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I’ll be upfront in saying if someone came up and pitched

Outlast

to me, I’d be more than a little weary.



See, while horror in gaming has seen years of experimentation and development enough to be given the benefit of the doubt, the idea of exploitative horror - i.e. horror stories predicated on using existing social issues or prejudices as an excuse to engage in wanton scenes of violence, bloodletting and other “extreme” concepts - is not as well-developed or as ingrained into game canon. Thus, a game where the core pitch seems to be “Let’s throw players into an asylum gone mad, sprinkle in some torture porn and inhumane experiments, and see what happens” is one that would catch me off-guard, to say the least.



Fortunately, that’s not all that’s going on in Outlast . I am happy to report that the game is, in large part, a successful exercise in mood-building, pacing and environmental design with just enough going on under the surface to be worth your time.









The premise is refreshingly straight-forward in its conception: you step into the shoes of a freelance journalist, Miles Upshur, who's prompted by an incriminating email to investigate Mount Massive Asylum. Upon arrival, hints begin to pile up indicating that all's not well - military-esque vans are parked out front, there's no security personnel at their posts, doors are conspicuously ajar. Then the curtain begins to peel back to reveal exactly how fucked up the asylum has become... by which point Upshur ends up trapped in an unceasing nightmare of chases, physical and psychological trauma, and no shortage of unsettling reveals.





What's immediately striking is the element that seems like it'd be a lazy gimmick in a lesser game: the camcorder. Various locations in the game are cast in darkness to such a degree that they warrant use of Upshur's video recording device as a makeshift flashlight (albeit one that makes use of a built-in night vision setting). Thankfully, it works both as a tool at the player's disposal and as a thematic bridge between Upshur and the unfolding plot, only slightly hampered by the inclusion of a baffling battery-replacement mechanic which forces you to make detours in search of backup batteries.





Outlast escalates fast, and charges forth at a pace that many games would scoff at. Yet it's this breakneck plot propulsion that makes the game so compelling, marrying its grimy funhouse vibe to a confidence of purpose I find strangely endearing. The game never truly stops moving from setpiece to setpiece, only slowing down at times when setup for a key scare or new location is necessary.





It's also remarkably uncompromising in its desire to unseat the audience; many times I found myself at least

discomforted by the degree of violence, mayhem and grotesque horrors. I've seen my fair share of horror films and I'm no stranger to gore, but it was disconcerting to see just how much blood splatter and mangled bodies the game aimed to toss my way. One particular sequence involving the

unhinged and

intriguing Dr. Trager and a big ol' pair of scissors stands out (you know the one...), as does Trager's eventual exit from the narrative proper.





The brutality and flow of the narrative dovetails nicely into the central gameplay, which lands as something of a strange but overall well-considered blend of platformer, stealth game and classic survival horror. Over the course of the game's 4 to 5 hour length, you'll be spending quite a bit of time running from room to room, dodging attackers, climbing over obstacles and hiding when the need arises. Provided you make use of them before pursuers come charging in, various lockers can serve as a buffer (and sometimes are quite necessary to progress) for waiting out particularly dogged manhunts.









(P.S. Okay, I saved this 'till after the review so as NOT to spoil important points beforehand, but I felt there was more to say here and it needed to be a bit separate from the main text of the review. SO - consider this your SPOILER WARNING...

...

...

...

Right, so linking the Walrider experiment and all the testing on the asylum patients/prisoners to the very real Project MKULTRA run by the CIA in the 1950s and 1960s is... bold, so to speak. I can see how they might've got to the line of thinking where that seemed like the right call - wanting to have your cake and eat it too with regards to the "asylum patients gone MAD!!!" narrative concept, but also having to consider the troubling implications and needing a way to make it acceptable within the given context.





As creative decisions go it doesn't look great, but I think the story's conscious enough about making sure to point out how evil the corporation is for experimenting on patients without their informed consent. And that's before the reveal that they brought an ACTUAL FUCKING NAZI SCIENTIST in to work on the project.





I'm not sure that I'm the right person to judge if the story's "respectful" or "compassionate" enough in its treatment of the Mount Massive patients, but it's not thoughtless so far as I can discern. All that said, I don't begrudge anyone for finding the game to be in bad taste - your mileage may vary, essentially.)

simultaneouslyDown time, as I said, is quite limited and typically occurs only to allow the tone and atmosphere of a given location sink in. Helping this is the level design, which is damn near pitch-perfect for conveying a sense that all hell truly has broken loose. The player will go from the well-kept asylum grounds to the stark grey halls and harsh lighting of the attached prison, then to the under-lit sewers and cellars below Mount Massive, before eventually culminating in a grim march through a rather frigid location which I wouldn't wish to spoil in full.Each location has its own distinct colour scheme and visual design, yet still conforms to the reigning aesthetic of the game: lots of dirt and grime on surfaces, pools of blood, lights flickering, all good and creepy stuff. The lone exception here, the aforementioned spoiler locale, is remarkably clean and organized considering the circumstances... aaaaaaaaand happens to coincide with the game losing a bit of its "edge" in the final hour, so there's that.Speaking of which, while I largely enjoyed the nature of the narrative (rooted as it was in a strong mix of "Mad Science Gone Awry" pulp fiction and splatter horror), I do think towards the end it begins to spin its wheels in regards to upping the stakes. We do eventually get an explanation of sorts as to why the asylum fell into chaos, and the actualis appropriately uncompromising, but to get to that strong finish there's one last bit of running about and pulling switches while trying to avoid being insta-killed by [SPOILER CHARACTER NAME HERE]. Kinda hurts the mood that the rest ofwas trying to foster, though it's by no means a deal-breaker, just disappointing.And... yeah, there's also the matter of the ableism issue. That angle is hard to ignore when critiquing this game, particularly since many of the characters antagonizing Upshur are implied or outright stated to be suffering from various mental illnesses. Being someone who suffers with depression and anxiety myself, it's definitely a source of discomfort and I'm internally conflicted on the matter of whether or not's particular "angle" justifies how it uses said characters.Still, as a horror experience,largely succeeds at what it set out to do - nothing more, nothing less. It's much like a carnival attraction in that way: you go in, have a bit of fun being spooked by the performances and the sights, and then go home. Perhaps a bit slight and not exactly the deepest of experiences, but it does the job it sets out to do and does it well.Plus, I doubt you'll forget some of the shit you see here any time soon. That, for me, goes a long way.