This article originally ran under a different banner/website in February of 2020 and is now being here re-uploaded for purposes of convenience and consolidation. Please enjoy.
HEAR YE!!! HEAR YE!!! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!!! Gaming news is bountiful and always adverse. I, the Video Game Doomsayer, could discuss the Riot sexual harassment lawsuit, but I dare not enter that minefield. One could dissect the Ninja “It’s just a game” tweet, but criticizing cults of the personality never ends well. We could take jabs at Google for their tone-deaf responses to the failure of Stadia or take more cheap shots at Electronic Arts for murdering more interesting Star Wars titles. However, I, the Video Game Doomsayer, have grown exhausted by these new stories. Do I dare waste another week trying to squeeze blood from a stone? My temperament has grown to the point where I abandon the idea of covering news stories and abruptly switch to reviewing a game I enjoyed.
Outlast is a first-person horror game focused on running and hiding rather than fighting massive monsters similar to the Resident Evil series. Outlast, along with Amnesia: The Dark Descent is frequently credited with popularizing the hide-and-seek horror titles that infest Steam like a cancerous mass. While this style of horror appeared fresh in the early 2000s, their saturation has almost reached parody levels. It honestly seems like every developer has stitched together some sort of dark maze that contains monsters that will instantly game over you the moment they spot a square inch of your tasty tights. Alas, there will always be pretenders trying to copy to be successful, but what makes Outlast, better than the imitators? A question, I hope to answer.
You are a hotshot journalist, Miles Upshur, who is on the hunt for the next big story. He receives a tip that some shady experiments are taking place in the Mount Massive Asylum. He ventures there with his trusty camcorder and notepad. Upon arriving, he notices the asylum is completely locked. However, there are combat vehicles parked outside the asylum. Deciding to risk his own life, Miles ventures into the asylum with the aid of some scaffolding. Upon reaching the asylum’s library, you find one of the military officers impaled on a spike. With his last gasps, he tells you the inmates overpowered them and you have to get out, shifting your goals from journalism to complete survival.
Right away, I must applaud Outlast for its atmosphere. The second I step foot into the Mount Massive Asylum and lights go out, every hair on the back of my neck stands at attention. Even with the countless times that I have played through the first levels, I am still set on edge. Mount Massive Asylum is an almost perfect haunted house. Blood is splattered everywhere. Fallen bookshelves and desks make hallways claustrophobic. Every surface is caked in dingy grime that could only be described as a mixture of blood, vomit, and dirt. No haunted house isn’t complete without the jump scares and Mount Massive Asylum is teething with inmates looking to jump you.
Most horror titles will almost be over eager with the jump scares, but Outlast is clever with how it sets up its jump scares. It knows the thrill of a jump scare fades the more it is used. Outlast is comfortable having an inmate dart out of the corner of your eye. A door in front of you slams shut. A dead body falls from the floor above you. You wander past a docile patient in a wheelchair, only for him to jump at you the second time you pass him. Outlast masterfully crafts the tension and knows exactly when to release that tension with a scare.
Most of the tension is built from just exploring Mount Massive Asylum. There are countless sections of the asylum that are pitch dark, mainly due to the power outage or faulty lights. With the help of the night-vision from your camcorder, you are able to navigate the blackest of rooms Mount Massive Asylum contains. Unfortunately, Miles must have received this camcorder from the sleaziest of pawn shops, because the camcorder drains battery like a leaky sieve. It does create tension as you must weigh venturing deep into the asylum in search to find more batteries or risk fumbling around in the dark. Both options are likely to have you run into crazed inmates who will try to cut you down.
Running into these deranged inmates is when the game comes alive, as they give chase. You will be forced to sprint through the maze-like hallways of Mount Massive Asylum with your pursuer hot on your heels. You will be leaping over objects and hurriedly flipping on your camera’s night-vision mode, so you can hastily plan an escape route. You will usually dive into a room and desperately take shelter in a locker or under a bed. You will sit there shaking as your pursuer burst into the room and starts searching for you. Your palms will begin to sweat and your heart will race as the inmate searches the locker beside you. It perfectly captures that moment in the horror movie, where the hero is hiding from the monster under the bed.
Now, you are probably expecting me to jump up and claim that Outlast is a perfect title. Alas, my loyal followers, I take umbrage with the game’s ending. While I tend not to spoil any ending for you, my followers, I will say the last few hours feel like a completely new title was bolted on at the end. Imagine if you were watching a darker version of Shutter Island, only for someone to change the channel to Paranormal Activity towards the end. I often tell people to imagine the elevator stopping on the first floor rather than continuing to the unmarked floor. It is such a shame for a game that excellently paced itself, to fall flat on its face at the final hurdle.
Despite the ending feels anti-climactic, I would still urge all of you to give Outlast a try rather than reading the recent gaming news. When it comes to the first-person run and hide horror titles, Outlast stands heads and shoulder over its peers due to the amount of detail that went into it. Mount Massive Asylum excels at unsettling even veteran plays. It builds the perfect amount of tension with a haunting atmosphere and the risk-rewards of fumbling in the dark for more batteries. However, the chase sequences are an experience no other game has come close to mastering. While Resident Evil 2, comes close with Mr. X, nothing will have your heart racing like a jabbering lunatic reaching out to grab you by the ankles. So if you are looking to escape from the drama, you find no better answer than a trip through the Mount Massive Asylum.
