Developer: Mobius Digital
Publisher: Annapurna Interactive
Release: May 30th
On: Windows
From: Epic Store
Price: 20/$25/ 21
For a story about everyone dying, Outer Wilds is full of enthusiasm and hope. You re a space pilot sitting by a campfire next to your spaceship, and you have 20 minutes to explore the solar system, before the sun explodes in a white-hot ball. But with that supernova you are reborn into a seemingly endless cycle. You are sent back in time to the campfire, for another 20 minutes of exploring, then another and another. It s Groundhog Day in an astronaut s suit. But it is also a learning game, generous of spirit, playful and encouraging. It taps into all those Carl Saganisms that make us look at the night sky and nod enthusiastically at the Big Dipper. Overflowing with a toyish love of astronomy and physics, it jettisons stuffy formulae for adventures on dangerous planets full of sand, and one-way trips to icy comets hurtling around the sun. We don t do star ratings on RPS, but if we did I d give Outer Wilds a small galaxy.