Outlast Review

Blunt Review : Stock up on nappies (diapers if your American) because your going to need them. Keep the lights on and grab a buddy because this game keeps you tense and doubles down on scares and the story is really good too…until that insane ending.

 

Now this game came out in 2014 on Playstation Plus and I downloaded it straight away and gave it a shot needless to say I dropped this game and ran.After playing Alien Isolation I thought I am all out of scares so I thought it was time just before Christmas in 2015 to finally try and complete the game that almost beat me. Freshly confident after going through the trauma that was going head to head with the xenomorph and winning I thought its time to take on the trauma inducing Outlast.

The game itself looked great, I mean for an indie game it was really impressive and I think that added to the fear factor.

The story involves a journalist, Miles Upshur, who is investigating Mount Massive Insane Asylum which is run by the Murkoff Corporation. The main protagonist cannot attack or fight any of the people chasing him only armed with a camera and a journal going to try and show they world that the Murkoff Industry is up to no good after a whistleblower (the name of the extra content) emails Upshur. Upon arriving at the asylum it appears abandoned with no guard at the barrier and abandoned military vehicles infront of the asylum. After entering through an open window he will stumble across a room full of dead beadies and servered heads and one that is alive and gives us our first jump scare.

At this point there becomes a plot hole, why didn’t Miles Upshur use this for his article and leave now. But instead we are forced to carry one and endure torture for another few hours with naked killers and a big scary mutant coming after you. Not to mention the scary doctor and a malevolent spirit/demon/human experiment set free/ just another scary thing.

It was interesting reading Upshur’s journal as we went through the proceedingly creepy and scary asylum and Upshurs decent into the madness of the Murkoff Corporation. After following a “priest” inmate to try to find an exit you lose fingers and your clean underwear. To uncover a secret “military” style experimental facility looking to try and create an entity from nanites using dream therapy on the patients in the asylum (Crazy I know!). Anyway they succeeded and we see the “Wallrider” one such entity controlled by Billy Hope a former patient of the asylum.

I am skipping over alot of content mostly because I want you to go and play it and enjoy, be scared and feel traumatised like I was from the game. The game is great but there is one exploit I found in playing the game…Run Forest Run! Thats the name of the game, your character is much faster than any of the threats and you can get to the objective and run away easily. Occassionally the stealth approach keeps your nerves intact not by much but on occassion its the way to win over running like a mad man.

Be prepared for a frightening, crazy and thouroughly enjoyable game that has a sequel coming out soon. The game manages to be scary and have a fairly decent story, although I would say I prefered alien isolation but Outlast is still worth a play.