bite sized: outer wilds: echoes of the eye (ft. quick play mark)

How did. Folks, I'm Mark, host of Quick Play Short Talks about Video games. First of all, don't you worry.

Neither you nor I have wandered into this wrong podcast because it is still.

Time for another bite sized. And not too long ago, I joined the Backlog Breakdown guys for an episode.

Here on one of my favorite games called Outer Wilds.

Personally, I think that was a great episode and you should go check it out if you haven't. So in preparation for the episode, I replayed Outer Wilds alongside them. But after that episode, I went back and I finally played the Echoes of the Eye dlc, which I hadn't even touched before. I thought it was fascinating and worth talking about more. So I asked the guys if I.

Could record essentially an appendix to our.

Episode on Echoes of the Eye. But first, quick word from our sponsor being me.

As you probably know, supporters of the.

Backlog Breakdown through Patreon can suggest a game or topic for the guys to cover. Outer Wilds was my pick as a Patreon patron. Patreon Patron. And I think that you should be one too. I think Nate and Josh are thoughtful and talented, and I'm really excited about the direction they're going with Backlog Breakdown. There's this common moniker in fundraising that goes along along the lines of people give to people with missions and causes they believe, and people give to people.

With missions and causes they believe in.

So if you like these guys and if you like what they do, I really encourage you to give and become a patron if you aren't already. And my challenge is this. At some point this year, you're gonna have a game that you're super excited for. It's gonna turn out it's a stinker. So instead of buying that game or take what you would have paid, or if you can, you get it refunded if you already paid for it. But take that, divide it by 12, and there's your monthly donation to the Backlog Breakdown Patron. Patreon. Whichever it is, it is hopefully understood they didn't ask me to make this pitch, and there might be a part of them that's a little uncomfortable that I did, but too bad.

So sad.

Give them money. All right, back to our regularly scheduled program, Outer Wilds. It's a game that is beloved for its mystery. So this is your spoiler warning off the jump if you want to go.

In completely blind to this DLC or.

Even the base game. Go have fun. I'll catch you later.

But spoilers will come in kind of two rings.

The Outer Ring here is just my.

Broad thoughts on the DLC without going.

Into detail, just some vague review, some reactions. The inner Ring is just straight up talking about the ending of the story I'm here to talk about specifically Echoes of the Eye, but also kind of sort of spoil the ending of the base game too. But also I'm going to try to.

Stick with story spoilers here.

Some larger contextual chunks will kind of be spoiled around that, but at no point will I spoil puzzles or how you do stuff. So even if you listen through this.

And you know how the story ends, you can still enjoy the game as.

A game unburdened by knowledge. I did decide to cut out like an entire middle ring on being like.

Basic premise or slash first hour.

So kind of stuff. It was an ad, it wasn't going to add much to the discussion, and.

You can probably enjoy those kinds of.

Reveals on your own. And if you're thinking like man, I'm not gonna play this, just tell me.

What it is like.

Well, truly I tell you, you have Google, go check it out. But before you start too, I should also cite my sources. A lot of my thoughts have been.

Informed by the podcast State of the.

Ark, which had a phenomenal series on Outer Wilds. I thought their episode on Echoes the Eye was kind of just okay, but their discussion helped more kickstart a lot of these thoughts. So all right, you are now entering ring one. This is the vague stuff. Outer Wilds came out in 2019 from Mobius Digital, who are a bunch of existential physics nerds. It was a highly regarded game with a cult following. I'm one of those cult followers, despite having kind of confusing timing of being released the same year as Outer Worlds.

But Outer Wilds Echoes of the eye was the first and only DLC expansion.

Released in 2021, which is a bit.

Surprising given that Outer Wilds doesn't really seem like it would lend itself to.

Expansion packs, especially one that comes two years after the game came out. But essentially it just adds a new location to explore and unravel. But what I found is kind of rather than dlc, it plays more like a microcosm of the main game. It's nearly like a mini sequel within the context of the game. You could even make the comparison to like Spider Man, Miles Morales, one of those smaller scale things.

But it's just dlc.

It's all part of the package. It is largely self contained, but it still is limited by the main time loop of the game. Slight spoiler there. Sorry, but half of the rules that you learn in Outer Wilds gets thrown out.

There are new ones to piece together.

And to make use of, and there's.

A wholly new species, there's a new story and a new culture to kind.

Of uncover and unravel. That kind of makes for us like a fun reset. And personally I think it had the coolest aesthetic and mechanics of the entire game. There's this really. It's this cool like Scandinavian meets lowland coastal Americana atmosphere to it all. There are a ton of these kind of oh wow moments, as you would expect in Outer Wilds, but also this mid loop twist that really blindsided me the first time. As you go through it, making progress.

To me felt a little slow. And you can really only discover one.

Like piece of the puzzle per loop because navigating the areas is a bit more difficult. It is decidedly a more technically difficult game than the base game. That's also maybe in part because I didn't use a guide for this DLC and I wasn't as economical as you potentially could be. I did ultimately follow a guide for my initial playthrough of Outer Wilds years back, but coming off of my more recent replay, my mind was already kind of retrained on how to approach these puzzles and Echoes of the Eye. The one thing that I did need.

A hint for was this late game.

Twist, which is this really frustrating dead end, just gut punch just when you think you've cracked the code, but it unfurls just a little bit further into an incredibly clever puzzle. And that was probably like the best lightbulb moment of all of Outer Wilds. And in that moment I was desperate and sought out a hint, which the.

Outer Wilds Community Online is pretty good.

About, kind of giving you gentle hints instead of spoilers, but it gave me the push that I needed. And even with that help, it was still my favorite gaming moment of last year. It took me a while originally to.

Try out Echoes the Eye because of all these warnings that it was horror.

Inspired and I am a weenie. I wish, though I wish I wasn't told it was that scary. For one, it's really not all that scary.

There's a spookier vibe to it all.

But it's functionally not any scarier than anything in the base game. But two, it also kept me unnecessarily on my toes for the first few hours, as most of the time you're spent, like you said, most of the.

Time in the most well lit area.

Of the entire game. The spooky parts are only once you're deep into the DLC and it's pretty obvious once you're in it. They're also those spots are also one of the more difficult spots of the entire game and so they have this option for quote unquote, fewer spooks as a setting that's are in the options. I did, after a few tries I did turn that on because it actually just makes those horror esque sections a little easier and less frustrating. And the spookiness of it all, even.

In the kind of overall vibe well.

Before you're under threat, the spookiness does.

Lend itself well to the main thrust.

Of Echoes of the Eye because it's optional DLC and the only thing to really push the player forward is their own curiosity. While progressing forward starts to feel like a worse and worse idea because it does feel menacing and it is trying to repel you. And again, it's optional dlc, so at any point you could just nope out and be none the wiser and you don't have to even do that part. But the drive to understand the mystery is rewarded, I think, not only with a really moving tragedy, but also tags in a satisfying and poignant revelation. But Echoes of the Eyes story is simpler than what's in the base game.

Although that story and the underlying mystery.

Are harder to parse out. This ancient culture is more one of visual learners versus the kind of written swirling musings and lab notes that you find in the base game. But still, I do think it's overall maybe a better story than the one.

In the base game, but certainly has.

A much more compelling ending, which we're.

Gonna dive into that now. We're about to enter the Inner Ring.

So I'm talking story spoilers for both Echoes the Eye and a little bit of Outer Wilds.

So now is the time to jump away if I've convinced you to check this out.

I'm sure the guys get the play count added to their stats by now and okay, welcome to now to the Inner Ring. But before we move forward, I want to give an edit to where at.

Least I landed in the initial discussion.

On the full podcast episode about Outer Wilds. Not really an edit, more just like a I thought about this later. I think I might have said something different, but we talked about the Eye of the Universe being this enigmatic place or entity that everyone's trying to get to. We talked about that being like a false God, or at the very best, it's an impotent God who could only usher in one person into the next stage of existence or whatever. I do think Josh's assessment on that was brilliant, and I don't. I think that still applies here. However, thinking about it more, I don't.

Really think that designers totally intended the Eye of the Universe to be a being.

I think it's more meant to be the embodiment of change, like Big C change, Death, being and being around death is like the most significant change we can experience in this life. And I think the designers are wrestling through that, presumably being secular humanists. But of course I can't speak to the faith life of anyone involved in making Outer Wilds, but I'm going off this broad assumption. But for the main game, the ultimate.

Point is about accepting and embracing this change, knowing that life on the whole.

Will continue after you. Though all three of us, we are all pretty unsatisfied by that ultimate point.

Anyway, bearing all that in mind, I am working off the assumption that this.

Big MacGuffin in the sky is about change, more specifically about death and mortality in this context, but on the cosmic scale. And if the base game presents a.

Physicist, humanistic, secular wrestling and acceptance of.

The end of all things, I think.

That echoes the Eye provides a critique.

On the denial of the end of all things. So to catch you up a little bit, the location of this dlc, turns out that's no moon. It's a space station.

It's a spaceship biome colony thing called the Stranger. The inhabitants have all mysteriously disappeared, but.

You find these reels, like film reels of basically projector slides that tell their story. And though there are kind of whole sections of these reels that show up as melted film goop, like a old school projector that has been caught on fire. But this alien race is never really given a name, so I'm just calling them the Strangers. Or the Stranger rights, if I feel like it. The Stranger's story ultimately reveals itself to.

Be the original sin story of this universe. Echoes of the Eye is kind of.

A lot like the Old Testament for the base game. They, like the nomai of the base game, caught the signal of the Eye of the Universe. These strangers, they.

They sought the knowledge and understanding that came from it.

And in doing so, they sacrifice their Eden, their home planet, in pursuit of it. Although maybe they lived on the moon of their home planet.

Whichever it is revealed, they stripped bare.

Their planet and or moon to make.

A spaceship that goes in search of the Eye.

But once they learn from the Eye.

About the way this will all eventually.

Go, that everything as they know it will end and simply that they will die.

They hate the Eye of the Universe.

They reject it.

They burn down their shrines to it.

They attempt to destroy all evidence of what they've done, of their mistake of destroying their home. And they sacrificed everything for something that.

They believe betrayed them.

And now they can never go home. And in that shame, they edit their history by burning out the incriminating parts, they essentially they bury the truth. They lock it away and toss out the key. Not only that, they also craft a whole contraption that acts as a signal blocker for the Eye of the Universe.

So that no one else can follow.

In their footsteps and find it.

So then the Strangerites spend the rest.

Of their days in exile, so ashamed.

Of what they've done that they stuff.

It down and they go to work.

At trying to recreate Eden for themselves.

They create a simulation of their own home moon planet thing, which they discover.

This simulation can actually sustain their consciousness beyond the grave.

Because as it turns out, they're all dead, presumably at the hand of the.

Ghost matter from the base game. But they're all still living on inside.

The simulation and the State of the Ark podcast.

They point out that this obsession with.

Living past their natural end actually puts them in their own eternal prison. In all irony, they're living in a personal hell rather than accepting natural death because it's a. It's a pale comparison to what their home actually was.

There's some beautiful scenery and some beautiful.

Settings and echoes of the eye, but it's either deteriorated or decayed in the real life or it's all a farce.

Being within the simulation.

But meanwhile they've also, like I mentioned.

They imprisoned the one guy of their.

Species who tried to expose and reckon.

With their past sins and these decisions and their fear. And fear is a massive theme here.

It's in their bitterness and in their shame.

The strangers want no one to know what they've done. So they make every effort to hide away and repel anyone who might snoop.

Around and find out because they are.

Afraid of what it might mean about them if someone else were to learn the truth.

And all of this, it's meant to.

Be an observation on and critique of those who are afraid of death.

Whereas the base game ends on what the designers position as a hopeful note, which we talked about being a little bit deflating as Christians, but Outer Wilds base game meant to be hopeful echoes, the Eye centers on a people who reject reality and substitute their own. The base game has this overarching sense.

Of space age optimism and adventure, despite.

Some pretty dark, sad and scary parts. And Echoes of the Eye has this.

Underlying sense of dread and hopelessness even in a beautiful setting.

Outer Wilds has this core theme of.

The communal act of making music together, bringing all these far flung people together.

But Echoes the Eye centers on the.

Strangerites who chose self isolation in a.

Sad attempt to protect themselves and their shame.

And even that main Outer Wilds rift.

The connective tissue of the game's audio design and their soundtrack that's it's threaded through the Echoes of the Eye soundtrack at times, but in a more menacing minor key variation. And this is all except for that.

One strangerite who wanted to uncover and.

Reveal what they've done and relinquish their control over blocking the Eye of the universe. And Light is a big mechanic throughout the Echoes of the Eye and shedding.

Light onto things that were hidden in.

Darkness is the lesson here, and that's probably resonating with you a bit.

But this next step is where we.

Diverge as Christians, because the main game posits that our hope beyond death is that new life will spring up down the road or, you know, 14.3 billion years down the road. But our true hope beyond death is that this mortal life is not our hope because we believe in eternal life so we do not fear death. And like like it or not, like change is coming. Like what we know now will end.

But will be renewed by the kingdom.

And that knowledge, that comfort that extends down to how we live our lives now. We are called to wait patiently for the new creation rather than try to.

Recreate our own little individual Edens.

And the strangers, they wanted to handle their sin by burning the evidence and and try to get back to Eden on their own. The strangers need Jesus. Which is a silly thing to say, but we need Jesus. We need more than stuffing all our.

Sins down in some dark crevice and burning the evidence.

We need more than a virtual reality escape hatch.

And we need more than just a.

Hope in the vague notion of the circle of life. We need hope in the eternal kingdom.

And the new creation that only comes through Jesus.

And once we have that and there's.

No need to fear death.

That's all I got. Thanks for listening. A huge thanks to the backlog breakdown for having me.

You can find more of me on.

Quickplay, which you can find wherever you find podcasts or on YouTube and all the episodes are bite sized kind of for the most part, or I'm out on all the proper socials at quickplay pod. And so, yeah, go forth back down the beat logs, break down from the benefits. All right?