izigame.me

Echos of the Eye is indeed almost another whole Outer Wilds game in and of itself, though certainly not quite as long, and also much scarier.
In order to avoid any major spoilers, I’ll try to be as nebulous about the expansion as I can, while still hopefully giving you an idea of what the DLC contains.
First, Echos of the Eye is most definitely DLC meant for anyone who has beaten the game, or if you’re playing the game for the first time and you get to the point where you’ve solved the final puzzle but haven’t completed it (you’ll know when you’re there), you may want to then check out the DLC before finishing your game (trust me). The good news is that, if you’re a new player, you can easily avoid accessing the DLC by ignoring the satellite shack on your home planet until you’re ready (and if you’re a returning player like me, there’s your hint on how to access the DLC).
The amount of content the Echos of the Eye has is quite impressive. While it’s not quite as long or as expansive as Outer Wilds, I got a lot more play time out of it than I was expecting. There was a point where I thought I had the final puzzle figured out, only for me to stumble into a whole new set of puzzles that would take me several more hours to figure out. Needless to say, you definitely get your moneys worth in terms of content with this DLC.
The puzzles themselves are also quite good. There were only two or three moments where I had to look up a guide on what to do next, and even then, I probably could’ve figured things out on my own given a bit more time and back tracking.
The environments look just as good as the base game. Shouldn’t be surprised there. But they are a lot more eerie, especially once you find the DLC’s inhabitants.
And this is where my biggest complaint for the game comes in. Most reviews I read said that while this DLC was scarier than any content in base Outer Wilds, most seemed to play it off as just a bit scarier than the Bramble, and that overall the “scary” content shouldn’t be too bad of an experience. Personally, I have to disagree.
While in the beginning I would’ve agreed to this assessment, as things were only a little spooky, and the first “scary” area (with the forest), wasn’t too bad all things considered. But when the other two areas required you to traverse them with the lights off in order to progress, that got way too intense for my tastes.
If you’re like me and generally don’t like scary things, I’ll have three paragraphs below explaining the scary moments to help you see if they would be too much for you as well. They’re listed in order of spoiler severity, so only read all of them if you really want to make sure this DLC is for you (though it should be noted that these spoilers won’t spoil everything for you, and you’ll still have lots of puzzling and story uncovering to do)
1: There are two areas in the game that you need to traverse in pitch darkness with some scary looking creatures lurking about. In order to see where you’re going you have to light up a lamp, but this can help said creatures find you.
2: The creatures have their own lamps but tend to keep them turned off. The creatures are also quite scary looking (bipedal owls whose eyes glow in the reflection of light, with antlers on their head, bird claws for hands, and hooves for feet, a true combination of all the night time animal horror, minus perhaps some bat wings, haha), and they also make some spooky sounds, especially when they notice you. The animation when they catch you isn’t particularly scary (no death or anything), but it’s still unnerving.
3: These two areas need to be completed in order to progress in the DLC, and one of them involves approaching a spot where you need to light up a “candle” of sorts, and of course one of the creatures is near said candle. It should be noted you get to explore these areas “lit up” first and with no enemies walking around, but it still doesn’t make traversing them in the dark with new enemies any less scary. All in all, if the thought of needing to move in absolute pitch darkness, with the possibility of getting caught/chased by some monstruous looking aliens doesn’t sound fun to you, these parts will be difficult at best.
Solution for the scary parts: I personally found these moments to be far too intense for me. Thankfully, the option you can turn on to make the game less scary does help. It doesn’t remove the spookiness entirely, as you’ll still need to traverse the pitch black with creatures lurking around in said darkness, but if the creatures spot you, they move a lot slower, meaning you can easily waltz around them if needed. They also make less spooky noises. So still pretty scary, but it made the dark areas doable for me.
That scary moments are what I would argue is the only major negative of this DLC. Otherwise, it was an excellent and enjoyable continuation of the Outer Wilds experience.