"Outer Wilds" is easily one of the only games to make you feel emotions of both nature - the ones you have words for and the ones that just leave you speechless. Right off the bat, the main menu hits you with that pleasant soundtrack reassuring you that everything will be alright.

It is one of the very few games that implement time as a mechanic so beautifully that if you even have an iota of patience, you'll come to see just how wondrous it is. If there has ever been a game that boldly proclaims in its gameplay that "the universe doesn't revolve around you", this has to be it. You'll make so many mistakes, miss so many little events by seconds just because you happened to thrust a little too much. But don't lose hope because every time, the main in-game mechanic kicks in and time loops, you'll be wiser for it.

The characters have so much weight to them because when you encounter them in this vast indifferent universe, it gives you someone you can just relax with and take a break from exploration. It's amazing how much heart there is in this game.

The only thing that most if not all people who are leaving negative reviews have qualms with is that the game never pushes you to do anything. And I don't use that word lightly. We as a collective of gamers, have been so trained and used to the idea of following an objective, doing the next big thing, driving the story ahead as the main character, that this innate sense of freedom offered in "Outer Wilds" might throw some people off. Oh you just want to go so far away from the solar system that the planets are perfectly aligned and then you want to try to listen to the music produced from the now-combined instruments? Go ahead. You just want to sit by a campfire and roast some marshmallows as there are planet-engulfing hurricanes yeeting islands into space? Go ahead. The only thing pushing you as a player to find out what's happening is your own curiosity that'll send you on this amazing journey, trying to make sense of the stories like the missing pieces of a big puzzle.

It is challenging, if one can even call it that, in a non-traditional sense. Yes, there is a time loop which basically puts you at square one every time, leaving you only with the knowledge and memories of all the loops before. Does that pose as a hindrance to the pacing and overall flow of the game? Quite the opposite, actually. You'll be walking a path previously taken and more often that not, even a single line read in the previous loop before it resets, provides valuable information and helps you be more and more efficient as you inch closer to the truth.
Its biggest and only problem is, as stated by countless others before me, that it can only, truly be experienced once. The whole journey, for those who dare to complete it, leaves you with such a bitter-sweet feeling in your heart that your appreciation for all the events that led to it only grows even more.

All in all, go buy it, play it and then join us in our sorrow that you finished the game.

This game physically hurt to play by the end. And no, not in the way you would think. The amount of goosebumps in my body and lumps in my throat I've felt is a testament to the fact how utterly amazing this game was. The writing in this game is truly brilliant in the way that, whether you are a fan of these kind of games or not, you will keep wanting to know what happens next and how it all ends. Every new turn in the story, is accompanied with one amazing soundtrack after the other.
The simplicity with which the beginning of "To the Moon" presents itself, is so good-to-be-true that you know something is coming, and you just can't wait for what that 'something' is going to be. The end (no spoilers) is by far one of the best and most coherent connections I've seen in a story, be it in a game or elsewhere. The significance of every little thing that you are made to interact with and/or experience become tenfold as the story reaches its climax.
All-in-all, "To the Moon" is one of those things that I'll recommend to anyone to experience at least once in their lifetime.