With the recent release of the newest installment, it’s only right that I review one of my favorite horror games; the first Outlast. Set in the remote area of the Colorado mountains, you play as investigative journalist Miles Upshur set out to uncover the mystery behind Mount Massive Asylum. Something strange is happening at the facility, and it is up to you to find out what. Embark on an unforgiving journey as you carry out your duties as a journalist while spiraling down the dark and eerie rabbit hole of this evil place.
As the game starts, you pull up to the front of the massive building. Parking just outside the security gate, you turn your car off and quickly read the printed email you received that sparked this soon to be wildfire. It is from a consultant who did a temp job at the asylum and heard a ton of unnerving information during his short time there. Illegal activities, patients getting hurt, and an overall disaster brewing. Upshur’s ambition will not allow him to sit by on this.
It is dark out, and as you leave the comfort of your car, immediately the stage is set for a bad night. As you walk around the front, you spot armored trucks. What on earth are they doing there? You walk past these unoccupied vehicles searching for any signs of life. Nobody. The haunting whistle of the wind sends chills down your spine as you continue to search for a way into the building.
Miles Upshur’s head-strong personality is getting inside. Eventually, you find the only way in. There is a part of the building with some type of construction set up. You climb the shaky equipment, and make your way to an open window. As you drop into the room, you catch a glimpse of the room’s state. A couple of overturned shelves with what appears to be blood all over the ground. Before you can truly register what you are looking at, the lights go out. Fantastic.
Turn the night vision on your camera on and proceed. Make your way through a series of hallways and obstacles that essentially teach you the mechanics of the game. Your sketchy path will lead you to a door. Clear that it is the only way to proceed, you open it, unsure of what awaits on the other side. As you step into the room, a headless body drops into view. Many horror games offer the random jump scare from time to time. But this one for sure takes the cake. Make your way through the death filled room, and you will find an impaled body. Just as you are about to pass it, the body reaches a bloody arm out at you. It’s a soldier. As his life slowly slips away, he warns you of the true horrors within these walls. He tells you whatever you’re dealing with here cannot be stopped or fought. The only option is to hide. Is it too late to turn back?
Breathing heavily from anxiety and fear, your character puts on a brave face and carries on. As you are about to shimmy through a set of shelves in the middle of the hallway, you are quickly grabbed from behind. Lifted in the air like a doll, you come face to face with a true monster. This horrible looking beast of a man tosses you through a glass window, and you plummet to the lobby of the asylum. As you slowly lose consciousness, a man with a religious sounding dialogue steps over you and asks you what you’re doing here. Upon checking your video camera, he thanks his God for bringing him an apostle, and the screen fades to black.
To say that this game is scary is an absolute understatement. This fear inducing title is downright terrifying. Now locked inside a place where hell is its only comparison, the goal is to find a way back out while simultaneously searching for the truth. There is one catch to your method of survival; you cannot fight back. There isn’t so much as a knife to aid you against these hellish people. Your only options are to run and hide. Throughout the game, there will be lockers to hide inside and beds to climb under. Often times throughout navigating this large asylum you are suddenly forced to run when deranged patients pop out of nowhere and begin chasing you. If you successfully hide inside a locker or under a bed, they will search for you without success, and leave the area giving you a chance to escape.
What is scarier? Hiding inside a locker watching through the holes as some hell-bent maniac runs into the room screaming what they’ll do to you, or taking a risk to leave your safe space and seek to escape the area? Play the game and find out.
When trying to hide, if there isn’t enough distance from your pursuer they will know exactly where you went. Nothing produces an involuntary scream more than when you think you’re safe, only to have a disturbed face stare back at you through the locker vents as you are ripped out of your temporary home. Or thinking you have a moment to catch your breath while you hide under a bed, just to have a pair of arms reach down there letting you know; you aren’t safe.
Certain levels of the game require an extreme amount of stealth and precision. For example more towards the beginning of the game, the power goes out. You must go down into the basement and restore power. No big deal, right? Rusty switches aren’t the only thing awaiting you down in the dark and dingy basement though. A deranged patient claims this basement as his own. He slowly stalks around the area in circles wielding a machete. Assuming you wouldn’t be his first victim, you must sneak around him and turn the fuse switches back on. Remain hidden and don’t get seen or else he will claim ownership over your life as well.
This game does a great job at creating a creepy and isolated environment throughout the game. Light is not your friend, but batteries are. There are many areas in this game that provide little light, and even pitch black settings in certain parts. As you search for the truth collecting notes and files, also search for batteries. When using the night vision feature on your camera, as you will need to often, the battery is slowly drained. Quickly change batteries for a full charge.
There are a few levels that truly make the dark completely work against you. There is one major boss in the game that continuously enters the scene; your friend with super human strength that tossed you through a window at the beginning when you first entered the asylum. You will find yourself stuck in complete darkness while he roams the area around you in a bloody rage. You turn your night vision on and off, trying to preserve the battery while getting small glimpses of the area you’re in. You cannot see him. All you hear are his chains moving paired with his slow and heavy footsteps. You desperately try to avoid him knowing he is somewhere close by. The only way you find him, is if he finds you.
I think what puts this game over the edge in terms of how scary it is, are the small details throughout. There are many horror games out there that do a great job at testing your ability to handle complete chaos during their action packed scenes. Some of these games however, feel a little dry in between these moments. Maybe you’re wandering around a city aimlessly. Maybe you’re searching through a haunted house. Whatever the setting, there seems to be long stretches of time where nothing too serious is going on. It gives you a moment to breathe and collect your thoughts. Not Outlast.
The developers did a great job at adding unnerving elements to the game during these stretches of time where you’re not running away or hiding. Everywhere you go, the game reminds you that you are not in control, and at any moment things can turn upside down. One scene you walk into yet another overturned room, and the only way to proceed is to walk past a group of patients sitting there intently watching TV. With nothing but static shown on the giant screen, you must walk past them as they sit there quietly. Even though nothing happens, the game makes you feel that at any moment one of these men will jump up and grab you and do who knows what.
Another scene, after you once again get your route diverted by a patient, you wake up inside a padded room. After collecting yourself, you cautiously leave the room trying to figure out where you are. You were drugged and placed in the area that houses patients who are an absolute danger to themselves. Oh man. To make matters worse, you are not the only person occupying this space. There are a handful of patients walking around in a complete maniacal state. Are you going to have to run? Hide? Keep searching for a way out of this disturbing area. If you try to look inside one of the padded rooms, a face will slam up against the small window in the door meeting you eye to eye. There goes the jump scares again.
As you continue to search, you hear some type of slamming noise. A few heavy thuds followed by a pause, then the sound repeats. What on earth could that be? Make your way to the center of the area, and you see a patient walking from wall to wall slamming his head against the concrete. Face soaked in blood he endlessly bangs his head, leaving a bloody imprint of his forehead behind. The scene around you is complete chaos, and once again the game makes you feel that at any moment one of these men will divert their rage towards you, forcing you to act quickly.
The only word truly fitting for this game is insane. What was meant to be an investigative journey will turn into a world of pure insanity. Danger lurks around every corner in the Mount Massive Asylum. No trailer, no watched gameplay, can truly prepare you for the horrors that await you. If you appreciate a game that can truly bring out negative emotions in you such as fear, anxiety, and dread; then you will love this title. Take the Outlast journey with nothing but a video camera to aid you, and see how well you can survive. Good Luck.