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Outer Wilds is about as close to my personal understanding of a perfect videogame as possible.

The game really requires somebody who is willing to sit down and engage with it, fully and deeply. Some players, especially ones who don't have a lot of gaming experience, aren't like that. Though I will say, my sister hated it until eventually we tried me taking over the controls for her. She would just point and tell me where to go and what to do. It freed her up to engage with the story, because she could pay attention to what she was looking at and what the story was telling her, instead of all her focus going towards wrestling with the controls. Suddenly she loved it and we played the whole game that way. I would 100% recommend this method for inexperienced players.

this whole video is like showing someone your favourite movie, and when you look over at them during the best parts they just look kinda bored. it really does show that even things that are near-perfect in execution aren't perfect for everyone

“It is possible to make no mistakes and still fail. That is not weakness. That is life.”

In my opinion, this is one of the few "real" open world games, where it doesn't hold your hand you actually feel like every discovery is your own. And the discoveries ramp up a lot. But it is a little difficult to except something from it, as it doesn't really give you a reason to figure out the mystery. You do it by choosing to, yourself.

I think to truly appreciate the no hand holding "you're free to do whatever you want" approach of Outer Wilds, you had to be harassed by the ubisoft-like oben world design and UI elements for a while.

Sad that she didn't enjoy it. The mystery and discovery feels so rewarding to me and the small Solar System feels cozy. I've personally had a hard time recommending it to people too, because it does have a slow start, and controls are difficult to get the hang of.

I’ve played over the shoulder of a few people now (my 13 y/o niece for example) and I honestly find that it’s helpful to guide them a little bit. At least away from time wasters or repetitive theory-testing. “Okay, you tried that thing and it was a good idea, but I’m here to tell you that it won’t lead anywhere” type of thing. About 2 hours in of slightly-guided exploration and she was HOOKED. Love the video :)

Very interesting a non gamer playing outer wilds. I had a friend who also didn't like it for similar reasons. He needed more instruction he told me, and the open nature of the game didnt jive with him. Outer Wilds seems inorder to get most out of it, is the player to have the drive to set their own objectives without knowing if there is a real payoff.

i bugged my sister to play this for ages before she did. i'd watched Nerd³'s playthrough, which although good, took a lot out of playing the game for myself. i adored it even without having that first proper experience, and i wanted to share it with everyone i know (in part because i had missed out myself). she got up into space and learned that she found floating in space deeply unpleasant, and to cap it off couldn't look up at the stars from the Attlerock without getting motion sick. i felt awful for getting her to do it only for it to be a bad experience, and for the fact that she couldn't experience this wonderful game

I feel like Outer Wilds' explorative nature makes it a game that Really isn't for casual players. Counter-intuitively. Dark Souls is usually seen as some big intimidating game, but it clearly directs you. NPCs go "Hey, go there, do this." And you hit monsters and your numbers go up and you find stuff and... There's constant direction and small successes that fuel larger successes. Someone unused to games will likely want that direction. To know they're doing something right. You kill the Asylum demon and the game goes "Hey, good job, you're gaming correctly." And Outer Wilds doesn't do that. You explore, and then you time out, and you may find yourself feeling "I don't even know what I did wrong.", and as any gamer who's dealt with obtuse game design and bad hitboxes and so on will likely agree: That's a bad feeling. For some people, Outer Wilds feels like you're lost in a museum, and every now and then you get the nagging feeling your somehow experiencing art wrong, but can't even say how or why.

I'll never get tired of Outer Wilds videos. This game will forever hold a truly special place in my heart.

This is one of my favorite games, and i took me 2 years to really sit down and play it, i was never in the mood to sit down to read and learn. when i actually got into it i found that i had to play just one more hour to solve one more question. The ending made me tear up and i loved every minute. i understand that not everyone will be in the mood for it, you cannot force anyone to play it they have to want to explore and i think thats what makes it special. Hell i still listen to the soundtrack weekly when i want fond memories of me failing but finally reaching the eye. Great video!

This is my favourite game It was perfect I don't care about story in games, or reading stuff, or slow gameplay, I'm not massively into puzzles either But this, this game is something else, this game is on another level and it was somehow all the things I don't care about in a game but somehow the greatest thing I've ever played. It's perfect, not a second of poor game design or difficulty, always a feeling of achieving something just learning things, it's perfect Words can't describe how insanely good this game is and how much I loved it The worst thing about this game is it's so good I can't forget it, no matter how hard I try, so I will never be able to enjoy it for a second time. I have lost sleep over how much I want to forget everything about this game so I can play it from the start again and explore everything again, I want to so bad but I'll never be able to

"I may as well go and explore if I'm going to die anyways." Music to my ears to hear that.

Congratulations on the wedding! I’m very glad we got a last Noobus Humanus video before the end of the year, you two are my favourite KZfaq couple.

Congrats on the wedding!!! I've had Outer Wilds on my wish list for a while now. If it has the Monty Zander seal of approval, I guess I should probably try it out 🙂

For any person that I've recommended this game to, I've had to have them "backseat game" for an hour (where I control the character, but have them instruct me on where to go/what to check). Part of my reasoning is that the game has a REALLY steep learning curve- learning the ship controls alone could turn someone off before they even find the first Nomai ruin. I know that's not the point of this series, and I am really happy to watch someone who does not have as much gaming experience play games that I have loved, but with a fresh perspective. I hope the itch of the mystery continues in Noobus' mind, and she feels drawn back to the game eventually; I think you know as well as everyone else that this game truly does reward those who master its systems and challenges!! Thanks for a great year of videos Monty and Noobus, and congratulations on tying the knot!!!!

i would LOVE to see her interact with 4d or surreal puzzles like antichamber or superliminal

Outer Wilds is one of the few videos games I wish I could play again, and good god the MUSIC, the music gives me nostalgiac warm feelings and damn people don't talk about it enough, love seeing people's first time playthroughs and reactions. Just a beautiful perfect game. Damn good video man!

YES! My favorite series! I just checked your channel yesterday to see if you had uploaded a new video of this series. Congrats on your marriage to both of you, I love your channel and specially when both of you get together, your energy is off the charts.

Just discovered your channel the other day and watched the entire noobus series. So happy another dropped so soon! Ty!

Outer Wilds is easily my favorite game of all time, and though I'm sad that it isn't for everyone, as Riebeck would say, "that's... you know, that's okay." I've found that the controls can be a big negative for people (though I personally love the way the ship works), and that plus lots and lots of reading and also the whole "how to spoil as little as possible while still making it sound interesting" mentality has made it a bit of a hard one to recommend to others.

congratulations !! gotta love the evolution of noobus humanus thumbnails been meaning to figure out outer wilds and i guess this is my sign to play it :D

that subtle rocketman playing in the background, chef's kiss, i really enjoy those videos. Truly a channel of good feeling, and quality, keep it up, and have a lovely life you two.

I think Outer Wilds has a little bit of the Undertale problem where inorder understand why it's amazing you have to know about standard game design and story telling practices. However, Outer Wilds doesn't have any references or parody of other games in it so it should be free to enjoy by anyone, provided atleast something about the game intrigues them. For me personally it was the fact that the entire universe was actually simulated and followed the same rules of physics and things are always happening regardless of where you are (mostly). It really makes you feel the words Solanum says - "the universe is, and we are".

I’m so glad to see the Noobus back! Much love to both of you!

I love these videos, you two sound like a fantastic pair. Congrats on the marriage!

Congratulations to you both 💕

The Noobus actually saw the sun go supernova the first time? She's got me beat!

Congratulations!!!

Hi Monty and Noobus! I can relate a lot with Noobus here, I had picked up Outer Wilds, gotten to walk around a bit in the Timber Hearth village and got instantly bored with it. Didn't even get to the statue! I uninstalled it and that was that for almost a year. A friend eventually pushed me to give it another try, and with some patience I absolutely fell in love with the game. As a very young and inexperienced game designer this is an absolute masterclass, but it can not click with someone! Thank you a lot for this and all your videos, I love them dearly. Also, when you announced your engagement I was so invested I almost cried, so thank you for that emotion as well! ❤

this is one of my favourite games and it's kinda sad that i can't share it with anyone because yeah this game is not for everyone, requires a lot from you and most people just want to be told what to do

This feels like the kind of game the Noobus would've enjoyed more on keyboard and mouse. First person games on a joystick always take some getting used to.

Congratulations to you both!!!

Congrats on the wedding Monty and Noobus!! 🥳🥳🥳

Mandatory warning about playing this game before watching the video. Outer Wilds is a (superb) knowledge-based game, so everything is basically a spoiler... and it is much better if you figure out the solution to the multi-planetary cluster-puzzle by yourself.

This series is so charming. I hope you continue to find games the noobus likes.

Congrats on your marriage guys! Best of luck to you both! You are adorable :)

I would do anything to get bonked on the head hard enough to forget this game so I could replay it for the first time again. Truly one of my favorite experiences in a game!

Very cool to watch her playthrough it, definitely not a game for everyone. I wish she had looked into the instrument noises more, those are kinda easy to reach without too much frustrating ship flying early on. I'm gonna call out that I feel like one minor issue was having you there to answer some of the early questions, and do a bit of laughing, does take away the early dopamine hits, and doesn't make you have to rely on reading everything and exploring dangerous places to understand whats going on. She asked so many of the great starter questions and sort of had you there to provide some type of answer instead of having the question linger until she had to go find out for herself. Just little stuff like "Where is everyone?", "Is that a moon?", "Was that a Supernova?", "How long is the loop?" "I still don't understand how to do this, do I just kinda wing it?". Questions like those are the ones that act as baby steps to getting in that flow of asking yourself the question and then discovering the answers on your own. That's why this is one of those games where people don't want to tell people anything about what happens, every answer I give someone is one less piece they can excitedly ponder over and then far later discover an answer for. I loved when she said "How does this not give you the absolute fear?". Yeah, it does and it's supposed to. For a lot of places Outer Wilds was one of the scariest cames I've played until I understood there was nothing to be afraid of. She definitely seemed to be getting over the fear of death by the end there though. Quietly wondering to yourself "What was that and what just happened?" is where the game shines early on, because the only why to answer those easy but nagging questions is to stop being scared and go into the scary place and just find out for yourself.

I love outer wilds. Ive had a long and non-standard interaction with the game, but i believe i feel similarly to you. I love the explorations, the music, the writing, the solar system, everything. Im sad to hear that it didnt hook your partner, but to each their own! I appreciate the positive spin you put in the video and im glad to see the game reach more people!

I would like to point out something interesting, the perspective of "She's a scientist in real life" I found that often never has anything to interact with gaming, because real science is often far more different than a majority of games, so you could say "You're a gamer, not a scientist"

It's sad that your wife hasn't continued Hades, her enjoyment of it was one of the reasons why I got it. I love these videos.

Really want to see you two do this with Journey... or Flower!

To your wife's credit, i am very fluent with the language of video games, and i had an identical opening experience as she did. I don't often read dialogue in games because it's almost always fluff that i just don't care about. Outer Wilds was a learning adjustment for me because i needed to learn to be more patient and observant. Ended up taking me 3 years before I came back to it, so don't give up on her coming around to it

12:39 this sort of thing is really common in my experience. a lot of people just don't look for the same stuff in their work and entertainment, they're not always just innately interested in the parts of themselves they apply towards each pursuit overlapping. not to say someone can't enjoy entertainment that centers on their work/elsewhere-developed interests, just that it might not grab or charm them as immediately in the same way it does others - and frankly they might just enjoy something that lets them explore far from their center more in any case. i think it's just part of people being inherently multi-faceted. we're built to be that way, so it affects not just how we are, but how we move and what we move towards in what situations. also, man, the super mario galaxy lullaby. always hit, but after that geller video.. man.

Wow when you first mentioned you will expand the Noobus series beyond the Souls games I wished you'd play Hollow Knight and Hitman. Seeing the Noobus play other favorite games of mine like Hades and now the absolutely fantastic Outer Wilds really made my day. Haven't seen the video yet but can't wait to see the reactions of you two :) (hope there is some fun encounter in Dark Bramble^^) Edit: saw the beginning and congratulations you two!

Congratulations :) Have a long and wonderful life together.

The one piece of advice I tell people when getting them into outer wilds is "in most games all the writing and non-voiced dialogue is just ignorable background detail right? Well in this game everything matters so actually read stuff." In my experience people bounce off this game most when they don't read stuff, but will return and read and fall in love with it. I almost feel like a similar message should appear when opening the game, or if it notices you rapidly skip through all dialogue and reading have some clever in universe way of asking you to slow down.

After playing the game myself I watched a couple of supercuts to maintain the tail end of the high that is Outer Wilds. One of the ones I watched was one by an Astrophysicist and your comment about the gaming being one big science experiment really rang true for this guy. He came to conclusions and made discoveries well before I came to them and before the game would naturally tell you. Everyone's playthrough is different but I found the more scientific approach fascinating.

I’ve always loved seeing Noobus Humanus go from gf to fiancé to wife

I think part of what I needed to make the game enjoyable is understanding what kind of game it was and that I should explore as much as possible and things will connect and clue what to do so we’ll. Without knowing that, I’d have given up on it without knowing what to do

Coincidentally, I’m at what feels like the last few days (unless I do the DLC) of Outer Wilds, but even as a relatively hardcore gamer, I had a similar experience and multiple times wanted to quit the game due to finicky controls and severe nausea if I play more than an hour or two at a time. Only finishing it because of the universal high praise, but it took a good amount of extrinsic motivation (long form videos like these by content creators I trust) encouraging a full blind-as-possible play through rather than intrinsic motivation (eventually rewarding aha moments, but after a very steep learning curve). I think this game is easier to appreciate in small doses spread over a longer time period, rather than force feeding yourself it. Takes a while to develop the sense of wonder, but I’m glad I stuck with it.

Big congrats on the wedding. :D I also could not really get into this game. I felt the loop and the time limit a bit too restrictive (it made me quite stressed out), but loved the exploration. However, I didn't know it had a "no fail" mode. So that might be reason enough to go back to it.

lol her quantum moon landings... we've all tried and failed at them. until the end...

"I may as well go explore if I'm going to die anyways" --Me and probably everyone else after accomplishing my goal for the current run

This is oddly cathartic for me, because I'm a gamer and I play games all the time, but Outer Wilds just didn't click with me. The ship controls were too finicky and difficult, and I'd get sick of spending most of a loop just trying to get somewhere or find something new, only to be forced to start over when the sun went supernova or I screwed up and died. It sucked to feel like I just wasted all that time and got nothing out of it. I was drawn in by the mystery, but I was too frustrated by the gameplay to enjoy it. I gave up after about 10 hours because I just wasn't making new discoveries and I didn't want to deal with it anymore. Anyway, all that to say, the Noobus is not alone, and I feel better having seen someone else go through the same struggles as me, especially since everyone raves about the game and I felt a bit off for having not enjoyed it. So thank you very much for the video!

I always take off my suit while in the ship, so glad to see Im not the only one

my husband is also a scientist and didn’t like outer wilds. this game isn’t like doing research in any sense, and it is partially why he stays away from games whose premise is “experimentation, like a real scientist!” and the lack of guidance might be the reason. when you’re a researcher, one does not just fluff around with no instruction until they discover something, one first reads all the current literature available to them - which may take several months up to several years- and then based on their understanding of what is currently known about a subject, creates a theory, designs experiments, then performs the experiments attempting to replicate the same experiment as many times as money will allow to get good data, ultimately to prove the theory right or wrong - both will provide more understanding to the original subject and is useful to science at large. so in a way, it is *more* like a scientist that she didn’t like how open the world was and that she had no goals since science as a profession is one of the MOST goal oriented professions I know of. Also, congrats on your wedding and I hope you enjoy your honeymoon!!!!

Congratulations on your marriage tho, kinda made my day frl

8:57 I only played Outer Wilds in VR so I never realized how hard flying the model ship was on a monitor until recently when I went back to test something. In VR you can clearly tell exactly where the ship is in space.

😂 love seeing new people play through this game.

Outer Wilds is my favorite game ever. Because if this I love to introduce it to people because I’m very confident that if they allow themself to play it all the way through it’ll be one of their favorites too. I think you’re mostly right, not every game will work for everyone. I think this is true, but with most of the greats and especially for Outer Wilds, most people can love it if they are helped into the right mindset before playing it. Outer Wilds biggest challenge is getting impatient players to understand what to do. This is a game that requires you to read the dialogue. The difference between it and most other games is that ALL of the dialogue in the game helps drive you toward your objective and ALL of the dialogue is important. Too many games have loads of filler or unnecessary text-only dialogue. I think those games prime impatient players to skip through everything that shows up in text because as they’ve learned from loads of games, it’s probably not important to the base experience. It teaches them to feel like text-only dialogue is more of an obstacle in the way of getting to the fun parts. I’ve learned through my experience of introducing this game to a lot of different people and watching them play through it that most people can fall in love with it, but some of those people NEED you to tell them these important parts of the game before playing it: 1. The point of this game is to solve the mystery 2. EVERYTHING you read in this game matters and WILL help you toward figuring things out 3. The game WANTS you to be curious. So let yourself be 4. Dying is a learning tool. Don’t think it means you’ve failed This game needs to be played as blind as possible because the big moments of the game will not feel nearly as big if they’re spoiled in any way. That said, some people’s barrier to this game is the initial desire of, “I just want to be told what I’m supposed to do.” If you’re going to introduce this game to someone you need to determine if that person is going to need that initial guidance. If they don’t need it, please tell them nothing. If they do though, please tell them that it’s really important to know those 4 things to go in with the right mindset If you’re introducing this game to someone it’s obviously because you loved it, so figure out what kind of player they are so you can help put them into the best mindset they can be in to play this incredible game

Oh my gosh!! It's my favorite game of all time!!

11:41 funnily enough, the supernova happens after 3 hearthian days

I CAME BECAUSE OF THE TITLE HDFJRJR CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

I feel like this game is a bit much for non gamers it has so many unique features but for non games they don't get it because they don't know what is standard. I'd like to see her play something very casual and beginner (the first sims game or crash bandicoot

At some point she will have played enough games through this series that she no longer can qualify as a Noobus Humanus. Finished the video, I retract my statement

Congratulations

I'm not surprised she's scared. This is accidentally the scariest game ever made.

One of the games I want to play the most but I literally can't because I have a massive fear of the ocean. So each time I break through into Giant's Deep's atmospheres, I just have to alt f4

I also took my suit on and off while I. The space ship, I have no idea why it was just a little more immersive lol

Your music choice makes me wonder how the Noobus would like one of the Bayonetta games

Damn, silver play button soon!!!

"I made my wife-" LEEETS GOOOOO CONGRATS YOU TWO!!!

Some people don't have the intelligence for chess, others don't have the patience for checkers

the problem with motion sickness in outer wilds is due to using a controller, had the same experience but then i used my mouse and it felt better. It's not really motion sickness its more that your brain can't really comprehend where the characters body is supossed to be with a controller as well as it does with mouse.

This is why when I got my bestie to play it we used the mod Quantum Space Buddies so that if he got frustrated with the controls I could just fly the ship myself. He also gets motion sick so I kept checking in with him when we were in zero G. I got the idea after watching a disabled streamer give up on it because they couldn't play it one-handed. Incredible game but the controls are simply not accessible for every player.

IMHO literally the best game ever made

I like how you're supposed to relax, take your time, but if you take too long you will die by Supernova!😂 Also the losing of your spacesuit seems like something that would be gamebreaking.

We got married last year during the summer, and took our honeymoon in the winter to have a snow-moon! I hope you are living it up and have a great honeymoon!!!

Nice

I used to have severe motion sickness in 1st-person games. Somehow by the time I got to Outer Wilds, I was fine. I think that Halo was the first game that really let me build a tolerance. Something about it, specifically when played from a couch across the room from the TV, was more bearable. After that my memory is blurry, but I know I played Mirror's Edge not too long after. Portal was in there somewhere too. I know I also experience 3D flight controls in 3rd-person separately, such as in an Iron Man game. And later a dedicated "flight" sim in Elite: Dangerous. It's really interesting and unfortunate how many times the way to learn to play one game is to play an entirely different game altogether. At any rate, yeah, Outer Wilds is a big leap for someone both uncomfortable with first-person controls and unfamiliar with 3D flight/space controls. I think I'd like to see a similar video of something like The Witness, where the game is still about exploration and learning, but without reading and without 3D motion. Plus it has discrete progress markers, and it would be pretty simple to set the goal for the video as one or two lasers.

17:45 like a glove

Unexpected Spyro music!

Honestly I am on Noobus side where I never really found a hook or an interest to keep playing Because so much praise was thrown around for this game I restarted it four times but in the end I just completely gave up The controls felt clunky, the mysteries weren't interesting and there was nothing that could make feel excited while I was constantly eaten by space fish or run straight into a wall just to die The biggest hook for me was to explore the interesting planets (once I figured out how not to die on them) but that got old once I was only stuck with figuring out the mystery My point is that this is not such an easy game to recommend, even for people who play a lot of games I love that there is such a passion for a unique game but sadly it is not for everyone

Outer Wilds combines a lot of great characteristics together, but it can be like asking someone to read one of literature's great novels. They require commitment, enthusiasm, and a level of knowledge/critical thinking about video games that less experienced players may not have. Just like English class, being forced to read a good book can seriously dampen one's enjoyment of the experience. While I wish that everyone would experience this game, I'm trying to step back in how strongly I push it to people. If it continues to age well, I can hopefully offer it to people in the future if they're ready.

You are so much more patient then I am. While I don’t have issues with people grappling with controls. Every time she asked for a checklist I wanted to pull my hair out, and you just chuckled I wouldn’t have been able to stop myself from going “that’s the POINT there’s not a checklist so you can just EXPLORE do whatever strikes your fancy. Slam your head into a puzzle you don’t have all the info for yet, try and do some weird ship nonsense but for gods sake just be CURIOUS”

Glad you two have finally managed to experience this beautiful game however it is a god darn shame that she never finished it, the story is too good and damn, I agree it should've clicked with her but she must be a very down to earth scientist because I have never heard of a science enthusiast that DOESN'T know about Black Holes

WE GOT WIFE IN THE TITLE BABEYYYYY

and then they broke up i kid, Outer wilds has been so important to me as a game. i only played it earlier this year for the first time, but i end up watching pretty much every playthrough (usually through super cuts) i can find. reccomend it to friends, so on. It's definitly a true gem out there in the crap field of triple A lately.

When I do suggest Outer Wilds to friends that might not be into the slow burn of the game, I tell them they should play it at least until they figure out how to stop the Sun from going supernova. If they can find the answer to that, they will have enough information to want to finish the rest of the game.

I feel like Noobus's approach would be similar to mine since I haven't played this yet. I really don't like *too much* open world and prefer some guiding omnipotent hands. But now I will at least try it. At least once I'm done with the current backlog (because the month of October has added a lot to it).

LETS GOO

It always sets of alarm bells in my head when someone plays a game that relies on exploration and paying attention to dialogue to know where to go, yet they skip through dialogue as quickly as possible to try and get to the “cool stuff.” That, and disliking games that do not hold you by the hand and give you new objectives or stuff do do every five seconds. I call that the “TikTok problem.” Quite sad really.

I actually understand the Noobus very much. I'm a gamer for about three decades now and I, too, just never liked playing games that are too open, don't have any (direct) objectives for the player. I also feel overwhelmed and as much as I like watching other people play games like Outer Wilds I never wanted to play them myself. I'm the kind of player that likes having his freedom in games, but also likes some clear objectives, some small form of goal at least. Nonetheless, a very good video as always. Looking gorward to the next one. Have you thought about doing some VR stuff? That surely would be interesting to see.

only 6 minutes in but i think its a great example that alot of "gamers" forget because we are so used to playing that the reason alot of games have checklists is for people like noobus who aren't massive players that spend tons of hours in playing games i think alot of people often forget about the wider audience that these games are also meant to appeal to and draw in

I did finish it, but I was genuinely frustrated by some the mechanics, like falling into the wormhole on brittle hollow every time you miss a jump, and the controls in general.