Outlast missed me at it's PC release in 2013, so when I heard that it was being released on the PS4 to buy I was interested, but even more when I found it was a free for PlayStation Plus members. So I would effectively be getting the game for free, I jumped to download it on the day of it's release on PSN.
The first thing that hit me was actually it's smooth, and quite beautiful visuals and graphics. For being made by only eleven developers in the game studio responsible for it, Outlast is quite stunning from the opening as you drive in a car up to the dark, evil looking Psychiatric Hospital.
Secondly, the story to Outlast is simple yet eloquent with nods to certain horror movies we watched many years ago, and the idea of psychotic mental instability in the modern world. The scariest thing to most of us, is the idea of people or a person so unhinged it's not beyond them to just go crazy and murder innocent people. As you collect files and documents in the game, you discover more about the asylum and how it has been used in experimenting on the minds of those so very damaged from war, or life. You are a reporter, given a tip-off about the asylum that something nasty is going on up there. You go there, with your video camera to find evidence of this.
Now what makes Outlast quite different from most survival-horror games out there, is that you have no guns or weapons to defend yourself. Instead your only options are to run, close doors behind you and hide under beds or inside lockers. This changes the pace for survival-horror games, almost going back to Resident Evil games with at least the tact of having to find ammunition and such, Outlast requires you to look for batteries to power your video camera. This is because you use your video camera for recording events, to make notes and use the night-vision option of it to get through the darkness. Without it you're blind, should you run out of batteries it's pretty much Game Over unless you do see some natural light nearby, and can run for it.
It is a game of cat and mouse, as you must run and flee from enemies as you cannot fight them; and this forces you to be tactical in your choices, from leaning out of doorways and sneaking around enemies to find batteries, or complete tasks to escape the asylum.
There are some very genuine scares, in Outlast from being scared silly when attacked out of the darkness, or hearing the sounds the insane inhabitants of the asylum make as they stalk the hallways looking for you.
Outlast is genuinely frightening, and scary and even I jumped out of my seat within the first five minutes when the first shocker was revealed to me.
The Good:
- A solid, scary storyline involving a creepy asylum and experiments gone wrong inside.
- Beautiful graphics, and visuals.
- Genuinely scary moments, that can scare even the most seasoned video gamer.
The Bad:
- No weapons, or combat that can irritate you after dying so many times in trying to run away from enemies.
Outlast is an amazing return to the roots of survival-horror gaming, with nods to classic games in the genre it feels like a solid game, for studios to learn from in making future survival-horror themed games. For PlayStation Plus members it is free on the PS4, and I would even recommend those without the membership to purchase the game as it is worth it's price tag for scares alone.