Allow me to set the stage for this review; it's 4:30 in the morning, I awoke in the middle of the night as nature called, expecting to take care of business and head back to sleep. I have an exam to take in some odd hours and I wanted to be as well rested as possible. I crawled back into my bed, ready to close my eyes and drift into the void once again.

Only there was one problem, one I have come to be familiar with. A stray thought of a game that I picked up and started playing on a whim over a year and some months ago. A small, unassuming little space exploration game that I played to completion in only 15-25 hours and have not replayed since. It's a game that completely changed how passionate I thought I could still feel about a video game well into adulthood and has left me awake for over two hours now a year later trying to express these emotions.

Outer Wilds is a very difficult game to review. It is an exquisitely, meticulously crafted but undoubtedly finite experience, full of moving parts and completely lacking any form of linearity. Every little piece of information I give to you is a treasured moment you will never be able to earn back, and throughout these sleepless nights where I lay wide awake trying to imagine how much detail to divulge, the only thing I can think to say is that I want you to play the game. Talk to me about what puzzles of the universe have you stumped and what all you've explored in this tiny little galaxy so far, and then come back to me when you reach the climax and breathlessly ramble on about your experiences and the discoveries you made, even just so I can vicariously live through those moments one more time through you. Most of all I just want you to love this game the way I do and feel the emotions I feel.

Outer Wilds is a once-in-a-lifetime experience of a game, and the unfortunate finality of that notion is baked into the core design of its mechanics. If this review accomplishes nothing else, I hope it convinces you to stop and simply play the game, with however much knowledge you currently have of it. Prepare to lose yourself in a world of open discovery and self-motivated exploration, with no waypoints or quest markers to encourage you in any which way, only your own personal curiosity and a tiny universe packed full of mysteries. Just remember at some point in the midst of your adventures to take a break and smell the pine trees or roast a marshmallow around the campfire, you'll thank me for it.