Outer Wilds

=== Setting ===
Outer Wilds is set in a planetary system consisting of a star orbited by a number of celestial bodies: the Hourglass Twins, a pair of planets orbiting each other with sand flowing from one to the other; Timber Hearth, a forested Earth-like planet that is the homeworld of the four-eyed Hearthian species; the Attlerock, a small rocky moon orbiting Timber Hearth; Brittle Hollow, a hollow planet that is collapsing into a black hole at its center and is orbited by Hollow's Lantern, a volcanic moon; Giant's Deep, a cloud-covered water planet containing several floating islands; and Dark Bramble, a shattered planet largely composed of a space-warping vine plant, inhabited by giant, aggressive anglerfish. Each planet has a distinct visual identity, such as Timber Hearth resembling a campsite in the woods with browns and greens, while Giant's Deep has blue-green rocky beaches. Each planet has a distinct auditory identity as well, with a member of the Outer Wilds space exploration program playing the same song on a unique instrument, which can be listened to from anywhere in the solar system with the signalscope. Additionally, there is the Quantum Moon, which moves to orbit different planets when not observed; the Interloper, an icy comet; and space stations orbiting the sun and Giant's Deep left by the Nomai, a race that went extinct in the planetary system long before the game begins. Hearthians are a four-eyed species that resemble aquatic animals with legs, while the Nomai are a three-eyed, fur-covered, antlered species that wear robes and large masks.

Story

The player takes the role of an unnamed Hearthian space explorer, referred to as "hatchling" by other Hearthians, preparing for their first space flight as part of Outer Wilds Ventures. They are to be the first explorer to travel with a Nomai text translator tool. Prior to departure, a Nomai statue in a museum activates and turns towards them. The player discovers that whenever the Hatchling dies, a vision of a Nomai mask appears, and they are sent back in time to the start of the game in a time loop. Additionally, the loop resets after 22 minutes regardless, as the sun abruptly goes supernova, destroying the solar system.
The player, through repeated time loops, explores the planetary system and the ruins that the Nomai left behind. From their writings, the Nomai were a nomadic species that explored the universe in large spaceships called Vessels; one Vessel discovered a signal older than the universe emanating from the Hatchling's star system. Upon warping to the system, the Vessel became embedded in Dark Bramble, with some of the Nomai surviving in escape pods. No longer able to detect the signal, the Nomai built a civilization throughout the system while trying to find the source, dubbed the "Eye of the Universe". They eventually discover that, with enough power, they can send objects or information backwards in time using a linked pair of black and white holes. This inspires them to build a probe cannon in orbit around Giant's Deep to fire a probe in a random direction to locate the Eye, and a station in orbit around the star, the Sun Station, that would artificially induce a supernova, generating enough power to send the probe's data back in time 22 minutes. Together, this would allow the probe to be fired in as many times and directions as necessary to find the Eye, at which point the Nomai would shut down the Sun Station, ending the time loop. However, the Sun Station failed to induce a supernova and before an alternate power source could be found, the Interloper entered the solar system. The Nomai investigating found that the Interloper contained an extremely pressurized source of "ghost matter", a highly lethal and invisible substance. Before they could inform the others, the source ruptured and a powerful wave of ghost matter spread throughout the system, killing all of the Nomai.
A long time later, after the animals of Timber Hearth evolved into the Hearthians, the sun goes supernova as part of the natural end of the universe, triggering the time loop repeatedly until the probe cannon finds the Eye at the beginning of the game and through the statue inducts the Hatchling into the loop. Armed with this knowledge, the Hatchling is able to repower the Vessel and warp to the Eye. Upon entering the Eye, the Hatchling encounters echoes of the other members of Outer Wilds, as well as a Nomai if they had met on the Quantum Moon. As the universe ends the Eye creates a new universe in a Big Bang. The ending shows a similar planetary system with new life forms 14.3 billion years after its creation, with influences of the Hearthians and Nomai.

Echoes of the Eye

The Echoes of the Eye expansion adds an exhibit to the museum at the beginning of the game, which shows off the deep space satellite used to generate the player's system map. The player discovers an object that eclipses the star—a planet-sized rotating ship, hidden within a cloaking field. Within this ship, called the Stranger, the player finds an abandoned village by a circular river, containing heavily damaged slide reels that can be projected to tell the story of the Stranger's inhabitants.
Similar to the Nomai, the unnamed species that built the Stranger also came to the Hearthian system after discovering the Eye of the Universe's signals, forming a religion around it and ravaging their homeworld moon to build the Stranger. Upon reaching the system and discovering that the Eye heralded the end of the universe, they destroyed their monuments to the Eye and constructed a device to block its signal from other races. The inhabitants built a virtual reality of their homeworld, which could be entered using lantern-like devices and in which they could remain after death. The player discovers their corpses, still holding the lanterns, as well as one inhabitant, the Prisoner, who is locked away from the others both in reality and in the virtual world.
The player learns how to enter the simulation via the lanterns and discovers the active consciousnesses of the inhabitants, who are hostile to the player. The Prisoner's vault, however, cannot be entered. After discovering slide reels showing the limitations of the virtual reality system, the player uses glitches in the system to unlock the vault's three seals and open it. Communicating with the player via a telepathic projection staff, the Prisoner transmits a memory of their crime, which was to disable the signal blocker surrounding the Eye temporarily before they were imprisoned. The player uses the staff to explain to the Prisoner how their actions led the Nomai to discover the signal of the Eye and enter the system, setting the events of the game in motion. The Prisoner exits the vault and vanishes, leaving footprints leading into a nearby lake and their staff on the shore, which shows the player a vision of the Prisoner riding into the sunrise on a raft, accompanied by the player. If the player travels to the Eye of the Universe after having met with the Prisoner, they will find an echo of the Prisoner alongside the other characters, and the ending scene has an influence from the Stranger's inhabitants.