Outer Wilds and Deathloop are both technically a part of the roguelike genre. Where the player makes it as far as they can until they are forced to start over or beat the game. Both titles have a unique take on the roguelike genre by using this loop to tell a narrative. The goal is to find out why the loop exists, and how to stop it. For both games, the protagonist’s main goal is to gather information, which is one of the few and most important things that carries over between loops. However, a fundamental difference in how Outer Wilds handles player freedom and exploration allows it to succeed over Deathloop’s more linear structure.
In Deathloop, you play as Colt, stranded on a lawless island trapped in an infinite time loop. Only you and a select few people are aware of the loop, and only you are trying to stop it from happening. The structure of the game continues to follow in a more or less linear pattern. Cutscenes interject at major plot points and at the end of every loop Colt narrates the most important thing the player should remember from the previous loop. Despite this, the player is looking forward to gathering information, in an implied attempt that it is up to them to put all the pieces of the puzzle together. However, once the player finds the only route available, Colt continues to narrate exactly what to do in order to make it out, and the knowledge tree gives directions along the way. This is where the detective style information gathering fell utterly flat, and it betrays a feeling of distrust between the developers and the player. In the end, you were told where to go, who to talk to, and in what order to do so.
Outer Wilds follows a very similar structure in the beginning. You play as a nameless, four-eyed alien waking up in front of a campfire. After a great deal of truly open exploration within a diverse solar system, the sun explodes and you return to the campfire. In this loop, only you and a select group of people are aware of the loop, and only you are trying to stop it from happening. However, Outer Wilds does not try to guide the player in any particular direction, other than helpful tips that a certain piece of information from the knowledge tree hasn’t yet been fully explored. The story is peppered with red herrings and information that is more useful as a lore filler, but the player isn’t encouraged to ignore this information. Knowing why the world has become so volatile and who the people who were here before is as important as the player decides them to be. Where Outer Wilds succeeds greatly is that technically, the player can reach the end of the game from the very start. The only tools they need are clues found by exploring any of the planets or stations at any time. Where the player slowly becomes more aware of who the Nomai were and what they were attempting to do.
In Deathloop, this knowledge of past events is circumstantial, and the player is told that the only people that matter are those with inconsequential power on the overall effects of the loop. In the end you can only feel as empty as you were when first waking up on the beach. Having only allowed for broken relationships and an island full of bodies. In Outer Wilds it was the journey and the end that mattered in varied but profound ways. What the game provides is allowing your understanding of your place in the universe to grow as much as your relationship to it, and giving the player the trust to put the pieces together and make their journey at their own pace, creating unique stories within the community.
Have any Questions or Concerns? Tell us on Twitter.
Matthew has been a lifelong lover of video games since he could first hold a controller, and among his favorites are narrative-heavy, singleplayer games like; Divinity: Original Sin 2, Elden Ring, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Hollow Knight. Matthew also plays tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder and Call of Cthulu. He graduated from the University of North Texas with a bachelor’s in Sociology and minored in English.
