Image courtesy of PC Gamer
Outlast
, developed by Red Barrels, is considered probably one of the most terrifying modern horror-game to date. The game isn’t something you can read about and feel the horror, it’s a whole experience. For one, it’s a first-person survival horror game that is completely dark. By dark, I’m not just talking about the gore but also the whole setting of the place. Literally, without your night vision camera, you cannot see anything. Right from the start, you can see an homage to
The Blair Witch Project
.
You are an investigative reporter tasked with investigating Mount Massive Asylum based on an anonymous tip containing information regarding the gruesome practices on psychiatric patients by Murkoff, a corporation profiting off unethical experiments conducted at the facility. The patients left behind at the facility are out for blood and it’s up to you to figure out what’s going on and to document it all for the world to see.
Many games nowadays use jumpscares to disorient the player and to force them to jump out of their seats. Granted,
Outlast
has these elements, the game doesn’t fully rely on this to scare and disturb the player. Jumpscares are supposed to give a player a good shock or scare but it really never terrifies the player.
Outlast
is designed to make a player feel vulnerable and unsafe.
Unlike some horror games that allow you to defend yourself,
Outlast
leaves you defenseless with a camera. The only thing you can do as the player is run, hide, and repeat. The closest thing you can get to shooting something is with your night vision camera which itself has a low field depth. If you think that’s anxiety inducing, be aware that your camera itself needs batteries to work. If you run out of batteries, you can expect yourself navigating aimlessly through the dark.
The game itself is terrifying. There are jumpscares behind every door and enemies you run into will chase you relentlessly. You are forced to run aimlessly through the asylum, breaking through doors, jumping through broken furniture in order to find a locker to hide in. Pursuit sequences are terrifying. As a result, you can find yourself being paranoid throughout many moments in the game. Even when you’re “safe” and enemies are not on a pursuit for you, there’s always that sense of dread and paranoia that someone is coming after you. Getting cornered by an enemy and having no place to go, especially since your character is defenseless, is automatically a game over. It’s horrifying but an amazing thrill if you’re brave enough to face it.
Pursuit sequences combined with smooth animations of breaking through furniture, parkour, pushing doors open, and hiding in a closet followed by intense music creates a true horror experience.
Outlast
shines in moments like these.
While most games allow you to use resources in a disposable way,
Outlast
forces you to be conservative and wise while using your resources rather than relying on it at all times. Having access to your camera could mean the difference between life and death. If you are wandering around in the dark and suddenly your batteries go out, good luck trying to find more. You might even have to reload an earlier save file and find batteries. It’s tedious but it’s a lesson you’ll never forget.
Outlast
forces you to use your camera to navigate your way through the asylum. As a result. You are forced to look at the world through a constant green hue which itself could bring feelings of paranoia. Green hue and human pupils, not a great combination. Exploration in this game is intense. There are interesting finds such as notes that’ll give you backstory to Mount Massive Asylum, information about patients, and even the notorious experiments performed at the asylum. Additionally, the place itself is eerie. You’ll find blood splatters and puddles all over the walls and floors of the asylum. Expect to find a few random body parts as well.
Image courtesy of GamesRadar
Unlike
Alien: Isolation
, where it’s hard to get desensitized or habituated into your environment,
Outlast
makes that easy. After a few hours of gameplay, you’ll get so used to the gore. However, instead of expecting the same environment like you’d find in a spaceship,
Outlast
will throw you into different locations around the asylum with variations to it. Notably, you’ll get used to your camera and relying on it to even see what’s around you and then suddenly, the game will throw you out into a courtyard where your device is essentially useless. The camera gives you a feeling of safety, at least you can see what’s around you. Without it,
Outlast
pushes you outside your comfort zone, outside your dependency. Talk about a way to intensify the horror.
Of course
Outlast
isn’t a true horror game without a couple bugs or “game-breaking” features. For one, the AI could be frustrating to deal with. The AI in this game heavily relies on pattern and preset pathways. In order to get through a certain section of the game, you’re going to have to figure out enemy pathways and how to sneak past them. They key to this: trial and error. Expect to die a couple times in order to find the perfect pathway. It’s annoying and sometimes it takes the horror away as enemies become more predictable over time. Additionally, character models tend to freeze after cutscenes and will just remain there, stationary. Sound glitches are also very notorious in the game. Often enemy sounds followed by opening doors will often loop with one another creating a fairly entertaining mess to listen to. Even after 5 years, Red Barrel has failed to fix these glitches for the Nintendo Switch.
Aside from the bugs,
Outlast
is indeed a terrifying game worth checking out this Halloween. If you’re looking for a fast paced survival horror game and an adrenaline rush,
Outlast
will most definitely fulfill your needs. You can pick this game up on all eighth generation consoles, the Nintendo Switch, and PC.