Let's Talk... Outlast

Fear is a pretty subjective thing. What may frighten the life out of one person may come across as laughably cheesy to another. Fear can often be based on personal experiences and some fears may seem downright insane to most people, but fear of the unknown may be the one thing that has the power to make anyone, no matter how immune to fear they may be, sleep with the lights on. Darkness also plays a part into the unknown, not knowing what lurks in the shadows provides a sensation that’s extremely unnerving, and yet there’s an entire culture of horror games and slasher movies dedicated to giving one the feeling of discomfort. 2010’s Amnesia: the Dark Descent is a great example of entertainment that plays on these common fears in the name of exhilaration. Since its initial announcement Outlast proposed a similarly thrilling experience with the same focus on non-combat gameplay, but will it be as terrifying as Amnesia?

Every good horror story needs a spooky set up to make it both scary and somewhat grounded in some sort of reality, since I find a believable asylum full of dangerous nutters wielding lead pipes much scarier than fear of the supernatural. You play as one Miles Upshur, the world’s ballsiest journalist, who for some strange reason decided to independently investigate an abandoned haunted asylum alone at night. Very little background information is given to you and all you know is that shit has hit the fan. Documents that offer some fascinating insight litter the bleak rooms of the asylum whilst capturing things on your trusty camcorder provides some hand written insight from the otherwise silent Miles himself. The story maintains it’s “this is seriously fucked up” vibe throughout and offers enough context for you to shit your pants. There are plenty of freaky characters along the way and enough weird shit to satisfy even the most sadistic of us so I won’t spoil anything.

Hey there, buddy...

Outlast adopts Amnesia’s trademark non-combat first-person approach to horror, whilst replacing the environmental puzzle solving with an emphasis on light platforming. Much of the game’s tension comes from not being able to fight only run and hide. It makes much of the gameplay a petrifying attempt to stealthily bypass patrolling enemies with fleeing to the nearest locker as your only option if you mess up. Not being able to fight back adds an extra layer of suspense to getting caught that stealth focused games cannot achieve since fucking up in most stealth games is mostly an inconvenience and usually followed by fleeing for your life. Getting chased provides an incredibly exhilarating rush even when AI routines begin to sink in and the ease of vanishing becomes frankly underwhelming. There are certainly issues with the gameplay side of Outlast that, if you can’t look past, can significantly downplay the experience. The main issues are with the often very blind and seemingly deaf AI that will often not spot you in obvious places and that will also return to a neutral state if you find particular ‘blind spots’ that seem to reset the AI. The AI will also follow limited patrol paths that are heavily repeated and often cover small areas of rooms, making them sometimes too easy to bypass.

Outlast’s own identity comes in the form of a night vision equipped camcorder that essentially acts as your flashlight and your only trustworthy companion. Naturally, night vision drains the battery and so a topped-up supply of batteries becomes a must. Creating a very Alan Wake-esque setup of searching for batteries whilst managing your current ones. The idea that you only have a limited time to use your light source is a nice idea and battery management adds a tense survival horror aspect to the game, but I found it pretty hard to run out of batteries considering they’re pretty easy to stumble upon. However, it does provide a few terrifying moments when it comes to replace your battery and you are plunged into total darkness. You’ll spend the vast majority of the game with your camera raised and night vision on as the ratio of darkness to light in this game heavily favours the darkness, and when its dark boy is it dark. As you’d expect with any camcorder this one has a zoom feature, which might not sound particularly astounding but certainly plays a big part in further building tensions when you slowly reveal the darkness what lurks in the shadows.

Chase scenes are always utterly exhilarating

When you aren’t simply getting from A to B your goal will often be to bypass some sort of obstacle by turning on power or putting off a fire, for instance. Tasks soon get pretty mundane though as they play out like repetitive fetch quests and they unfortunately contrast the exciting unpredictability of the game with predictable drudge. Very basic platforming add a bit of spice to general traversal, especially when it’s mixed together with the killer suspense of what’s below you. I’ve already seen Outlast get criticised for hinging too heavily upon jump scares and cheap thrills. Whilst it’s true that much of the horror comes in the form of jump scares and scripted events, I found that the expert way that the game builds up the suspense to each jump makes you paranoid of opening doors, turning corners, and approaching crazies. Jump scares may be used a little too frequently for some, but the placement and timing of them does make them feel a lot less cheap and much less predictable. That’s what makes Outlast so exciting: the sheer unpredictability of it all, of everything. Every person is a potential threat; every room a potential scene of inexplicable violence; every creak a potential pipe wielding psycho missing his medication.

Something that isn’t all that common for horror games is the incredibly high-fidelity graphics and triple-A animation quality. Amnesia looked quite nice but it has nothing on Outlast’s sheer beauty while boasting some great optimisation. Looking through your camera with night vision enabled adds an eerie effect to the already freaky world, reflecting light off damp walls and illuminating dark hallways. Enemies look seriously messed up if you dare to get close enough. Clearly having all been mutilated and dissected every fucked up psycho is littered with scars and stitches, often with stitched up mouths or gruesomely violated eye sockets. Animations are fluid and genuine. Accompanying the incredible visuals is some top notch sound design that often makes the game sound more terrifying than it looks. Every footstep you take sounds like thunder, slamming doors echoes around for what seems like forever, your ragged breath is barely louder than your own as you hear them coming towards you...

This game offers a lot of messed up set pieces

Outlast certainly isn't without its issues. The gameplay has some notable issues that are often hard to look past, the story is alright but isn't exactly stellar, and there are enough game breaking bugs and frame rate drops to screw with immersion. However, the incredible atmosphere and extremely eerie setting maintain a high level of tension makes this game worth playing for anyone looking for some cheap thrills. I think it’s important to note that, as with any horror game, if you want the best experience than you must play it blindly. No Quick Looks, no Let’s Plays, no Spook ‘em with Scoops. Nothing. Outlast is infinitely more exciting when you've no idea what each corner awaits.