Outlast is a story-based survival/horror game.
Story:
The story is about Miles Upshur, who’s a journalist. He receives a tip-off from an anonymous source about Mount Massive Asylum, which is a psychriatic hospital. As he enters, he finds the bodies of the asylum’s staff members everywhere around the hallways, and the escaped inmates roaming the grounds. He finds a dying officer, who in his last moment tells him to get out there while he still can. While trying to exit, he is attacked by an inmate and pushed through a window, down the atrium. He encounters Martin, a crazy inmate who think he’s a priest. He believes that Upshur is sent by god, and he wants to keep him trapped and make him witness the things that happen in the asylum. He shows him a videotape of people getting murdered by a mysterious creature, called a ‘Walrider.’ While attempting to escape, he is captured by Rick Tager, one of the Asylum’s doctors. Upshur is imprisoned by Tager. He straps him to a wheelchair and cuts of 2 of his fingers. However, Upshur manages to escape and kill Trager. He exits the Asylum’s grounds, but the walrider chases him back in. He is forced to go back in and follow a trail of blood that Martin has left for him to follow. He locates Martin, burning himself on a crucifix, before taking the now repaired elevator down. Martin tricks Upshur, and the elevator takes him to an underground military facility beneath the asylum. While trying to escape, Upshur is once again attacked by an inmate. However, before the inmate can kill Upshur, the Walrider attacks and brutally kills the inmate before leaving. Upshur proceeds into the facility and meets Dr. Wernicke (originally believed to be dead), the scientist in charge of the entire experiment known as “Project Walrider”. Wernicke explains to him that the Walrider is the result of an experiment, and that he is controlled by an inmate called Billy Hope. Wernicke tells Upshur to find Hope in the laboratory and kill him by shutting of his life support, to kill the Walrider. However, after doing so, Upshur is caught by the Walrider, who beats and possesses him. Walking towards the exit, he is confronted by Wernicke, who is accompanied by several armed guards who repeatedly shoot Upshur. As Upshur falls, the screen fades to black and you hear Wernicke’s voice as he realizes that Upshur is now hosted by the Walrider. Guns and screaming are heard, and then the credits start.
Gameplay:
Outlast is a first-person game, meaning you see the game trough Miles’ eyes. You are incapable of combat like shooting or fighting, except for some cases in which you have to for example push enemies away. You can walk, jump and crawl to get to places. Since you are incapable of combat, you will often have to run and hide from monsters. The screen is always dark. Not ‘I can still see stuff’ dark, but pretty much completely black. You do have a camera with night vision option, which you will often need, but it runs on batteries, which you can find laying around everywhere. You don’t really have clear mission, you just have to explore by yourself and see what you’ll find, which are mostly enemies. Enemies can damage you, but you can ‘heal’ yourself by simply waiting. If you get damaged too much, obviously, you’ll die. The game runs pretty smooth, and the graphics are amazing.
Rating: 4,5/5
eSBe game reviews 