Review — Outlast 2

Take a trip to Temple Gate and escape the horrors of backwoods religious fanaticism, herecy and childhood trauma’s.

After the success of the first Outlast and its expansion Whistleblower, it didn’t come as a surprise that developer Red Barrels stared working on a sequel soon after. Outlast 2 leaves the asylum of the first game behind and takes us to a rural area in Northern Arizona. Here you’ll face a new kind of horror.

“Papa” Knoth

The story starts as you, playing the cameraman Blake Langermann and your wife Lynn crash with a helicopter while chasing the story of a murdered young, pregnant woman. When you wake up after the crash, you find your wife missing and the pilot skinned alive and stuck on a tree limb. The tone is set for a Jamestown-inspired terrifying backwoods horror game filled with religious nutcases, obscene imagery and a good amount of guts and gore. Will you are your wife be able to make it out alive?

The game can be divided into three parts. The first part takes place in the town Temple Gate where you have to escape from the followers of “Papa” Sullivan Knoth, who believe Lynn is pregnant with the Anti-Christ. This part is the most fascinating and scary one, as it also features the most fearsome enemy you’ll face: the pickaxe wielding Martha.The second part, where you come in contact with the Scalled, diseased outcasts who live isolated in the forest, is noticeably weaker than the rest of the game. It does however get better when you reach the blood soaked third part where you meet the Heretics, a group that’s at war with Knoth’s cult and who wish to hasten the Apocalypse.

Psychological horror

The reason why everybody seems completely insane seems to be related to the Murkoff Corporation, so there is a link to the first Outlast game. This link is very well hidden however, and to get a full grasp on the story you’ll really need to read all the documents and rewatch all your recordings. But even then, the ending might confuse the hell out of everyone and it is really open to interpretation. Part of this is due to the fact that the basic narrative is interwoven with sequences where Blake is reliving is childhood at a Catholic school and an incident that happened with his girlfriend Jessica and a priest called Loutermilch.

It is clear that Blake is also losing his mind and combining these two stories seems to address some interesting topics like guilt, shame, trauma and ultimately redemption. But for me it didn’t work as well as the developers had probably hoped. I would have enjoyed the game more if the current day story line wouldn’t have been interrupted all the time by the school sequences. The whole Cultist storyline was more than interesting enough on it’s own.

A worthy sequel?

The ultimate question on everyone’s lips is of course whether this is a worthy sequel or not? It is a decent follow-up, but it isn’t as good as the first one. I absolutely loved the atmosphere, combined with the gorgeous lighting and graphics, and the story. But I didn’t find this one to be that scary. Sure, there were a few moments that gave me cold sweat, but they were rather rare. Except for the Heretics and Martha, I also found the enemies weren’t particularly frightening. Near the end they also chose to rely a bit to heavy on gore and shock instead of genuine scares.

Another minor negative point was the level design. Aside from a few level sections being rather dull or way too dark, it also provoked two small problems. The first is that due to the open level design at times, rather than the tight corridors of Outlast, it was way to easy to bypass dangerous areas. While at other times, it became a frustrating trial and error endeavor, where you have to replay chase scenes because it isn’t clear at all where you need to go to. Or when you’re block by a stupid piece of terrain like a rock or a tree trunk.

Overall, Outlast 2 offer more of the same goodness as the first game. The gameplay remains pretty much the same, with some additional features for the camera. The graphics are stunning for a smaller budget game like this and with a length of 6 to 8 hours if you don’t rush through it, it certainly justifies the price. If you enjoyed the first game or you’re a fan of horror games in general, you’ll certainly find some “pleasure” here. Just as long as you don’t mind it isn’t as good as the original Outlast.

3.5/5

Reviewed for Xbox One.