Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye
•PC (Windows) •Adventure, PuzzleA new exhibit has gone up in the museum back home, built around a signal from something nobody in the space programme has managed to find.
Thoughts
After finishing Outer Wilds, which I played and wrote about recently, I was left with the feeling that I wouldn’t experience the same sense of wonder for a while. When I learnt about its expansion, Echoes of the Eye, I just had to jump right in.
Echoes of the Eye plays differently to the base game. The mystery takes place in one location (sort of), meaning the horizontal exploration that I loved about Outer Wilds was gone. It was also largely linear and gave more explicit hints, leaving less room for spontaneous discoveries. However, I found the story more engaging. The way in which it was told, through images rather than text, made it easier for me to connect with the characters. It also touches on very interesting themes such as the price of technological advancement and the pursuit of knowledge.
Before I sign off, here’s a piece of advice I wish I had come across. If you haven’t experienced Outer Wilds yet, I suggest you play until you know how to obtain the ending, then play the content added by the expansion before actually triggering the ending. In my opinion, the game is best experienced that way, with the expansion acting as an additional thread of investigation that gives you a more complete picture at the end (and perhaps, an extra tear to shed).
All in all, the DLC has a few obvious shortcomings that may put some people off, but I thought it was a beautiful and thoughtful addition to a great game.
Sneak peek
Every decision is made in darkness. Only by making a choice can we learn whether it was right or not.