Outlast is a terrifying, gory horror game from 2013 that tasks you, the main character Mr. Journalist Forgothisname, to investigate an Asylum and a connected corporation. Armed with a trusty camcorder and a whole load of replacement underwear, you venture inside and things go very wrong very quickly.

Outlast is very scary in the way that a haunted house is scary. It can be terrifying, but in a predictable, almost over-the-top kind of way. Most of that is due to the high amount of jumpscares, which are the worst form of trying to scare someone. Sure, it got a rise out of me plenty of times, but the game uses it so often that it got annoying before I was even halfway through the game.

While you're not getting jumpscared, you slowly make your way through the halls of the Asylum, finding batteries for your camcorder without which you can't see in the dark, recording events and finding documents as you keep investigating and exploring.

I feel like Outlast's primary form of scare, the jumpscares, almost hurt the game's main goal of being terrifying, because Outlast can be genuinely scary and tense even without them. The environmental storytelling is excellent, the sound design and music are hauntingly appropriate and a lot of the depicted scenarios and characters are seriously messed up. And before you can take it all in - oh, whoops! Another jumpscare. Sure, it was the early 2010s, where horror = sudden loud noise, but...I feel like leaning into the environmental storytelling more would've elevated the experience even higher.

The only real form of gameplay, aside from exploring, comes from sections where you have to find a key / switch / multiple switches / items while also dodging an enemy / multiple enemies trying to kill you. To do so, you can hide either under beds or in lockers, the only two places to hide in the whole game, or in shadows, which only works sometimes. Not only are these sections insanely repetitive as they happen very often throughout the games short runtime of 4.5-6 hours, but they are also the only time where the game isn't linear, often forcing you into dead ends and draining your camera battery. Often it's better to just die once you know where to go so your battery fills back up and you save time, which isn't very fun. Still, the great sound design makes these sections very tense and flexes the game's horror muscles - all without sudden loud noises!

Now this review so far sounds somewhat negative but honestly, I think Outlast is a pretty good time. Jumpscares and repetitive gameplay aside, I think the story the game tells and the environments and situations it depicts are both worth experiencing if you have the stomach for it and the DLC is a very good cap on the whole experience. Good for one playthrough with headphones in a few sessions late at night and just the right length too!

bad game i cried cuz the twins had a bigger pp than me

I had mainly played this game to run the any%, and gless speedruns. Overall one of the most terrifying games I've experienced. 10/10 Keep extra underwear on stand-by