Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye Review (odog502)
IMPORTANT NOTE FOR THOSE BUYING OUTER WILDS BUNDLED WITH THE ECHOES OF THE EYE DLC:
If you get them both together, the DLC is blended in with the main game. This might make your first playthrough confusing because they are separate stories. If you happen to get them both together play through the main game first, then once complete, move on to the DLC. The best way to do this is to avoid/ignore anything having to do with the radio station on Timber Hearth and the distant orbiting satellite. Those items are the beginning steps for the Echoes of the Eye, DLC.
OVERALL
This is a great value DLC. It's not some short little add-on. It's a whole new Outer Wilds adventure that neatly ties into the existing Outer Wilds universe. Nothing is rehashed. No puzzles or tricks are reused. There are some new mechanics and rules of the universe to learn. It really adds a new dimension to the game. If you are a fan of the original game, you will be glad you got this as well.
However, note there are some differences between the base game and this DLC. Most notably, this DLC is spookier than the original game. LOTS of dark areas and even a few jump scares. Also, other characters actually move now! Which adds another dynamic to the game and an improvement over the original.
GAME DIFFICULTY
Just like in the Outer Wilds base game I reached a part in Echoes that dragged. Or more accurately, I got stuck. I had to stop at one point and find a video online to replay all the film reels, to put the pieces of the story together again. Kind of a pain trying to remember all of the disjointed story pieces. The base game had this issue a bit but this one even more so. I had trouble figuring out what order everything was happening from the slide reels. To the game's credit though, if anything feels too grindy, you're probably doing things wrong(unless you're trying to get an achievement, more on that below). It's a rather superb design, you just need to figure it out.
In the end I was able to get through the game without any outside help(I don't count looking up YouTube videos to replay film reels that I had already seen as outside help). However, this DLC was definitely difficult. This just made the completion of it that much more satisfying.
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO COMPLETE?
I stand at 61 hours for my combined time between Outer Wilds and Echoes. 40 hours for base game plus 21 more hours to get through Echoes with all achievements earned.
ACHIEVEMENTS
Just like in the base game you just gotta look up the achievements and how to do them. If you see the title you can figure out some but a few are misleading and one is even buggy. The "You'll never take me alive" achievement can only be triggered at a specific spot, which even after reading a full description of the achievement you would never know it could only be done at a certain spot because there are probably nearly a hundred different places you could perform those actions. This isn't one of those games where if you just grind it out, try enough variables, explore enough places that you will eventually get all achievements. Do yourself a favor and just look them up and even a guide on how to do them. Although I recommend doing this AFTER you are close to completing the game as it could spoil some plot points. With lots of online lookups I was able to get 100% on the achievements.
THE END(NO SPOILERS)
The ending I thought was underwhelming, even more so than the base game. In fact when I saw the ending the first time, I didn't even notice and kept playing(because it let me). After wandering about a few more cycles and realizing there was nothing further to do, I finally checked online and yes I indeed saw the main ending! Someone might say "you just missed the point" or "you weren't paying attention". No, I got it, but i found it to be anti-climactic. Not bad, but still, considering how well the rest of the game is designed, a tiny bit disappointing. However, just like in the base game, "the journey" of the game was well done and enough to hold the game up to a "thumbs up" review. You should still play it regardless.