3.5/5 ★ – MPT's review of Outlast II.

the sequel to one of the most acclaimed and successful horror games of all time takes the bigger = better approach and shoots for the stars in just about every way. in many of these ways, it pays off: Outlast 2 has a broader scope, a heavy, psychological and disturbing story, terrifying standout moments, great links and references to the first game and is a genuinely very effective horror game. despite its positives, it’s also far from perfect. rather than an investigative journalist in the confines of an asylum, you’re an investigative journalist in the Arizonian wilderness. a lot of people have said Outlast 2 suffers in this way because the claustrophobic feel of the original is lost, but i still think it’s very present. even the more open areas feel constricted and oppressive. you’re often in ultra darkness, surrounded by crops or trees or huge rock faces and are hunted by literally every NPC on a mission from God to end your shit. these guys have that religious zeal so you know they mean business. it’s like a noose is being tightened around your neck more and more every chapter of the game until the penultimate Leviticus chapter has you in the mines, a location more constricted than anywhere in Outlast 1. this makes most of the chases and encounters incredible from a horror perspective. there’s absolutely tonnes of the former, and 90% of them are set up to make you feel on the borderline of adrenaline overdose. basically the entire Judges chapter, the crawling chase in Genesis, and the Val chase in the mines are great examples of Red Barrels reaching their peak potential with white knuckle, extremely close call chases. but it’s true that with the sheer amount of them (especially when you include the school sections where the standard tends to drop) the quality pool gets diluted. the more creative encounter sections, like dodging Nick & Laird in the woods, the library in the school and merking Val in the water of the mines are stellar, and i wish there was a lot more of these to balance out better with the big scripted chases because they’re undoubtedly rarer (but just as good at nearly sending you into cardiac arrest). these cat and mouse sections are just as thrilling but more patient and are a great change of pace. the enemies you go up against are nicely varied and all nasty as hell in their own ways. the regular folk dress in dumbass suspenders, mutter woowoo religious bullshit and punch you/ slice you up with machetes, plague ridden NPCs act more like hazards and prefer grabbing you, the twitchy heretics have demented designs and make the most disturbing little noises and screams ever, and the big stalker enemies kick ass. Nick & Laird’s hide and seek/ bow and arrow chase sections through the woods make you feel like a deer being hunted, and Val’s disturbing creep vibe makes her encounters and chases through the mines arguably the best in the game. Marta acts as the main stalker/ Chris Walker of Outlast 2 but with an even better design. that cross axe is just dope and her pacing around talking to God about how she’s going to ice you is funny as hell. she also has an insane death which never hurts. her chases/ encounters are probably the most basic of the 3 big baddies, but no less intense, and most of them taking place in Chapter 1 make them great tasters of what’s to come. the game seems to receive a lot of flak for the AI (especially on Nightmare or Insane difficulty) and i can mostly agree with the criticism. it’s definitely a mixed bag. on one hand it for sure makes for way more unpredictable and exciting encounters, but on the other, it makes for some poor ass difficult balance. on Nightmare and especially on Insane, the sometimes wild pathing of any enemy and their ability to find and kill you in an instant can end 2 hour runs in the blink of an eye for reasons you can’t seem to comprehend. in the big chases and encounters, their borderline broken speed and a tendency to hit the jets and catch you up/ cut you off when you could swear you’ve done everything perfectly really hurts sometimes. it’s neat how erratic they can be but also a total pain in the ass on Insane runs. it also doesn’t help at all that the level design can be buns, especially on your first run. it feels like every other part of the game, whether it’s a chase or an encounter or whatever, is plagued by the fact it’s just not all that clear where to go or what to do. pretty often there’s barely any obvious signage during chases on what specific path you should take or action you should do to survive, especially during the frequent school sections. sometimes it legit felt like trial and error that sacrificed fear for frustration. but this is mostly a first playthrough problem. fortunately the story is incredible, and for me is near enough on the same level as the original, albeit in an entirely different way. where Outlast 1’s asylum horror —> corporate conspiracy unraveling (deepened very effectively by Whistleblower) moved larger pieces and set up the absolute menace of Murkoff, Outlast 2 focuses on how one man’s trauma and regrets make him run through hell to save his wife. despite being the only voiced protagonist, Blake is piss weak compared to Waylon and Miles for me. his Ethan Winters-esque voice lines don’t do much for me and he isn’t very funny or interesting. i’m of the probably unpopular opinion that the notes these protagonists make give them great personalities as it is and they should stay quiet. but thankfully, he has the most interesting backstory. the mirroring of Jessica and Lynn’s situations, and how his inability to save the first fuels him to save the second, is a more patient and psychological unraveling that really helps on repeat playthroughs when you eventually get the bigger picture for what the school sequences mean and how they feed into what Blake is doing at Temple Gate. the way Father Loutermilch haunts Blake as a fully irredeemable piece of shit is very effective. also really appreciated Outlast 2’s subtle links to the other games when at first glance it might seem completely unrelated: the Murkoff meddling, the radio towers, mind control, “spider eye lamb” and Knoth being a former regent - it’s great stuff. the school sections and frequently ambiguous sequences like the blood rain and apocalypse give the game a very surreal vibe at first glance that encourages replays and file and lore reading, and when you do, discovering how the refreshingly personal story fits into the bigger picture of the series makes a lot of sense and is super rewarding. what’s the opposite of great is the actual gameplay of the school sections. on the first playthrough, creeping your way around the halls and classrooms, getting hit with creative visuals and surprise scares, and encountering the nasty Loutermilch monster (appropriately Blake’s “Inner Demon”) as you piece the school’s wider meaning together is pretty satisfying. there’s some super unique chases like the pool, library and bathroom stalls too. what isn’t satisfying is having to replay these sections on every run back of the game. starting from literally the 2nd playthrough they become extremely monotonous as you realise how restrictive and linear they are, as well as the fact they tank any intensity back in Arizona. going straight from an intense chase or area filled with dread into the school for the 100th time where you just have to look at a computer before getting teleported back just kills the game’s pacing. particularly on Insane they feel like annoying hurdles that pad the runtime and keep you from getting back to the actual game. while parts i’ve already mentioned like the library chase stay thrilling and strong, the rest of the very scripted scares lose their effectiveness. there’s also the fact cutscenes for whatever reason are long and unskippable, and the whole Lamentations chapter sticks out like a sore thumb. it’s so obnoxiously slow and drawn out. had my pillow pjs and warm milk ready for whenever i replayed that. being such an obsessed completionist sucks sometimes and Outlast 2 is one of those times. there’s a little known fun fact that this game’s Insane difficulty gets its name from the insane inconsistencies that make it borderline indecipherable. playing it is an absolute mystery and an absolute fuckfest and i still can’t decide if it’s actually good or not. there’s more enemies that are quicker, smarter, more unpredictable, more reactive and placed in positions more likely to mess your runs up, camera battery runs out quicker, you take more damage and you have 1 life and get booted back to the main menu when you die. the first game’s Insane difficulty is daunting but very manageable - on a successful run you’d be done in 1-1/2 hours and you can follow a guide 1 for 1 and it’ll go exactly the same way. going for the Energizer achievement is the ultimate challenge and requires a lot more knowledge of the game’s layout, but holding your nerve and getting it done is far from impossible. Outlast 2’s version, Messiah, is the work of the devil. following a guide and practicing different sections on Chapter Select helps a tonne, but getting a winning Insane run without reloading camera batteries in this game is far more down to whether you can do everything pitch perfectly and have a fair amount of luck on your side. you need a four leaf clover, horseshoe, rabbit’s foot, 777s, wishbone, shiny pennies and everything in between to come out with a win on this shit. the inconsistencies between runs that you can’t help kill some of the enjoyment of Insane. it feels like a nasty mix of 70% skill and 30% luck, and luck shouldn’t be anywhere near that number. there’s moments where the AI straight up does what it wants to catch you off guard, or parts where you could swear you’ve done everything perfectly but somehow get one hit killed near the end of a run anyway. this is why i mentioned the difficult balancing being a bit whack. from what i’ve seen, everyone has a unique experience on this difficulty. losing so much time because the enemies in a fully scripted chase sequence where you can’t physically move any faster decide this time they’re going to catch up to you is soul crushing. the long unskippable cutscenes, repeated school sections and the Lamentations chapter itself become pains on repeat playthroughs anyway, but on Insane it’s taken to another level. Messiah demands (ironically) the patience of a saint. at the same time, going for Messiah made Outlast 2 one of the most terrifying game experiences i’ve ever had. i didn’t think it could get more stressful than Energizer, but the extremely close calls and permanent risk of game ending one hit kills mixed with the naturally very well set up scares and white knuckle chase sequences make this game scary as hell. this is how horror games should make you feel. weirdly, it feels like the premier way to experience it because of how it pushes you to the limit in every way imaginable. it requires genuine skill and knowledge of the game and rewards you for coming prepared, and even after so many repeat runs and a load of practice, still manages to make your heart beat out your chest. on my winning run, i’d literally just fully ran out of battery by the final section of the game, which proves to me that you need the perfect mix of knowledge and holding your nerve to scrape a win. in this way, Outlast 2 provides an incredible challenge, but at the same time, it can be so unforgiving, tedious and inconsistent that it might not even be worth most people’s time. if you’re a completionist, there’s no arguing the Messiah achievement is the game’s ultimate challenge and you have to respect just how nuts it is. it really pushes you to know the game inside and out, be patient and smart, and play near enough perfectly for over 2 hours. the sheer terror you feel makes this an absolute heart pounder and the final sense of accomplishment is undeniable. despite all the ups and downs, you can’t say Outlast 2 isn’t a total nerve shaker of a game and knows how to thrill with a mix of hanging dread, patient scares, a disturbing story and white knuckle intensity. on any playthrough of the game on any difficulty, despite often being a frustrating slog, it knows how to terrify you. Red Barrels are a twisted nasty group of individuals. despite some dodgy difficulty balancing, occasionally ass level design and some extremely monotonous sequences that murder the game’s pace and test your patience on repeat playthroughs, Outlast 2 is a great game and worthy sequel. bigger clearly doesn’t necessarily mean better but it definitely tries its absolute hardest to be. like the first, it’s genuinely a very good horror game with a big shock factor, ultra intense scares and chases, and terrifying enemies and encounters, especially with the danger the higher difficulties bring. even if some of its obnoxiously tedious sequences harm repeat playthroughs, the more focused standalone story succeeds at rewarding them by connecting in super cool ways to the series’ wider universe. it’s also an absolute rollercoaster to 100% that, to me, gives Outlast 2 a ferocious and daunting reputation. while the most uneven Outlast, this shit still kinda kicks ass.