“Outlast 2” brings the things that go bump in the night to your console
Fear, dread, terror. Inside each of us exist pet horrors that are locked away inside haunted spaces within our minds. Many of us will often step inside these spaces to be thrilled and terrified out of mere enjoyment. We do this any number of ways, by curling up with a suspenseful novel about child eating clowns, or by watching a favorite slasher flick from the perceived safety of our own living rooms.
Others, including me, sometimes fire up a game and allow for our deepest fears to manifest through sweaty palms, labored breathing and near heart attack inducing jump scares. For some of us, horror is not a spectator sport—once the movie illusion fades with age it takes a bit more to rattle the nerves and get into those dark places of creepshow wonder.
Although I don’t dwell on interactive fiction designed to scare the wits out of people very often, every now and again life calls for the feeling of sudden jump scares and overwhelming feelings of dread and hopelessness. For me, this is medicinal. Like eating chili peppers to cure an emotional cold, survival horror games are spice for the soul.
And believe me, this past month I took a bite out of something hot. “Outlast 2” hit the scene with a bit more fanfare than its predecessor and I was excited to see where developer Red Barrels would take their cat and mouse scare-fest this time around.
Outlast made you squirm in all the right ways and in my opinion brought back the survival horror genre from the dead by taking away the ability to fight and forcing the player into a psychotic hide’n’ seek experience. You will be frantically chased by religious nutjobs, you will experience fear induced hallucinations and involuntary screams as you scramble for hiding spots.
You will spasmodically search through rickety cabins and your heart will sink each and every time you turn a corner to see a starry eyed hillbilly leering at you in the darkness. You will run for your life, only to be caught mid-stride by a pickaxe wielding maiden of fear and death.
You are armed with an indestructible camera and the laughable catlike reflexes of a pacifist journalist. All the hopelessness you will feel from each terrifying set piece will keep you glued for hours playing and replaying until you finally figure out the right tactic to get through to the next horrific scene.
You won’t need to mess with the first game to enjoy this one: it is a complete standalone experience that drops the claustrophobic mental hospital setting for something a bit more terrifying: a religious cult infested countryside in Northern Arizona.
It’s like The Hills Have Eyes mixed with some Children of the Corn with a dash of The Shadow Over Innsmouth. Yes, it plays up on established tropes commonly found in horror films and games, but what it gets right is how easily it can pull you in.
What I enjoyed most about “Outlast 2” is the collective composition of a horror experience. The music tenses up right before something awful happens and the graphics are messed with when your character witnesses grotesque or frightening things. Imagine being horribly nearsighted and being chased by blood thirsty cultists then you lose your specs in a heap of hay hiding in a barn. Hilarious, right?
It’s the sum of all my fears being near blind and going full Velma while a pack of crazies beat down a barn door with hopes of chewing on my corpse. In fact, this happens on a few occasions within the game, it’s downright bone chilling.
It’s the little design choices like a nearsighted protagonist that really stood out for me, that and being able to look down at your body in game and inspect the inventory for precious batteries you don’t have.
The disembodied floating hero common with just about every first person game ever has always had a world breaking effect with me. Perhaps it’s the perception of occupying space within this fictional world that cultivates some level of personal identity with the main character, cultivating the desire to survive and ensuring your nerves are pulled taught with adrenaline.
Developer Red Barrels did right by choosing the “Outlast 2” setting and art direction, which is everything you want in a survival horror game.
When not vaporizing zombies or leading space marines as a mousepad Mattis, Brandon Watson is making gourmet pancakes and promoting local artists.