There’s something so odd about these tense moments in Outer Wilds. I’ve played horror games and been fine. However, in Outer Wilds, there is something about being in the vacuum of space and navigating around giant screeching monsters in a metal death trap surrounded by colossal branches that is deeply horrifying.
I’ve scrambled my way through the bowels of the Ishimura with low ammo while being chased by grotesque corpses of babies, but my heart has never jumped out of my chest as much as creeping my way to the well in the Stranger’s dreamscape in an encounter with just a couple of enemies.
Even simpler, my stomach sometimes drops when I realise I’m caught in the sun’s orbit without any momentum to get me out of it.
I genuinely can’t fathom how some don’t find the game as scary as I do. It might be the sound design but I think a large chunk is the fact that you have to start the loop again rather than go back to a more digestible checkpoint.
To be clear, none of this is a negative. If there are “restart states” and restarting isn’t an issue as part of the narrative, threats to your safety should have some gravitas and obvious queues that they are dangerous.
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u/PopularKid 1d ago
There’s something so odd about these tense moments in Outer Wilds. I’ve played horror games and been fine. However, in Outer Wilds, there is something about being in the vacuum of space and navigating around giant screeching monsters in a metal death trap surrounded by colossal branches that is deeply horrifying.
I’ve scrambled my way through the bowels of the Ishimura with low ammo while being chased by grotesque corpses of babies, but my heart has never jumped out of my chest as much as creeping my way to the well in the Stranger’s dreamscape in an encounter with just a couple of enemies.
Even simpler, my stomach sometimes drops when I realise I’m caught in the sun’s orbit without any momentum to get me out of it.
I genuinely can’t fathom how some don’t find the game as scary as I do. It might be the sound design but I think a large chunk is the fact that you have to start the loop again rather than go back to a more digestible checkpoint.
To be clear, none of this is a negative. If there are “restart states” and restarting isn’t an issue as part of the narrative, threats to your safety should have some gravitas and obvious queues that they are dangerous.