Best Indie Games of 2019
Second Runner-Up: The Outer Wilds
Guides Editor Chris Jecks: Outer Wilds isn’t just my favorite indie to release in 2019, but one of my favorite games of the year period. There’s no glamorous visuals. No in-depth character levelling system. No enemies for you to eviscerate in tight, responsive combat. Just you. Your spaceship. A handful of puzzle-like planets, and the vast emptiness of space.
Your task in Outer Wilds is simple. You’re the latest recruit of the Outer Wilds Ventures Space Program. Your mission: Explore the other planets in the solar system and learn as much as you can about the mysterious alien Nomad race. You do this by exploring planets and using a translator to decipher the Nomad text scrawled on walls.
What makes Outer Wilds so ingenious though is the way in which its solar system is ever-evolving. Each planet, over time changes in one way or another. One planet’s sandy surface slowly dissipates, revealing the mysterious alien ruins underneath. A comet made of ice slowly melts the closer it gets to the sun. Uncovering each planet’s unique mechanics is all part of the fun. The next part of the fun comes in trying to do all of this in 20-minute segments.
That’s because the sun explodes, obliterating all planets and causing a time loop to occur. Resulting in you waking up on your home planet, ready to explore that solar system all over again. These two mechanics combined means that despite Outer Wilds’ peaceful, often lonely state, you’re in a hurried, frantic dash through it so you can get through that darn door before the sand drops too much and you’re impaled on THAT GOD DAMN CACTUS! If you know, you know.
Random cactus ramblings aside, Outer Wilds’ sheer intelligence shouldn’t be understated. To the point its vague hints system can sometimes just paint out the bleeding obvious. If you’re willing to put in the grind or resort to looking up the occasional thing online (if you need a hand, check out our guides. They’re great. I wrote them!), this is a recurring space adventure you cannot miss.
I could bang on about Outer Wilds for hours, and honestly, there’s so much more I haven’t touched on here. It’s emotive synthy soundtrack, the sense of satisfaction you get every time your hints map fills out that little bit more, the fact its planets are so densely-packed with things to see.
The fact that its 20-minute time loops are perfect for pick-up-and-play but will keep you hooked for hours. It’s on Xbox Game Pass and Game Pass for PC. It’s on-sale on the Epic Games Store, and it’s available on PS4, Xbox One and soon Steam. Go buy it.
