Outer Wilds was an expansive, planet-trotting puzzle adventure, but its first and only expansion, Echoes of the Eye, is a more condensed and focused encapsulation of all the elements that made it great. Instead of taking place throughout a solar system, Echoes of the Eye hones in on a singular location, which itself is broken up into distinct areas of interest that keep the intrigue and sense of discovery alive and well. But it's also not without some new stumbles that introduce infrequent but inescapable frustration to the game's core time loop.

Echoes of the Eye doesn't require any prior knowledge of the format of Outer Wilds to start or complete, but it's certainly tuned for players who have accustomed themselves to the type of thinking its puzzles require. Even starting the expansion is a delightful puzzle, giving you a thin breadcrumb trail to follow that exposes a secret so deviously hidden that it's easy to believe it was always there to begin with. This expansion is meant to sit parallel to the challenges of the main game, which means you won't have to be familiar with its mechanics regarding quantum physics or superposition. At the same time, not having played the original adventure will make Echoes of the Eye more challenging, given how it depends on a way of thinking that is only gained through cutting your teeth on the puzzles of the main game.

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The expansion takes place on The Stranger-- mysterious ship that has supposedly always been orbiting the solar system in plain sight. It's a craft from another universe entirely, drawn to your home by the same intrigue surrounding the Eye of the Universe, which drives all the stories throughout Outer Wilds. The Stranger is its own small ecosystem that wraps around itself and subscribes to the same time-based changes that all the other planets in Outer Wilds follow. As soon as you start, you're on the same 22-minute timer as before, with crucial changes within The Stranger requiring you to become familiar with how they affect the entire area over time.