Outlast 2
Heads up - it's a non-spoiler review.
I'm a big fan of Outlast and the atmospheric horror games, in which you can't kill everyone on sight, but you have to use your brain and surroundings in order to stay alive. I was blown away the first time I managed to finish the first game and I ended up having a pretty high expectations (mainly coming from my personal excitement) both for the DLC and the second game, and although the Whistleblower did a nice job to fulfill the Asylums story and tell it from another perspective, I was quite against Outlast 2, fearing it might ruin the game. The demo was very promising and it seemed the developers kept all things that made Outlast great, however the theme with supernatural forces was definitely a little over the top for me.
I finished the game earlier today and I can say that I'm not satisfied with it, maybe even disappointed. It was like the game was trying too hard and explore too many storylines at once. I won't get into details, as I don't want to spoil the ending for all of you who haven't played or finished the game yet; but summarizing, Outlast 2 is a very average and forgettable horror game, which I would rate 5/10.
Pros (+):
- atmosphere
- surroundings
- visuals (fog, rain, woods, storm, etc.)
- camera (night vision, microphone, actually recorded footage)
- clever transitions
- cult; Bible theme, use of Latin
- initial idea (it was good; how it turns out its different story)
- "It's nothing there..."
- the first part of the game
Cons (-):
- two storylines poorly reduced into one story
- trashy and repetitive gory theme
- obvious scenes designed to make you disgusted
- Jessica's story (not original at all)
- constant, repetitive chasing, makes you annoyed rather than scared
- too fucking dark (I can't even...)
- not enough build-up
- not enough atmospheric parts of the game in which you could collect your thoughts, explore, etc.
- disappointing ending
- the second part of the game
Outlast 1 > Outlast 2
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What are your thoughts on Outlast 2?
Comments
It was very disappointing. It was my most anticipated video game of this year and ended up terrible. In comparision with the first game:
The pros of this game are:
I was hyped for this game, the demo looked very promising and surprisingly ends up being shit. So I'd give it a 5/10. Here is my rank of Outlast installments:
Outlast Whistleblower > Outlast 1 > Outlast 2
It honestly felt like they were trying to make it so disgusting with all of the themes and graphic imagery instead of using actually atmosphere and horror. It didn't even feel scary, it just felt like weird over the top death porn.
Yeah, it felt so in your face, screaming: "look how scary it is!", but it wasn't, just disgusting.
I agree. There was too much gore and graphic violence and it went no where. It was disgusting. I only loved the school segments. The story with jessica made me feel uncomfortable when it showed that secene with the principle and seeing how she looked when you held her in your arms and the way she looked at the bottom of the stairway. I despise how you could only run in every segement. I wish you could've helped jessica and your wife. And I wish you could've used the weapons around you or were at least able to block.
Hell, I even noticed that no matter how you change the gamma, it's still dark. They tried too hard to make this game scary.
My god that was a great game! Not the ending I would have gone with at all, or if I did I would have made the important parts longer and more emotionally drawing. I love the throwbacks to Jessica and how that ties into the story. Still a bit confused on some of the more nuanced bits or the game (the fuck is she 9 months pregnant for?).
Oh and,
FUCK YOU AND YOUR GOD!
EDIT: I also like the shying away from blatant gore and jump scares. Being buried alive, watching Lynn, you know, and watching the villagers right before she is dragged off (I think that was the nost terrifying part).
I guess she wasn't pregnant, only hallucinated it because of the Murkoff experiment, which causes extreme, realistic delusions. At least it's how I understand that.
Shwhat? I might need to do some research on this topic.
It's only the assumption, but it would explain why there were no female employees at Murkoff's.
I kinda liked the story. Although if I hadn't read any documents or filmed any recordings, I would have had no fucking clue what was actually happening. Reading some theories also helped me figure things out. The gameplay was okay, but there was way too much running. It was overall pretty good, though I didn't really have much expectations to begin with.
I liked most of the story but the ending and the Jessica story disappointed me. I also wanted to see more of Knoth. The rest was alright and the chases were fine to me especially the ones involving THE KNOTH'S EYE .
I guess I'm in the minority in that I think 2 is a lot better than the first. It was so much more intriguing to me in every way. (The first Outlast went downhill after dealing with Trager IMO.) However, I do agree with the criticisms that there was way too much running+hiding, it was too dark and that Jessica's story was cliche and didn't seem to belong. Also, I'm disappointed that you didn't get to play as Lynn at all, and that she immediately took the backseat as a damsel in distress.
There's gotta be DLC at some point, they left too many loose ends.
I want to see a new game which isn't Outlast by Red Barrels.