Where Outlast bogs down a bit is when it tries to shoehorn typical game design elements into the horror experience. This punishment seemed severe at the time, but ultimately acted as a lesson in how careful planning was essential in order to survive in this world. Outlast forces you to be conservative with your resources, as running out of juice in a particularly dark area forced me to have to reload a prior save file and replay a good chunk of a level. This helps create a great sense of tension, which is heightened by the fact that the camera runs on batteries that need to be found throughout the environment. Much of the asylum is bathed in darkness, so you'll be viewing a lot of the world through a bright-green lens. Your guardian angel in Outlast comes in the form of a camera with a night-vision setting. And once enemies begin tearing apart rooms and opening closets in search of you – yep, you can imagine just how nerve-wracking this game gets.
#Metacritic outlast 2 series
Barreling down a hallway with a beast right on your heels, bursting through a series of doors when you have no idea what's on the other side, and eventually finding a closet to hide in and evade your pursuer provides a fantastic and terrifying thrill. You're ostensibly powerless in Outlast, meaning that your main tools for survival are running and hiding. That being said, you'll probably be too busy running away like a maniac to notice most of the time. You'll also notice quite a bit of enemy repetition during the latter half of the campaign. They're not bad per se, but certain enemies that appear terrifying from a distance lose quite a bit of their terror when viewed up-close. Little details that are often forgotten in games, like leaving a trail of bloody footprints after stepping through a pool of blood, really help sell the illusion that Mount Massive is an actual place.īut for as great as the world looks, the character models are represented with a bit less fidelity.
#Metacritic outlast 2 Pc
On both PC and PS4, I dreaded entering any new areas or opening any closed doors for fear of what lurked in the dark unknown. Everything from the dynamic lighting to a fantastic soundscape work together to keep you on edge every second of the experience. But in between the wealth of scares and beautiful environments, Outlast has a tendency to bog down via uninspired mission objectives and a few disappointing design choices.įrom the get-go, Outlast is one of the best-looking and sounding survival horror games to date. It's a tense, brutal trek that strips you of any power to defend yourself as you try to avoid the deranged mental patients that roam the halls of this horrifyingly gorgeous world.You'll run, hide, and just generally be terrified as you discover the horrors that reside within Mount Massive Asylum. I can safely say that Outlast made me jump out of my chair more often in its four-hour descent into Hell than any other game ever has.