Just another day on the field of journalism, right?
Wrong.
In Red Barrel’s Outlast, you play as a journalist named Miles Upshur. Miles has received a mysterious email from someone telling him about Mount Massive Asylum - a strange and frightening mental institute that, from what your lead tells you, needs to be exposed.
In Outlast, you’re no one special, and that really stands out. You don’t play as some action hero or a cop armed with a gun. You aren’t after you mother or father. You’re just a regular man, doing his regular job, in a not-so-regular place.
We won’t lie, we were hesitant to play Outlast at first. With all the other first person horror games that have been coming out lately, like Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, we were afraid that Outlast would fall right in line with all the others: a few jump scares here and there, annoying puzzles every time we turned around. Don’t get us wrong; those games scared us to oblivion and back - but we just didn’t want to be bored with yet another cut-and-dry horror game that focuses on jump scares which leave you frightened for only a few minutes.
Thankfully, Outlast is far from that. After turning off the lights, plugging in the soundproof headset and cranking up the volume, we gathered our defenses of blankets and unicorn stickers, and submerged ourselves into Mount Massive Asylum.
As soon the game starts, you find yourself driving in to an ominous scene that really sets the atmosphere. It seems rather innocent really, driving up to the iron gates and security booth of a large, well-lit asylum in the middle of the mountains of Colorado. You sneak in the gates, and eventually find yourself sneaking in to the building through an open second story window.
As soon as your feet hit the ground, the lights go out. We’re not ashamed to admit that we almost turned the game off right then and there. It felt real.
Upon entry to the now darkened room, you learn of the camera that you had picked up from the passenger seat of your car. You will spend a lot of your time looking through the LCD screen of this camera, kind of giving it that ‘found footage’ feeling. Luckily, your camera has night vision - and trust us, it will be your only real friend through out this entire game. No, you can’t turn up brightness in your options; it won’t help. You have to rely on your camera and it’s night vision abilities.
What’s more, it eats through your batteries like you wouldn’t believe; you’ll find batteries scattered about the entire asylum as you explore it, forcing you to keep an ever sharp eye on your surroundings while trying to anticipate the next thing that’s about to jump out in front of you or chase you. Play the game on a higher difficulty, and batteries become even harder to find. Hold them close to you, and only use night vision when you absolutely need it.
In Outlast, you have to rely on your ability to think quickly while you run, jump, and hide from everything that gets in your way. And if you happen to run out of batteries? Your camera will begin to flicker as the batteries die, eventually turning itself off.
Outlast has great graphics. It’s better then you would expect, even if it’s not at the top of the gene pool. When you’re walking around without your camera, you really feel as though you’re recording home movies - just not the kind we’d want to show our kids when they’re older. And when you do push that one button to turn on the IR of your camera, you’re greeted with an eery greenish glow, just as you would expect to find when using night vision.
Mount Massive Asylum is filled to the brim with with horror and terror. Corpses lie about with blood pouring from them; body parts and innards are strewn about the halls and rooms like some Halloween-esque interior décor. And on top of all of that, you have living people wandering around, constantly screaming and moaning.
Everything you come across affects Miles, wearing on his sanity and his sense of reality. The ambiance of the game effects the players as well, from the realistic way you can look behind you while running in terror, to the way you can hug corners and peek around them. Outlast does an amazing job of really putting you in to the shoes of Miles.
The soundtrack is very tastefully done, in the manner that it never really gives you any way to foreshadow what’s about to come. By the time the music changes, you’re already hiding in a locker or under a bed - or you’re already sprinting down a corridor, jumping over debris and dreading to look over your shoulder. If that isn’t enough to really set the mood of this game, the lighting plays a large role in the ambiance. It never reveals too much: lights flicker and randomly turn off, and you’ll see shadows move as the inhabitants get closer. Was what you saw from the corner of your eye really there? You’ll see doors close from the corner of your eye, you’ll even see someone walk down a hallway and then find the way blocked. Everything in Outlast plays a role in the atmosphere of this game, even the way the living inhabitants mumble when you get close to them. Some of them even speak to you, and the things they say make you question whether they are truly your enemy.
One of the most noteworthy effects of Outlast though is the sound effects. Doors creak ominously and disturbingly loudly, enemies whisper as they search for you, and Miles pants in fear, echoing in your ears with every step that you take. It’s as if he was created to match your own breathing while playing. When you find yourself panting after running in terror, and throwing yourself into a locker, you’ll hear Miles doing just the same. If that still isn’t enough, Outlast goes as far as letting you hear the blood rushing through your ears when Miles gets terrified enough.
If you’re going to play Outlast, you really should think about playing it with either high-quality headphones or a good surround sound system. You will hear everything: your footsteps in water; the sound of your enemies breathing; the chains rattling around you; everything has a life of its own, and you’ll want to get the full experience.
Outlast pulls some things from previous horror games. As in Amnesia, you’re powerless against your attackers. But what Outlast does differently is that it wants to make you run. In Amnesia, you have to hide. Red Barrels doesn’t want you to do that. You’re able to look back over your shoulder while you are running, and the effects that are given during the over the shoulder look are simply gorgeous.
At around 6 hours long, Outlast is pretty short - but that’s a good thing. Too many times we’ve found ourselves playing a horror game and becoming bored with it. You begin to expect the scares, and it becomes more of a chore to run away than fun. To be honest, there are a few parts of Outlast where we became slightly annoyed. Pursuers are perhaps too dogged in their hunt for you; but for the most part, the game is extremely enjoyable.
As far as the story goes, it’s pretty cut and dry, but still intriguing and enthralling enough to pay attention to it. Each time you think you know what’s going on, you’re given some more information that throws everything out of perspective again. But the story isn’t too ravishing, and towards the end, the game takes a sudden turn in to a more supernatural and mystic story, giving it kind of a cut and paste feeling to it. At times it’s riveting, but the ending could have used a little more work. Overall, the plot is far less enjoyable than the gameplay.
Outlast puts you in a position where you honestly feel like you’re in an asylum. The game is terrifying if played the dark - and it’s still equally frightening with the lights on, music blaring in the background, in the middle of the afternoon. The psychological terror of this game surpasses that of any horror game we’ve ever played, and it is safe to say plucking up the courage to finish it was a real challenge. We can’t replay it; we’ve tried. It’s just too damn frightening.
The fear that Miles has throughout the entire game is as real as the player allows it to be. The developer plays on every emotion and has succeeded in crafting an absolutely terrifying game. This is not your typical jump-scare horror game, and that is really what sets it apart from anything else in it’s genre. The ambiance of the world really gives Outlast its appeal and it’s horrific nature. This is not a game for the faint of heart.
If you think that you can manage walking the halls of Mount Massive Asylum, then we recommend you should give this game a try. It’s scary as hell. Just don’t say you weren’t warned.
