Outlast 2 the #sequel to the original, #created in the same #universe but with a new location and protagonists. Players take on the roll of a cameraman half of a husband and wife team of journalists. While trying their best to investigate the murder of a mysterious pregnant woman. Following a helicopter crash at night in the Arizona desert. Consequently finding your wife missing and thing get only get worse from there.
Using a camcorder’s night vision, like the original. The player will make their way through a sinister farmstead. Discovering inverted crosses, mutilated corpses, evidence of strange rituals and more. All done in a very Southwestern horror flavour. While this seems more like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes and Children of the Corn. Making Outlast II stand out even more with the development and how the developers setup and manage their scares.
Even in the short demo the tension really builds on multiple occasions, using visual queues to keep the player’s attention going and nerves on-edge. The half-glimpsed stuff is still the most effective. Such as a figure at the end of a long corridor, a character clutching something but not enough recognize. Then later in a school, a girl dashes past a window. Having a look around the corner the lights flicker and she’s hanging from the ceiling. So we move closer and what appears to be a tentacle, yanks her body out of sight.
The sound design is fantastic, the same as the first game. Then as you progress there is this eerie laughter and the cries of your wife. Naturally having the player move faster, and then being more reckless to get the whole scenario over with. That’s impressive for an E3 build, Red Barrels did a very good job capturing interest here.
However, the main enemies in the demo are hillbilly-like cultists that chase the player around cornfields with torches and farming tools. Forcing the player to hide in barrels while they pass, or being caught and chopped into pieces, not fun. Although between the limited movement system and the minimal stamina system (preventing the player from sprinting for more than just seconds), this makes the gameplay more tense and exploration less likely. It would be more interesting to see how this system could be improved, so that players have more of a fighting chance, being able to improvise and use surrounding objects in the line of defence.
Outlast 2 will is set to release this fall, al thought it will probably end up being winter laucnh, with Linux coming in early 2017.
Also, thanks you to our LGN spokesperson for relaying accurate analysis and first-look details. 🙂
