At first I was hesitant to rate this game highly, because controls and movement are not very good and can very often be very frustrating. In addition, some of the puzzles (two, to be precise) are very abstruse (reminiscent of Myst) and i had to look up one of them because even now, i still don't understand how you're supposed to get and make this mental connection in the game. I really wonder how many people managed to find the solution without using guides or walkthroughs from the internet. But enough of that. Since everyone screams "Best game ever" and while I also think that this is the case, as i will elaborate further down below, i still think it is fair for potential buyers to warn them. It's nothing that would make this game unplayable, but it has, at least, to be addressed.

Now on to the good parts. Of which there are plenty.
Firstly, i want to say that it's a miracle how this game manages to avoid all the pitfalls and traps that so many AAA productions fall into. While so many video games want to be like big-budget hollywood films, this game embraces its interactive component and manages masterfully to lay out all its system in a way that only work in a interactive medium. Examples of other games that are not shy or afraid of being a video game would be "999" or "Nier:Automata", even if the last one has major caveats in its presentation.

Playing this game really drove my attention on how much I loathe all those huge big budget AAA productions nowadays. Always the same tropes, the same old done-over-and-over-again stories and shallow, stereotypical, clichéd characters. The same gameplay systems that are made in a way so that even the dumbest consumer blinded by capitalistic advertisting and colorful E3 panels can waste his lifetime on. Outer Wilds is nothing of that. It doesn't have lootboxes or any kind of loot at all. You can play it exactly once (and i mean "exactly once"). It has puzzles that are ranging for medium difficulty to stuff that is so far out there that you could spend days thinking about it. It has no multiplayer. It has no leveling or grinding or time-wasting game design. It's not a Discord-Twitch-Whatever game. Streams of this game are ruining the game and even if you already know all the stuff, they're boring. It is cheap. Only 20 bucks for a masterpiece like this while full-on garbage like Cyberpunk 2077 is 60 bucks is a tragedy.

And I am 100% serious here when i say that if you've got any interest or personal investment in video games as a medium of art and do not only want to blindly consume the next huge thing just to waste time and forget life around you, but instead want to see how this game manages to deliver an experience only an interactive medium could deliver and how it tells a story that only a game could tell, then read no further. In general, you shouldn't read anything about Outer Wilds. Going in blind is the best thing you can do.

So, if it wasn't obvious enough by now, I rate "Outer Wilds " a full 10/10.

Made by a team of students, not by some billion-dollar company. Money can destroy creativity and artistry, and even if this game doesn't always work 100% (as described above), i can wholeheartedly say that you can feel every ounce of heartblood the developers put into it. Not because they wanted to be the next big thing in the video game industry. Not because they wanted to do stuff everyone else already does to rake in cash. This game exists in its current shape because people wanted to create art and make you feel something. This game has stories to tell.
I am sad that there will probably never be anything else that comes close to the feels, the experiences and how this game can change your outlook on life. Outer Wilds is proof that video games can be art. In fact, the final sequence in it's shining brilliance reminded me very strongly of a certain Stanley Kubrick film ;)

Seriously, go play this game if you're only slightly interested in what a interactive medium can accomplish.