Outlast 2

Fanboys report for duty.

Moderators: GreyWizzard, pilonv1

Post Reply
User avatar
itch
Very Regular Member
Very Regular Member
Posts: 3208
Joined: 05 Jul 2006 01:08 am

Outlast 2

Post by itch »

Get it kents :up: Terrifying. So good.
-------------------------------------
User avatar
itch
Very Regular Member
Very Regular Member
Posts: 3208
Joined: 05 Jul 2006 01:08 am

Re: Outlast 2

Post by itch »

Ok the game's a bit short, it's only about 6 - 8 hours of gameplay. But actually it's an appropriate amount considering how oppressive the atmosphere is. It's kind of a relief when it's over :lol:

While the graphics don't involve a huge amount of geometry, because of the small environments there is an amazing image quality achieved. Also the performance is flawless and there's beautiful art, music and sound design as well.

The game differs from the original in that there are moments of respite where you are actually given the opportunity to breathe and do a bit of exploring and you witness some world building. I actually really appreciated that, but one of the side effects is that this game isn't as scary as the first one, IMO. I have to say it's quite remarkable how they manged to balance the terrifying, difficult psychologically daunting encounters with monsters and enemies with the elements of story telling and light-exploration.

I'd just be thinking to myself 'Enough! This is too stressful! I'm scared enough already.' when the game would open up a bit to a new vista or atmospheric location, moody music, beautiful lighting and great world building.

I think this game has been thoroughly play tested is the conclusion I came to. I didn't get stuck once, and that's a pretty huge achievement for the developers and game designers because the whole time you get the impression you're in a totally chaotic, dirty, filthy location that's a total rabble of misery and chaos. But it flows really well. There's a couple of times where you are madly scrambling under and around rubble and debris under the floor boards of houses and around some derelict ruins and even though it's a completely convincing environment you never really have to wonder where to go or get stuck bumping into the same dead ends.

They really seem to have mastered that 'video game language' of subtly suggesting the way to go. For example there are times when you are say, surrounded by fog or swallowed up in a corn field with no real idea which way to go but subtle cues like the positioning of the moon kind of prompt you to take the right path. Sometimes you don't even notice you're being corralled through a pretty linear progression, but other times it's more like 'Aha, I think they want me to go this way.' And usually they do.

One other thing about the appearance of the game is that there is a lot more colour in it. There are flashback sequences to a high school, and these sequences contrast with the filthy degeneracy of the present day with how clean they are. Everything is spotless and there are more than a few nods to the shining as the mundane cleanliness of the school setting manages to be very unsettling in it's own way. There's more colour in the game in general too which is welcome IMO. There's lots of... red in it. lol.

Thinking back on it, I think I could have played the game slower and just looked at the graphics, and the art. There were a couple of scenes in this game that were completely breathtaking. There's one scene later in the game where I looked up over a creek to see some pine trees among the volumentric mist and I thought... damn I don't think I've seen anything more visually interesting in a piece of fiction, even including great movies, etc.


Maybe it could have been a bit longer or a bit more scary, or with a few less places where you had to suspend disbelief but overall it was great fun and an expansion of the potential that was in the original. My only gripe with the visuals was that some of the character models and animations were a bit too cartoony.

I give it 8/10. Recommended and I'm happy to pay for this game, especially if it encourages them to make a 3rd. I would love to try this on a VR headset! If any of you kids with VR could try it out, you definitely should.
-------------------------------------
Post Reply