Groundhog Day meets Star Trek in a journey to the final frontier. You play an astronaut on an alien space programme. Start the game on your home planet, learning the fundamentals of space flight and chatting to your four-eyed friends about the mysteries of the universe.

Once you’re ready, hop into a spacecraft to explore the local solar system. Unlike other space exploration games – Elite, for example – Outer Wilds comes with a caveat. Within 22 minutes of game time, the sun goes supernova and ends life as we know it. At this point, the action resets. Your goal is use the information you find on each playthrough to save the universe.

Outer Wilds sports puzzles, quirky design, and fun gameplay: proof that you don’t need guns to create a thrilling adventure game. The time loop concept and narrative mystery is enough.

8/10