Let's Talk... Outlast: Whistleblower

Outlast was an extremely interesting game when it released, a game that played upon the (semi) newly found no-combat-revolution that the horror genre seems to be undertaking (very much inspired by 2010's Amnesia: The Dark Descent). Both an exciting and sometimes terrifying experience, Outlast set up an excellent foundation on which it to build its further iterations that proved extremely successful. Whistleblower takes the very same foundation and implements it into some new environments and half a dozen memorable and disturbing set pieces to make for a somewhat iterative but well-made DLC.

Whistleblower offers a variety of new, yet somewhat familiar environments 

The set-up and overall premise for the story of Whistleblower are both more interesting and more engaging than that of the original Outlast. Rather than assuming the role of Miles Upshur, a journalist investigating the allegedly horrific misdeeds taking place at the Mount Massive mental asylum, you instead take the role of Weylon Park, an employee at the asylum. After witnessing the disturbing results of one too many twisted experiments, Park informs Miles Upshur of the troubling corruption taking place, before being caught by his boss and consequently being "committed". The rest of the DLC essentially has you desperately roaming the asylum in search of escape, whilst being chased by a bearded cannibal, a psycho who seeks to make you his bride and one too many downright mentalists.   

Whistleblower expands little on the core of Outlast, both mechanically and in its choice of setting. The DLC takes place in new areas of the same abandoned asylum and the minimalistic mechanics remain completely unchanged. You're still gingerly making your way through a hellish abandoned asylum/experimenting site for evil things, and are still armed with nothing but a single night vision-equipped video camera with some serious battery life issues. The focus of Whistleblower remains entirely on the complete and utter avoidance of combat and getting the hell away from the crazy people who want to cut you and sometimes eat you. Although nothing is changed about the mechanics of the game, the DLC sets up enough crazy and memorable set pieces and situations for it to still feel appealing. 

One of the game's many truly disturbing set pieces

A lot of what made the original game great was its chilling setting and truly nightmarish scenarios, which, although Whistleblower does maintain that quite well, the DLC manages to create a stronger feeling of actual horror rather than just being thrill ride of jump scares and strong tension. The original game definitely had a lot of horrifying moments, but Whistleblower provides a lot more premise for genuinely scary moments and scenarios. Batteries (used to power your video camera, your only light source and only ally) were plentiful in the main game, for example, and it was extremely difficult to run out of batteries, meaning that it was easy to take your camera (a resource that should be scarce and utilise a solid risk-reward scenario for each individual use) for granted. Naturally, this sucked a lot of tension out of a possibly excellent idea. The battery count in this DLC feels a lot tighter, however, creating a more desperate situation and forcing more conservative camera-usage. The scarcity of batteries in the world created a number of situations where I opted to wade through the darkness rather than risk wasting anymore of my precious light source.

Unfortunately, the game suffers from a couple of examples of frustratingly obtuse level design that usually spawns from the game sometimes being a little unclear about where you need to go. Although mostly not a huge deal, and in most cases simply a result of the game's extreme tension rattling my nerves to point of disorientation, it can be actually be a real tension-killer. Being forced to run around a certain area in search of an exit can get a little tedious, and at some point you stop worrying about the guy chasing you and just focus on finding the way out. These frustrating moments are absolutely fatal for the game's suspension of disbelief, since when you're focused on simply escaping rather than engaging in the tense and exciting scenario the game has set up for you it's easy to be reminded that you're dealing with programmed AI with pre-set, easily exploitable patterns and behaviours rather than crazy,
unpredictable psychopaths, an illusion that the game is generally very effective at maintaining.

Although not particularly long, Whistleblower manages to make up for its short length by consistently and effectively using a well-paced mixture of slow and tense traversal, thrilling chases, and well-timed jump scares. The condensed longevity of the DLC allows it to feel significantly more focused than the original game, keeping its fairly thin base from losing its appeal.