
6. Luigi's Mansion 3
7. The Outer Worlds
8. Death Stranding
9. Resident Evil 2
10. A Short Hike
Check out their 2019 GOTY guide here.
