History Videogame / OuterWilds

** In the part of Timber Hearth that has a piece of Ghost Matter a young Hearthian explains that ghost matter eventually evaporates and wonders if there will be any by the time they grow up, foreshadowing the revelation that [[spoiler: the Nomai went extinct from the sudden introduction of Ghost Matter througout the system due to The Interloper]].

** For the Nomai, [[spoiler:what is the Eye of the Universe, and what is the purpose of the signal it is emitting? Why can't it be found by simply following the signal?]]
** The DLC ''Echoes Of The Eye'' adds one more for your ship's computer: [[spoiler:What is the Stranger?]]

* HighlyVisibleLandmark: ''The Sun'' is this by default, due to being the extremely bright gravitational center of the solar system and having all other planets moving relative to it. Anxiously considering your location relative to the sun takes on additional meaning once [[spoiler:the GroundhogDayLoop begins since it is the nexus from where the supernova begins.]]

* SmallRoleBigImpact: [[spoiler:The Prisoner appears only as a background character until you into their vault. However, their defiance allowed the Eye's signal to go out for a brief amount of time, starting the chain of events leading to the creation of a new universe.]]

** Finding [[spoiler:the living Solanium]] adds dialogue to the ending that reveals that [[spoiler:the Eye is an extremely quantum phenomenon that contains all possibilies for the next universe, which need to be collapsed by a conscious observer.]]

* [[MindScrewdriver: Two optional parts of the story help to explain the nature of [[spoiler:the Eye of the Universe and, by extent, the ending]]:

* AnAesop: Delivered by Riebeck just before the GoldenEnding.
-->'''Riebeck:''' I learned a lot, [[spoiler:by the end of everything.]] The past is past, now, but that’s... you know, that’s okay! It’s never really gone completely. The future is always built on the past, even if we won’t get to see it. Still, it’s um, time for something new, now.

The game was first released on UsefulNotes/XboxOne on May 29, 2019 (and on PC the next day), with the UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 release following on October 15. It was later released for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation5 and Xbox Series X/SA on September 15, 2022, and the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch on December 7, 2023.

* ShroudedInMyth: When aboard the [[spoiler:Nomai Vessel, although its warp core is dead, it is still picking up communications from living Nomai elsewhere in the universe. These Nomai mention a frightening story: the legend of Escall's Vessel, (the one you are currently aboard) which vanished one day without a trace. One Nomai dismisses the story of Escall as a tall tale, but another interrupts the conversation to insist that Escall's Vessel really did exist, and their ancestor was among those who tried (and failed) to find it]].

* TimTaylorTechnology: Exploring the [[WaveMotionGun Orbital Probe Cannon]] reveals that Avens and Mallow were the Nomai in charge of its operation. In one conversation, they receieve a message from their fellow engineers warning them (for safety's sake) not to exceed a certain power level when they configure the cannon to fire. Avens and Mallow convince one another to ignore the recommendation and maximize the cannon's power output, reasoning that it will [[ForScience ensure the highest possible chance of the mission's success]] (and, implicitly, [[RuleOfCool will be cool]]). Elsewhere, you can find a conversation between Cassava and Daz just before they send the message in question. They know their sibling and friend very well, and accurately predict that Avens and Mallow will want to crank the power higher, so they adjust the recommended "limit" significantly lower than the calculated safe maximum in an attempt to compensate for their zeal. Thanks to Avens and Mallow the cannon launches the probe beautifully, but overloads itself and explodes anyway, accounting for its shattered state when you find it.

* TimTaylorTechnology: Exploring the [[WaveMotionGun Orbital Probe Cannon]] reveals that Avens and Mallow were the Nomai in charge of its operation. In one conversation, they receieve a message from their fellow engineers warning them (for safety's sake) not to exceed a certain power level when they configure the cannon to fire. Avens and Mallow convince one another to ignore the recommendation and maximize the cannon's power output, reasoning that it will [[ForScience ensure the highest possible chance of the mission's success]] (and, implicitly, [[RuleOfCool will be cool]]). Elsewhere, you can find a conversation between Cassava and Daz just before they send the message in question. They know Avens and Mallow very well, and accurately predict that they will want to crank the power higher, so they adjust the recommended "limit" significantly lower than the calculated safe maximum in an attempt to compensate for the zeal of their sibling and friend. Thanks to Avens and Mallow the cannon launches the probe beautifully, but overloads itself and explodes anyway, accounting for its shattered state when you find it.

* BigDamPlot: The Stranger's main environment is a circular river that runs around the entire ring's circumference, complete with a massive Reservoir and a dam that marks its end. Early in the loop, due to detecting the coming supernova and unfurling its solar sails to escape the blast, the Stranger suddenly overstresses itself, causing the dam to slowly deteriorate. A major time milestone is when the dam finally breaks halfway through the loop, releasing the Reservoir's water in a massive wave. This floods the river's lowlands and destroys many structures in the Stranger, but uncovers certain others in the Reservoir as the water level recedes. Player actions must be timed to account for the dam's eventual destruction.

* CentrifugalGravity: Since the Strangers did not discover the gravity crystals that the Nomai did, the artifical gravity used on the Stranger is instead centrifugal, where the entire structure spins to create said artificial gravity. Logically, [[spoiler:inside the simulation, no such method is needed to create artificial gravity]].

* HiddenElfVillage: The Hearthians and the Nomai are characterized as {{Bold Explorer}}s, curious and eager to learn the secrets of the solar system. In contrast, the people of the Stranger are absolutely not. [[spoiler: They embarked on an interstellar voyage to seek the Eye of the Universe, suggesting they once had some adventurous spirit, but it perhaps their horror at contacting the Eye [[DespairEventHorizon utterly broke]] that spirit. After this, they withdrew into the Stranger, cut off communication, and did not explore the solar system. There is no evidence they ever left the spacecraft -- the shuttles in the docking bay seem never used. Ultimately, they withdrew from reality entirely, retreating into memories of their lost home.]]

** In one room, [[spoiler: one of the berths surrounding the green fire is empty]]. For some players, this is ParanoiaFuel, and their exploration of the dimly-lit corners of the Stranger is made more tense by the fear that [[spoiler: one of its intimidating alien inhabitants is still alive and stalking them. However, this empty berth belonged to the Prisoner, who you have no need to fear. They are as dead as the rest of their race, locked away from you, and (most importantly) the only friendly soul you will meet here]]!

* RidingIntoTheSunset: [[spoiler: The last thing the Prisoner does in the simulation is FaceDeathWithDignity and leave the vision torch for you to find. This vision seems to invite you to join them TogetherInDeath to welcome whatever comes next. In it, both of you climb onto a raft and embark on a journey across the water toward the bright light of the sun. Maybe it's a sunset, symbolizing the end of the Prisoner's tragic ordeal -- or maybe it's a sunrise, as your PlayerCharacter still has a chance to RestartTheWorld.]]

* RuleOfPerception: The simulation outright uses this as one of its rules. [[spoiler:Certain objects only manifest in the simulation if they're visible, and de-spawn if they're in complete darkness. This leads to scenarios where a bridge only exists if its lamps are lit, or the locked door to a cave disappears if you extinguish all the lamps nearby.]]

* SenselessSacrifice: [[spoiler:The Stranger was built at the cost of destroying its inhabitants' home moon. They remain in orbit to this day because they have no home to return to.]]
* SequenceBreaking: The three codes are coded into the locks and can be brute-forced, allowing the player to access the ending sequence without taking certain actions that would otherwise be necessary. While not initially accounted for, a patch later made it so that unlocking the Vault would be reflected in the real world, should you visit it afterward.
** Making this a total subversion, the intended experience's route relies on exploiting "glitches" in the in-game simulation that resemble actual sequence breaking & metagaming techniques: [[spoiler:Debug mode, wrong-warp, and client-cracking]].

* SkywardScream: After the player shows [[spoiler:The Prisoner]] the fate of the Nomai and the events leading up to the present, they scream. Whether it's meant to be mournful or triumphant is unclear. (Perhaps a bit of both?)
* SmallRoleBigImpact: [[spoiler:The Prisoner physically appears once (twice if you include the version in the Ancient Glade), unknown about until the Hearthian breaks into their vault. However, their defiance allowed the Eye's signal to go out for a brief amount of time, starting the chain of events leading to the creation of a new universe.]]
* SolarSail: The Stranger's main method of propulsion appears to be an enormous radial set of green solar sails on its sun-facing side, that unfold from the wheel-like ship's "spokes". Early in the loop, the Stranger's sails unfold suddenly, causing the entire ship to shudder and the lights to flicker. This is due to the Stranger detecting the sun going supernova, and automatically attempting to get out of its blast radius. It is this event that causes the dam in the Reservoir to slowly break from the stress.
* StabTheSalad: In the event that you [[spoiler:are grabbed by a pursuer, they will rear their heads back, mouth agape, as if preparing to take a bite out of you, before instead turning to your artifact and blowing out the flame]].

* PsychologicalProjection: A CentralTheme of the DLC and the FatalFlaw of the inhabitants of The Stranger. They seem to believe the Eye of the Universe is destructive, blame it for leading them to a terrible fate, and decide to [[spoiler: block its signal to protect other people from its evil influence]]. However, the AwfulTruth is that [[spoiler: ''they'' are the ones who are destructive: they pillaged and killed their world. They are responsible for their own fate. ''Their'' influence is evil. And they seem to overlook the possibility that ''others would not'' go to the same awful extremes]]. This becomes a VisualPun as you discover their favorite medium for art and communication: slide reels viewed through projectors. Sometimes you must darken or turn off a projection to reveal the truth it was concealing, something they seem unwilling to do themselves.

** Despite it being one of the very first enigmas the player will encounter on the Stranger, they will never be able to translate the unknown language of its inhabitants ([[JustifiedTrope Justified]] due to the acknowledged and realistic difficulty of translating an entirely unknown language, let alone in a 22 minute timespan. It doesn't help that the translator tool that the player has is only programmed to translate the Nomai language, not the Strangers', hinting that they aren't the Nomai, but a different species of aliens altogether). The story is told almost entirely visually.

* InHarmonyWithNature: Some obvious clues suggest this about the people of the Stranger: they have recreated a river and forest aboard their RingWorldPlanet; their preferred building material is wood; their art favors sinuous abstract ornamentation, similar to the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formline_art Formline Art]] of First Nations people of northwest North America; they operate SufficientlyAdvancedBambooTechnology; they wear [[{{Druid}} priestly-looking]] robes, and go [[EarthyBarefootCharacter bare-hoof]]. These might make a GenreSavvy player suspect they are a civilization of gentle SpaceElves. [[spoiler: This is all brutally {{Subverted}}. They are the ''opposite'' of {{Nature Lover}}s or good stewards -- they despoiled their homeworld and left it a PollutedWasteland. The ecosystem of the Stranger is alive, but obviously sickly after they have neglected it for ages.]]

* InvisibilityCloak: The Stranger is hidden by a cloaking device which renders it completely invisible to the naked eye. However, from a very specific angle, it doesn't work correctly, reflecting the darkness of space instead of what's actually behind it. The Heartians stumble upon this flaw by accident while testing their mapping satellite and write it off as an annoying glitch, which serves as the beginning of the DLC quest.

* AccidentalDiscovery: There is a suggestion that, when constructing the [[spoiler: simulated DreamLand, the engineers found it worked as an ArtificialAfterlife]] completely by mistake. [[spoiler: One reel shows an elderly-looking inhabitant who dies during a test. They seem surprised to wake up in the simulation.]] This [[FridgeBrilliance could explain]] the observation that, despite its advanced technology, [[spoiler: the simulation is a FlawedPrototype with fundamental problems the designers know about but cannot (or will not) fix. This [[DigitalGhost consciousness-preserving]] feature may be a BlackBox that they do not understand and are afraid to meddle with]].

** The base game already features a navigation marker system that allows you to tag any rumor location you've already visited. Chiefly, this allows you reach the Stranger directly after finding it the first time, despite its cloak. However, this feature isn't given any attention in the base game and is often completely missed by players. To remedy this, the DLC adds new dialogue where Slate ''explicitly'' reminds the player of this feature in the loop immediately after the one where the Stranger is first found - for the express purpose of saving time refinding the very invisible ringworld. The player can even [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] just how conveniently timed this reminder is.

* TogetherInDeath: [[spoiler:After releasing the Prisoner (whose body is long dead) in the simulation and sharing your stories, the Prisoner leaves the Vault with their Artifact, and by the time you follow them, they're both long gone. The only thing they leave behind is one last vision by the lake's water - you and the Prisoner setting off together in a raft, and sailing away into a beautiful sunset. The heavy implication being the Prisoner has already chosen to die peacefully, extinguishing their flame by walking into the lake, and they want you, the only one who truly understood them, to join them together in the afterlife. As your body must also be dead for you to open the Vault (unless you cheated), the least you could do is oblige.]]

** AccidentalDiscovery: This feature might have been an unexpected glitch. [[spoiler: One reel shows an elderly-looking inhabitant who dies during a test. They seem surprised to wake up in the simulation.]]

* TotalEclipseOfThePlot: The Stranger's InvisibilityCloak fails when [[spoiler: it passes in front of the sun. As you approach it for the first time, the dark field completely obscures the sun and seems to swallow all light]]. In this ominous way, you discover The Stranger (and hear music titled "Into Shadow").

** In the caverns and tunnels leading to the Zero-G Cave, you meet Tektite. This miner has no fear of caves, but gets scared if you mention "Zero-G" -- apparently they find microgravity [[{{Squick}} so uncomfortable they get nauseated]] at the mere thought of it. You can torment Tektite by regaling them with TooMuchInformation about how it feels to float and spin weightlessly. Tektite struggles not to vomit.

* WalkingSpoiler: This is a game about discovery, so naturally certain locations and characters are massive spoilers. The single biggest one of these, however, is [[spoiler:Solanum, who is the last living Nomai in the solar system.]]

* ChildlessDystopia: While you can see what look like alien family portraits in the structures of the Stranger, some of which depict children and infants (chicks?), [[spoiler:there are no small bodies around the firepits, and only adults inside the simulation. Evidently, at some point the Stranger's inhabitants stopped reproducing. This is a notable contrast to the Hearthian village (where several kids play) and Nomai settlements (where multiple generations were raised in this solar system).]]

* DreamLand: A major feature in the DLC is [[spoiler:a SharedDream world that can be entered by sleeping near special green fires with a special artifact. The dream world is a bizarre reflection of the real world, covered in darkness and inhabited by actual living (and hostile) aliens. However, this turns out to be a SubvertedTrope as more lore is uncovered, and it is revealed that the "dream world" is in fact [[InsideAComputerSystem a giant simulation]] modelled after the aliens' home moon.]]

* ExpansionPackWorld: The Stranger, a [[spoiler: ringworld ship. The {{Retcon}} that it was there all along is {{Justified}} by the fact that the ship is [[StealthInSpace permanently cloaked]] and undetectable in most situations, sits outside of the orbital plane of the planets, and has a near-zero chance of being discovered by accident. The Hearthians detected the ship's silhouette from a satellite before the start of the game, but wrote it off as equipment failure.]]

* HiddenElfVillage: The Hearthians and the Nomai are characterized as a race full of {{Bold Explorer}}s, curious and eager to learn the secrets of the solar system. In contrast, the people of the Stranger are absolutely not. [[spoiler: They embarked on an interstellar voyage to seek the Eye of the Universe, suggesting they once had some adventurous spirit, but it perhaps their horror at contacting the Eye [[DespairEventHorizon utterly broke]] that spirit. After this, they withdrew into the Stranger and did not explore the solar system. There is no evidence they ever left -- the spacecraft in the docking bay seem never used. Ultimately, they withdrew from reality entirely, retreating into the SharedDream of their lost home.]]

** TotalEclipseOfThePlot: The object it fails to reflect [[spoiler: is the sun. As you approach it for the first time, the dark field completely obscures it and seems to swallow all light]]. In this ominous way, you discover The Stranger (and hear music titled "Into Shadow").

* NoGearLevel: [[spoiler: When you enter the DreamLand, you may be startled to find yourself wearing only humble Hearthian clothes. Your space suit, flashlight, Little Scout, and JumpJetPack are all gone. This diminishes your power and mobility to an incredible degree, and turns navigating this place into a SurvivalHorror ordeal.]]

* ExpansionPackWorld: The Stranger, a [[spoiler: ringworld ship. Justified in-universe in that the ship is [[StealthInSpace permanently cloaked]] and undetectable in most situations, given it sits outside of the orbital plane and has a near-zero chance of being discovered by accident. The Hearthians detected the ship's silhouette from a satellite before the start of the game, but wrote it off as equipment failure.]]

* InsideAComputerSystem: The DLC introduces what is ostensibly [[spoiler:a shared "dream world", accessible when sleeping next to a green campfire with an Artifact, appearing to be a bizarre world of darkness inhabited by the living inhabitants of the Stranger, where light can do apparently supernatural things. However, as more lore is uncovered, it is slowly revealed that the "dream world" is in fact an incredibly advanced simulated reality modelled after the inhabitants' home moon -- one with glitches and bugs that can be exploited]].

* MinusWorld: [[spoiler:The simulated world (like many video games) uses DynamicLoading: as you ride a raft between areas you pass through a dark tunnel while the new area is loaded (InUniverse). If you drop off the raft during this transition, you'll fall through the world and into a flat pond connecting the four endpoints of the simulated areas. Learning this trick allows you to bypass one of the three locks, as it drops you on the opposite side of the final area. It also allows you to enter the Shrouded Forest Forbidden Archive directly.]]

** A reel depicts the aliens building the Stranger, but obscures [[spoiler:that they strip-mined their original homeworld in the process]].

* PsychologicalProjection: A CentralTheme of the DLC and the FatalFlaw of the inhabitants of The Stranger. They seem to believe the Eye of the Universe is destructive, blame it for leading them to a terrible fate, and decide to [[spoiler: block its signal to protect other people from its evil influence]]. However, the AwfulTruth is that [[spoiler: ''they'' are the ones who are destructive: they pillaged and killed their world. They are responsible for their own fate. And they seem to overlook the possibility that others ''would not'' go to the same awful extremes]]. This becomes a VisualPun as you discover their favorite medium for art and communication: slide reels viewed through projectors. Sometimes you must darken or turn off a projection to reveal the truth it was concealing, something they seem unwilling to do themselves.

* SurvivalHorror: [[spoiler:The simulated world has many elements of the genre. Unlike the main game's Dark Bramble, (where you at least got to keep all your gear and the terrifying anglerfish were essentially just stage hazards that can be safely avoided once you learn the trick) here you're placed in pitch darkness where you have to escape from aggressive, invincible pursuers actively patrolling the area with the only thing to your disposal being the Artifact which provides a ''very'' miniscule light at the cost of potentially alerting said pursuers. The already ominous atmosphere of the non-simulated world is cranked up to eleven, with the only music being a DroneOfDread and the pursuers greeting you with an obligatory ScareChord should they catch you.]]