A horror game that shouldn't be scoffed at as an Amnesia clone, Red Barrels' slaughterhouse take on an insane asylum is surprisingly solid. Where Outlast succeeds, it absolutely hits it out of the park, with visuals and sound design second to none and a few mechanics sure to get your adrenaline on overdrive. Sadly, some notable shortcomings stemming from design in addition to a fairly weakA horror game that shouldn't be scoffed at as an Amnesia clone, Red Barrels' slaughterhouse take on an insane asylum is surprisingly solid. Where Outlast succeeds, it absolutely hits it out of the park, with visuals and sound design second to none and a few mechanics sure to get your adrenaline on overdrive. Sadly, some notable shortcomings stemming from design in addition to a fairly weak story keep Outlast from reaching its true potential.
Playing as the world's most bat**** dedicated journalist Miles Upshur, you investigate Mount Massive Asylum in hopes of uncovering a story following a tip about inhumane experiments being conducted there. Outlast succeeds in hooking you right from the start, with you asking questions as to what happened in the asylum. The game, for better and worse, tells you a story hidden in its collectible documents and environment. It really ingrains the mystery and incentives you to hunt for clues as a journalist should, but you'll be scratching your head at the underwhelming plot. There is a sense of effort in the plot, but it's a shame where it heads (somewhere really stupid). The finale is absolute dog sh*t not because of what occurs, but rather the lack of payoff. The game makes a sudden 180 turn towards the end and replaces the intriguing mystery for pseudoscience and corporate backstabbing, both of which failed to get me invested.
The real bread and butter of Outlast is how it plays. Encountering the game's numerous monstrosities, Miles cannot fight but rather must rely on his ability to run and hide from them. Equipped with your camera, you can use night vision in the dark spaces littered throughout the game which drains batteries faster than my savings. Said batteries are scarce until the end of the game, which highlights the risk-reward system and increases the tension when snooping in the dark. When you're spotted, the game's music cranks to dial 9 which is an indicator for you to get the hell out of dodge and book it. Luckily, Miles is quite a runner himself with the game allowing you to vault over objects as you try to flee your pursuers. There are plenty of instances in the game such as this which serves as Outlast's strongest aspect. It gets your blood going as you make split second decisions turning corners and choosing to hide or risk being torn to pieces. Unfortunately some mechanics don't hold up quite as well. For instance, crawling in the game is absolutely useless as you move slower than a snail's pace, which makes sneaking useless compared to just running past enemies. And speaking of running past enemies, Outlast's AI is quite predictable, to the point of zapping the tension and horror out of the game. It's easy to tell that they don't actually follow you, but rather the path you take and it's through this that you can juke them out, making the rest of the game a breeze even on higher difficulties. One other sin the game commits is that at every obstacle, the game asks of you to either: find a key or turn 2-3 valves to advance. It's not exactly bad, but it often pulled me out of the experience over how video-gamey it felt juxtaposed to the lack of any other mechanics, making the exploration/running/hiding combo your only means of interacting with this world. It's solid, but bare bones which isn't bad at all when you're focusing on your strengths, to which Outlast excels.
If there's anything that's almost flawless about Outlast, it's the visual and audio. The graphical fidelity of the game many times borders on photorealistic and while an insane asylum isn't an exactly original horror setting, it's filled with enough variety to keep it fresh throughout. This sort of quality extends to the audio which trades subtlety in exchange for a brash and blood curdling score. The music absolutely hits its stride as you're being chased and when you're not, accompanies the game's sometimes effective jumpscares and quieter moments. It won't win any awards, but it's extremely fitting.
Among all things, hearing that Outlast is one of the scariest games ever has me scratching my head. I know that fear is subjective and all that , but Outlast's failure to scare me isn't so much how little it did rather how hard they tried. Throughout the entire 4.5 hour campaign I was bombarded by an endless amount of corpses, blood, and jumpscares that it ultimately desensitized me about 1/3 of the way through. This slaughterhouse approach to horror is more disgusting than terrifying. The lack of scares also extends to enemy design, which is intimidating at best. The best thing I can say about Outlast's attempts at horror is that it's thrilling, which I attribute more to fun, not s***ing my pants.
Even with its shortcomings, Outlast is a solid game with it's chase sequences and audiovisual design worth the discounted $5, just don't expect a "horror masterpiece". If you also came to see hulking madmen wielding cleavers with their dongs hanging out, Outlast delivers.… Expand
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