Outlast is a great game for scaring the bits out of you, and has moments that'll take you a while to forget. Dialogs are terrifying, with otherworldly voices and screams, footsteps, things breaking, all focused on giving you a terrifying experience. When it comes to sound - the real star of all horror games - Outlast is very strong. Overall, Outlast has some remarkable graphics, which are overshadowed by irritating little problems which are typical of Unreal Engine 3, like physical objects not existing (those curtains that look like walls. The blood on the walls, the dead bodies scattered about the place, the guts - as well as some of the nicer things you'll see on your travels - are also worth mentioning. The game combines light and shadow and the infrared camera to excellent effect (the camera filter is very realistic). Even better, any midrange computer can push it to its limits, but still enjoy excellent performance. The use of the camera offers many agonizing moments in Outlast, although it's unlikely that you'll run out of battery because the game balances the difficulty level with giving you batteries when you need them most. It serves to let you see in the dark through its infrared mode, but the batteries run out when you use it and you must find replacements through the level. All the controls transmit realism, human movement, and put you firmly in the shoes of poor Miles.Ī video camera will be your only tool in the game. Although it plays like any other first person game, our movements on the screen are very realistic: how the body sways, our hands support us on the floor or round corners, how we run and look back, etc. One of the highlights of Outlast is the controls and how they affect the game.
But unlike other games like Amnesia (pretty much the reference game for the genre) where you're truly gripped by fear throughout the game environment and the plot, Outlast is just going for easy "BOO! SCARED YOU!" moments. This isn't necessarily a bad thing because, among other things, Outlast knows when to activate these sequences and make you scream for your mommy.
Once you're past this initial trauma, Outlast is just about guts, blood and mutilation, accompanied with multiple frights, all the while at top, terrifying volume. Outlast isn't trying to (or doesn't manage to) psychologically terrorize you beyond that first hour. Finding the "invisible path" - the bit that involves crawling on all fours, hiding in lockers or under beds, dodging deformed enemies or running for your life in intense chases - is the key to progressing through the game. Each section of the game has a specific order, and if you don't do it that way then you probably won't survive. The second effect of this linearity is that if you look thoroughly at Outlast you'll see that it is just a giant puzzle. If the game didn't have control over what you do or where you go, it couldn't activate certain unexpected events that make you jump out of your chair. This linearity has two clear objectives: the first is to keep you scared. Outlast is a very linear game.l It's rare to find a section of the game where you move freely, open doors or enter rooms that you shouldn't. Its "scare" resources run out pretty fast and so every challenge in the game is a slight variation on the above, which means that they're overcome in almost the same way each time too: "Go there, activate a button or lever, and repeat". But after the first impact, Outlast slips into routine. The first time everything is new, terrifying, unpleasant and distressing, and it truly is a scary game, the sort that makes your hair stand on end and your pulse race. Now, Outlast makes the one mistake you should never make in any horror game: routine. Outlast is not a game for the fainthearted: it's gross, it's violent and really gets under your skin. The story is a common one, but it's very effective on screen, especially for the many realistic scenes of blood and gore. The game does well at getting you into the shoes of the protagonist, Miles Upshur, and making sure you have a hard time (which is kind of the point).
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