Outer Wilds

If you had it to do all over again, knowing now what you knew then, what changes would you make and how far could you go? That's the premise behind Outer Wilds, the quirky open world space exploration title that brings new meaning to the phrase "speed run." With just 20 odd minutes before your solar system's sun goes supernova, you're constantly hard-pressed to accomplish as much as possible in a limited amount of time. Luckily, the solar system isn't all that big, spatially speaking, so making the jump from one planet to the next takes only a couple of minutes or so. Which is a good thing, considering just how little time you've got to discover something new before everything you know gets roasted in the ever-looming cosmic deep fryer.

It's best not to worry too much about that greater catastrophe, though, as the game constantly dishes out new ways for you to die, restarting the doomsday clock once again for another pass. It's easy to misjudge a jump, overstay your oxygen supply, or even find yourself jettisoned into the abyss of a nearby black hole. Admittedly, this can get a bit frustrating, as the nature of the time loop is basically the definition of "repetitive gameplay." But what makes Outer Wilds so unique is that, even in failure, there are lessons to be learned and progress to be made. Rarely do you restart a new loop without feeling like you've had some sort of accomplishment and built some momentum for the next go-round. Just remember, if at first you don't succeed ...