Outer Wilds – Echoes of the Eye

I have finally played it 5 years after it came out. Echoes of the Eye is a downloadable content (DLC) to an amazing and emotional game, Outer Wilds. I have reviewed Outer Wilds before, which you can read here. Outer Wilds is an exploration game with a great atmosphere and lots of interesting places to explore. The DLC captures that same spirit of wonder and fear the main game gives even though it only adds one new location. Time to dive back into the Hearthian Solar System for a new adventure of discovery as you piece together another part of the story.

Find it on Steam.

Why is this DLC so scary? The base game also scary. It isn’t a horror game, but it is scary. It hits fear of the unknown, as well as fear of dark places, giant things, getting crushed and a whole lot of other things. The DLC ramps things up even more in terms of fear and puzzle difficulty. In the main game, you are an explorer, but you were sort of digging deeper into the known. Here, you are going someplace new that none of your space program has even heard of. It is just you in a strange new place with no information and no way to understand anything besides your own smarts and wits.

The game does put you into the feeling of being an explorer. No one will tell you to go to the new location. You have no reason to actually go there. You have no idea what you’re doing there. Everything is scary. But you do it because you are an explorer. And finding out more about something lessens the fear you have of it. That is why you are going to this new location.

Being a game about finding out things, I won’t say too much about what you will find or what anything means. That is up to you to discover. The DLC captures much of the same feelings in the base game, just turned up more. The design of the DLC leans further into horror using several techniques designed to bring up tension and paranoia. Things are intentionally dark, and there is much hidden away. As you dig deeper, old things become less scary, but you find new things to be scared of.

The puzzles in the DLC are also harder than the base game. Without any words, you mainly need to understand things through images. And the designs of the puzzle are also more difficult. Still, when you do get that light bulb moment, it feels great. There are moments in the DLC that rely more on just gaming skills, though.

But the Outer Wilds is also a game about the story of locations and the people that inhabit them. The DLC is no different, and what a story it does tell. There is a sense of awe and wonder that pervades everything, and I have had chills run through my body. It is different from the other tales in the game but also fitting to the solar system. And while the DLC is mostly in a separate location, things do connect back to the main game in interesting ways.

Though the DLC also increases a problem I had with the base game. You only have a limited time to do something before you restart back at your home location. In the base game, you have multiple areas to go to and various places you can land. However, in the DLC, entrances are pretty specific. With only one location to explore, you will pretty much be doing the same thing at the start of each run over and over again. That is a small but tedious quibble for a great experience.

Find it on Steam.