I finished the main story in Outer Wilds a couple of days ago, and I've been mulling my real ambivalence and frustration about the ending.
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I finished the main story in Outer Wilds a couple of days ago, and I've been mulling my real ambivalence and frustration about the ending. It's just asking you to stomach a very different message from the cozy hope of the rest of the game.
I really loved the game overall. I think that some games treat "player agency" as an excuse not to provide useful guidance about about their contents. I think that Outer Wilds threads this needle perfectly. There are genuine trailheads and clues and interesting questions to uncover, and they're very tightly knit together so that I was never left just fumbling about. And when I did bash my head against a wall for a little while, the resolution was always that software-debugging "Oh, I'm an idiot, of course!" sensation, which is truly an incredible indicator of how good this game is.
My main frustration with the main body of the game is the physical difficulty of the piloting, jumping, and jetpack-usage needed to just get around in the world. I know that this is fundamentally diegetic. It's telling you a story about a world which does not care about you, personally. The universe is a machine which was not built for you, and it is not a safe place. Space is large and dark and scary, and every moment you tumble around in your rickety little spaceship, you're only a thin skin of wood and steel away from the infinite void. Great storytelling, frustrating gameplay. Despite being recommended this game in the strongest possible terms by numerous people whose recommendations I absolutely rely on, I bounced off it perhaps a dozen times. I only got into it after a friend went so far as to schedule a whole day with me for us to play it together, so that I could get stuck in. That's a tough learning curve.
[This paragraph describes the mechanics of the ending. If you haven't played the game, I don't know why you're reading this post. But this paragraph is the most distilled sort of spoiler.] So, the ending. The main one (which I think is canon) where you remove the advanced warp core from the Ash Twin Project's reinforced interior module, fly into the Dark Bramble, past the terrifying blind anglerfish and through their nest to reach the original Nomai Vessel, install the advanced warp core, input the coordinates for the Eye of the Universe which you acquired from the probe tracking module which tumbled out of the sky of Giant's Deep into a counter-clockwise tornado, and was thrust through the ocean current, through the electrically-charged inner layer, and into the planet's coral core, warp the Vessel to the Eye, set foot on the Eye's surface, and hurl yourself into the cortex which surrounds the Eye's singularity(?). That ending.
This was one of the most emotionally-resonant endings to any game or movie ever. I cried multiple times. At the friends reunited around a campfire at the end of the universe. At the Nomai standing on the shoulders of those who came before to reach the stars*. At the vision for a future universe full of life fundamentally different from our own, but united by the same experiences which make us people. I also absolutely hate that it does not (1) resolve the primary driving tension of the game, or (2), answer the question the game has been literally asking in the text: what is the eye of the universe.
Because of that lack of resolution, it felt very much like the end of Evangelion. Congratulations S̶h̶i̶n̶j̶i̶ hatchling! Except… what did you achieve? You broke the time loop, and now everybody and everything you have ever known is dead. But surely you have the consolation of understanding the Eye of the Universe, right? Also no. It remains utterly enigmatic, utterly inscrutable, and you only percieve it throught he dream-world unconscious visions sequences so frequently used by artists to suggest connection with something unknowable. Good work, the Eye is unknowable and you're dead. So is the universe.
Hey, you know what? Fuck that.
The hatchling did not just explore the solar system, discover the stories of the Nomai & their demise, and understand the premise of the devices they built to study the world just to give up and let a little thing like the sudden imminent death of the universe get in their way! They have unlimited time! They can learn the secrets of the Nomai. They can understand their technology rather than just their story. They can use the Ash Twin Project to send a warning back through paired black and white holes to warn the Nomai of the threat posed by the Interloper. They can study the black hole forge and build their own warp cores without breaking the loop. They can delve into the Vessel and retrieve it from the Dark Bramble, or use its technology to advance Outer Wilds Ventures and build a space home for the Hearthians. They can bring the Hearthians, the Nomai, and perhaps Timber Hearth itself through the Eye of the Universe into a new galaxy brimming with potential. There is no limit to their ability to search and discover ways to survive and thrive.
But no, the game's story says absolutely not. You started exploring space 22-odd minutes before the end of the universe. Accept it and go gently into that good night. Never mind that the rest of your experiences from the last ten or a hundred hours of playing are the exact opposite. Enjoy life, treasure every moment, and fight tooth & nail to discover the secrets of the past & of the universe. That's the lesson you've been learning up until this point.
So, no, my hatcling does not step into the Eye of the Universe and accept their "fate". They survive and bring the Hearthians and the Nomai into a new golden era of exploration and discovery, twenty-two minutes at a time. -
@tilde oh, what an interesting take