Outer Wilds - outer space camping trip game

[Yosharian]

The bit that annoyed me about Subnautica was how vulnerable the sub is to those giant bastards. I just didn't bother taking it anywhere as a result

 

[Jaedar]

I think the issue here is that some people like puzzles for the sake of themselves while other people play adventure games for their worlds/twists/characters and understand puzzles are necessary component to involve player into story and degree of how it is done also has an impact on the whole game.

So what I am hearing is that you are a storyfag, at least when it comes to puzzle games.

My issue with it wasn't really with flying and ghost cave that killed me and restart of a loop but with whole initial village exploration, villagers, etc. not presenting me a good hook.

Yeah, this is a fair complaint. The writing overall is not good, everyone talks like a redditor and the intro really wants to contextualize all the tutorials by having conversations with the villagers. (Hey! I see you are about to launch a space shuttle, sure you don't want to do 0-G training once more for old times sake?)

But at least for me once I actually had control of the ship it took me like 5 minutes to find an interesting alien artifact that hooked me.

On other end of spectrum is Talos Principle. It does nothing for me because the hook does not interest me.

Yeah, Talos does not have particularly notable or original puzzle design/mechanics, so if the hook doesn't interest you there's not much reason to play it over any other puzzle game.

As for the Outer Wilds suggestions, eh. It'd feel like other game if you could kill the anglerfish rather than using them as a door/key puzzle.

OW is going for a very chill vibe, so it wouldn't really fit it. But I think an OW type game that had more environmental hazards and more hostile flora and fauna could be just as good if not better.