+1, Outer Wilds is one of the best gaming experience I've had in over a decade. If you decide to play it, it's absolutely essential that you go in knowing as little about it as possible. You can only ever play this game once, since your only progression in this game is your knowledge about the world.
Both The Witness and Outer Wilds were two highly acclaimed games that I fully expected to really enjoy, but with both of them I left feeling very disappointed, for different reasons.
I respect what the Witness does and the craft of how it's all put together, very clever. But it just ends up feeling like a bumper book of puzzles to me, after a few dozen of the same kind of puzzle I just get very irritable. I was expecting a more Myst-like experience where the puzzles are varied and integrated into the environment, where there's equal focus between world/story building and the puzzling. To me The Witness felt like it took a long time to say very little, it's very rare that I use the term pretentious but I do feel like it applies here.
The Outer Wilds also has some very innovative and interesting ideas and craft, but left me very underwhelmed. I won't go into details but I honestly think it's pretty overrated. It all hinges on how well the story and world captivates you though, I can see how many people would like it.
Riven is still the absolute high point of the explorative puzzle genre for me.
I played Myst 2022 and Riven in the past month. Riven is still as amazing as I remember. I didn't remember any dialog, plot, or books, but remembered all the puzzles and settings - after 20 years!
The Witness and to a lesser extend OW were evidently influenced by these games. Overall, I liked them more! Subtle and clever in ways the Cyan predesessors are not.
I love the comparison - I've heard a number of outer wilds players not seeing the comparison due to lack of story in The Witness. I think that's missing the point - TW and OW are the best exploration-driven games I've played, and I'm suspicious they're the best ever made.