Outlast 2

Gratuitous in lieu of sense, Outlast 2 is unpleasant. Fans may lap this up but, while technically competent, there's nothing here to truly enjoy.

Outlast 2 is a good and very frightening horror game, but with some flaws like the annoying "die & retry" gameplay and linear pace.

Outlast 2 builds on what the original did well, crafting terrifying chase sequences with care.

Outlast II is a good game, if it does exactly as you please. Unfortunately, that is not always the case which makes for a very frustrating game.

Outlast II significantly ups the ante in the production values stakes, but its biggest sin is relying a little too heavily on trial and error in the gameplay department. There's an unsettling story here that wanders into some quite shocking territory, but the writing doesn't always sing from the same hymn sheet, and some murderous moments are delivered a little too frantically for the fiction to fully marinate. Despite that, there's more than enough good on offer here to tempt you back to church. Pull up a pew and prepare for a psychological onslaught.

Outlast 2 is visually beautiful, tense and boasts a grotesque but intriguing story. Unfortunately, the overabundance of atrocious chase sequences completely destroy any and all tension and fun the game has going for it.

Outlast 2 is more of an ordeal than the first, in terms of content but also gameplay. The story provides some momentum, but trial and error sequences will see many succumb to frustration (and many large pick axes).

After completing the campaign, Outlast 2 boiled down to being too repetitive and maddening — it’s a horrific, beautiful disappointment. I can’t help but wish the game was half its length and set entirely in environments filled with the creepy corridors, ghostly apparitions, murderous priests, gory suicides and the demons that it does so well. Those moments are when Outlast 2 is at its very best. Instead, the fear was drained by constant deaths, sequences that are more frustrating than they should be, and an abysmal checkpoint system that only highlights how bad the rest is. Outlast 2 looks amazing and sounds amazing, but the gameplay that would make this dark gem shine just isn’t here.

Outlast 2 has some great design elements, and the night-vision handy-cam mechanic is still scary. But the jump scares and gore don't mix right with the elements of psychological horror, and the story retreads horror tropes that didn't need retreading.

As a horror experience Outlast 2 works as a bit of grindhouse exploitation. It’s intense, it’s sharp, and it’s a grisly, beautiful game. But it’s also so linear and tries to be so cinematic that it opens itself to comparisons to similar stories told in other media, and as weird as it is to say, Outlast 2 is also far too safe.

One of the scariest video games ever made, or at least it is for the first few hours – before it succumbs to wearying repetition and frustratingly unfair set pieces.

When I first loaded up Outlast 2, I expected an unsettling experience and that's what I got. Unfortunately, it wasn't always for the reasons the developers intended. If you can get through its many frustrating sequences, there are some good scares awaiting you but it's an incredibly flawed affair that will surely come as a disappointment to fans of the original.

Red Barrels has tried to create something rather different to the first Outlast, but the result is a game that, while feeling undeniably grander than its forebear, is considerably less enjoyable. [July 2017, p68]

A scary adventure that sacrifices as much gameplay as the cult in its story does followers. It also, unfortunately, suffers when compared to Resident Evil VII. [June 2017, p.79]

If you are looking only for horror, Outlast 2 delivers. It’s beautiful, gory and scary. But in terms of story and gameplay, it is repetitive, linear, unfair, and focused too much on trial and error.

Outlast 2’s backwoods territory has a real passion behind it’s visuals and sound but the skew towards the chase quickly strikes me as overbearing. The story tropes sit with a tale that’s been told before and, whilst the antagonists are memorable, their relentless nature adds frustration rather than genuine fear. Stealth remains enjoyable but it seems pushed to the periphery. This game will polarise, depending on your priorities.