136 - Outer Wilds
Added 2024-05-01 08:00:10 +0000 UTCThe lads hop into their wooden spaceships and fly straight into the dying sun as they cover Morbius Digital Games’ hit 2019 indie exploration/Newtonian physics simulator: Outer Wilds. Topics include the cozy/existentially terrifying vibes, the efficacy of the storytelling, and what it means to find hope at the end of the universe.
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Media Referenced in this Episode:
Outer Wilds. Mobius Digital Games. 2019.
No Cartridge Audio: Outer Wilds Forever! with Alex Beachum and Kelsey Beachum.
“The Making of Outer Wilds - Documentary”. Noclip-Video Game Documentaries. Jan 1, 2020.
TWOAPW theme by Brendan Dalton: Patreon // brendan-dalton.com // brendandalton.bandcamp.com
Commercial: “A Pep Talk for a Hatchling”, Music by Andrew Prahlow, Lyrics by Dr. Samuel Bultch, D.D.S.
Comments
I was crying so hard at the ending I had to get up and walk around with only about four minutes left. And then the ending monologue got me again.
Jaderannosaurus
2025-07-26 20:11:11 +0000 UTCOuuuuu i cried again
Laur
2025-03-14 23:13:13 +0000 UTCI got the patreon for this ep!!!
Laur
2025-03-14 22:15:30 +0000 UTCI know I'm necro-posting here but wanted to say that after listening to the ep and letting my kids listen to the first little bit (there wasn't too much NSFW) we forked out for the game on xbox. It's every bit as good as AJ insists. The music! I listen to the soundtrack in my office. Kids are loving the game and I've taken the "just exist in the world" approach and I agree that it's a really relaxing game if you play it that way - albeit with some frustrating moments here and there. Anyway, thanks guys you just keep delivering spun gold to my earholes every week and can't thank you enough.
Adam Kelly
2024-06-24 09:35:02 +0000 UTCCatching up with this ep because I took your advice and finally played the game - I loved it but oddly I had the exact opposite reaction to the ending - if anything I wanted it *more* "nihilistic." For the game to so pointedly have you stare annihilation in the face only to go for a rebirth angle (and even giving you agency over the course of the rebirth) feels false to me, like a flinch, like turning away from the void at the last second and saying "but it's gonna be okay" just to say it. I think there are contemporary works exploring similar themes (Jeff Vandermeer's Southern Reach novels come to mind; or hell, even Dark Souls) which don't flinch like this, and I don't think that's necessarily a nihilistic or bitter approach, especially here where the "problem" of the game is that you're stuck in a loop right before the heat death, metaphorically in denial of the heat death, and your climactic cathartic action of disengaging the warp drive is a choice to no longer be in denial, to stop forestalling the inevitable. There was a moment after you watch the galaxies wink out and you're trapped in nothingness for a while, and I thought that was the ending, that you were floating in nothing until you died or turned the game off, and I found that much more resonant and affecting as a conclusion. On top of which I just feel like the trippy asset flip is a kind of tired way to cap off this kind of game - as you yourselves mentioned that trope was even flagged up by the Stanley Parable.
Elah
2024-05-27 10:28:50 +0000 UTCI love using various art to feel feelings and I'm especially keen to enjoy games that give me uncomfortable or perhaps even 'bad' ones. Video games, imo, are the best format for experiencing that dread of loneliness. I think it began with Super Metroid for me but then Hollow Knight expands on that feeling by making you feel alone in a populated world. You are 'different' in a way that your peers in that world will never understand. They can't know what you know. You must suffer alone. These games are always important for me. But some other games expand on that even further by making you feel alone, then taking that away. Giving you community when you had none. I think this is my favorite narrative part about Cyberpunk 2077. Your partner is dead, you're stuck with Johnny, you will die and you are absolutely alone in this situation and there is nothing to be done. You feel hopeless. But then you begin to foster relationships with new friends, despite the certainty that you will soon die. I think this is such an incredibly cathartic experience. Sooo.. this game has been on my to play list for awhile but hearing the heavy spoiler warnings upfront I paused this episode bought the game and binged it. The ending to this game is the first time I've cried to a video game in a long time. For me it did this strategy of making you feel utterly alone but right at the end it tells you that you are not alone. That making music (community) is your purpose, and that despite everything going on that will always be there. I haven't had such a cathartic cry about a thing in awhile.
Raevn Ohn
2024-05-24 16:41:51 +0000 UTCYup!
The Worst of all Possible Worlds
2024-05-15 07:28:55 +0000 UTCIs the podcast safe to listen to without having played the DLC?
Z
2024-05-15 07:17:28 +0000 UTCEMERGENCY!! *flashes nerd signal, a giant pair of legs appears in the sky* Anybody who likes this kind of game, like this or The Witness, aka Games Wherin Nothing is Explained to You and You Gotta Figure Shit Out on Your Own, then you NEED to play Animal Well! You need to be playing it RIGHT NOW
Dergon
2024-05-10 13:50:18 +0000 UTCMy favourite small detail that you skimmed over is the fact that on the nomai ship, there's a wall that has messages from other nomai clans across the universe also experiencing the endz while talking about the myth of the lost clan. The dlc also is really really good,.the ending of that one before the true end is heart breaking, but glad they show up during the End End.
S-lappin
2024-05-08 10:54:03 +0000 UTCMy first loop involved me getting very intrigued by something orbiting the entire solar system, but that wouldn't register on my HUD in any way. So that's how I discovered you can completely disable the map by bumping the satellite out of its orbit
Nathan Woods
2024-05-07 01:46:59 +0000 UTCjust got to the part where you mention him. it was Alex beachum's parents! I watched their cats!
Genevieve R
2024-05-06 21:59:39 +0000 UTCone of the main developers' parents lived behind my childhood home. got to talk to him about game dev as a high schooler (might have been late middle school I am a baby). cool guy but I ended up studying biological anthropology lmao
Genevieve R
2024-05-06 21:56:19 +0000 UTCi've also seen one where the probe just straight up fucking hits and kills the player that always cracks me up
BrianAlflordIsGoodActually
2024-05-05 04:36:39 +0000 UTCThe episode ended and I said to my cat, "They're such nice boys." Love this show so much.
Vanessa Edding
2024-05-04 14:29:59 +0000 UTCThere’s actually a reference to Elsinore in the game! It’s hidden off somewhere but you can shoot a probe and see a scene from Elsinore.
Dr. Arroway
2024-05-03 16:19:38 +0000 UTCI know you guys get about a billion suggestions, but you should really try the game, Brothers: A tale of Two Sons. It's beautiful story told entirely without dialog or translation beyond what you can see. It's fairly short, but it was the favorite game of TotalBiscuit, who was very influential on early games media and sadly died of cancer many years ago. I can not recommend it enough.
Camoose
2024-05-03 07:34:01 +0000 UTCThis was a really fun and emotionally wonderful one.
Noblesse Oblahaj
2024-05-03 00:45:55 +0000 UTCyep
The Worst of all Possible Worlds
2024-05-02 23:27:44 +0000 UTCIs the live show still scheduled for August 4th? I have stuff coming up around then so I’m trying to plan around it
umbraviolet
2024-05-02 20:53:33 +0000 UTCIt's truly amazing how reliving this game, especially the ensemble theme with Solanum's contribution and line about joining in the song, can bring such emotion to me even years after beating this game. It's a magical experience, and a transcendent soundtrack
Damon DiSabato
2024-05-02 17:16:03 +0000 UTCI feel the same way - that one of the messages of the game is that even through an event as total or traumatic as the literal big bang, there can be some connective tissue between what came before and what happens now. And maybe in those moments, the power is in choosing which things stay connected and which get shaken loose.
Dylan Wignall
2024-05-02 15:55:52 +0000 UTCJosh's struggle with the ending led me to a new thought. Whether the OW crew at the ending are really "them" is immedaterial. What matters is that they're only there because before, you observed them and made those memories. So those people /must/ have influence on the next universe, because they had influence on you. In fact, so many other things have molded and shaped you, that whatever you make is in some way also their creation. Maybe at the end, you are not the creator viewing your creation through the Eye - maybe the Eye (and the universe itself) is the creator, observing its creation through you. You are an observer, but you are also a lens.
Dylan Wignall
2024-05-02 15:43:05 +0000 UTCI haven’t played the game so I’m going to stop listening to this episode pretty shortly, but I wonder if you’ve ever heard of Elsinore, the time loop game, where you play as Ophelia during the events of Hamlet. It’s interesting to see how it gets adapted between genre and medium, and I’d be fascinated to hear what you guys think of it. Your episode would be a great look at it from an immersive theater perspective.
Marcel Valoir
2024-05-01 23:29:49 +0000 UTCWhat a treat! The first time I finished Outer Wilds my feelings on the ending were closer to Josh's, maybe a bit more positive. The second time I finished it (after completing the DLC, to see what, if anything, has changed) it was about a year and a half later, after many changes in my life, including losing the last of my grandparents and of course living through the whole pandemic business. During the ending, a specific line hit me so hard I literally wasn't able to hold back my tears for the next half an hour and to this day my eyes still mist up when I remember said line - Solanum saying "Thank you for thinking of me as a friend". I don't think the ending is nihilistic - to me, a big part of the narrative is how each person makes a lasting mark on everyone they come in contact with and how this can be thought of a a form of living after the end through others. Frankly, I'm a sucker for a story where some grand endeavour is finished generations if not longer after it has been started and retroactively makes it all worth it; I find incredible solace in thinking that this is a thing that is possible
Sasha
2024-05-01 21:34:34 +0000 UTCFun fact; because the Eye tracker probe fires in a truly random direction each loop, (although exceedingly rare in probability) there is footage on Reddit of the loop starting, the cannon firing, and the probe *smashing into and destroying your ship*
Beau Baker
2024-05-01 17:56:22 +0000 UTCMight be the first song from a certain dentist that's a Genuinely Great Song
howl's moving pictures by rush
2024-05-01 16:55:21 +0000 UTCwhen i saw that you were doing this, it finally got me to make a patreon account and subscribe. i got very emotional at certain points of this just remembering everything this game made me feel. i really really hope y’all do one on echos of the eye sometime.
kegna
2024-05-01 16:37:22 +0000 UTC*to the tune of the Team America song* "Gamers, Fuck Yeah!" *touches finger to ear* "Wait. I'm hearing that under no circumstances do you have to 'Fuck Yeah' the Gamers."
Dergon
2024-05-01 14:28:28 +0000 UTCWhat could possibly be a happier thought when it comes to grappling with your own mortality than the idea of the inciting incident for existence itself being the Hearthians wishing you well as they handed over the torch?
David
2024-05-01 14:25:04 +0000 UTCI want to make a comment on some thoughts about the ending. It is, perhaps, the least nihilistic thing possible. It's literally "Let there be light" but instead of some asshole god it's a song made from the dreams and memories of little explorers. Little explorers whose last great wish is for you to carry forward that same sense of beauty and wonder in the world around you, no matter how fleeting it might ultimately be, that they too found. It's beautiful and haunting and heartwarming all at once and I can't think of a more uplifting view of the ultimate impermanence of the universe than what it puts forward.
David
2024-05-01 14:14:54 +0000 UTCI'm pretty sure if you say "Cherry Poppin' Daddies" too many times it summons the FBI. Deeply ashamed to find out that they're from Eugene. Not surprised, but definitely ashamed.
Jordan Y Clementi
2024-05-01 14:11:26 +0000 UTCLETS FUCKING GO!
Obi-Won Sherloch Clouseau
2024-05-01 14:05:11 +0000 UTCI AUDIBLY SAID "HOLY SHIT" LETS. FUCKING. GO!
Beau Baker
2024-05-01 13:22:58 +0000 UTCKelsey, Beachum, and Howe (is this anything?)
BarFly
2024-05-01 12:24:19 +0000 UTCYou guys releasing this as an episode is going to be what gets me to go finish the game
Kacey Riley
2024-05-01 09:18:40 +0000 UTCFUCK YES Just the other day I was thinking about this game because I had random shower thoughts about what art is and how it's really just things a human makes or does to make another human experience a specific emotion for the sake of that emotion alone, and how this game is THE exemplar of doing that; specifically making you understand the feeling of "no longer fearing the end of your own existence, and in fact explicitly deciding to end it". Still working on writing up a post to Facebook for my friends and family so that the thoughts do not pop into and out of existence only in my head. I am so excited to listen to this, thanks guys P.S. WOW this looks suicidal after writing it, I promise it's not! "Coming to terms with the end of cycles" is a better phrasing
Clark Schaefer
2024-05-01 08:20:47 +0000 UTC
