I heard so much about this game when it was released. I heard it was terrifying. I heard it was amazing. I heard it was a blast.

It is none of those things. It's not bad, not at all, but it's not going to redefine what you know about horror.

Outlast is a first person horror adventure with an emphasis on stealth. When I say, "Emphasis on stealth" I mean, "There is literally no combat at all, or any kind of defensive maneuver's for that matter." You can hide in and under things at times. But mostly you run and breathe heavily.

Outlast: Panting the Game.

The problem I have with this is that I've played Condemned: Criminal Origin. Similar premise: you're attacked by insane humans in ratty, delapitated buildings. Except in Condemned, you could pick up a pipe or four-by-four and use it as a weapon. In Outlast, the main character seems to have never learned how to swing anything at anytime in his life. The enemies are mostly just normal people. Hit them. There's plenty of debris laying around.

But. As stealth is the order of the day in Outlast, you'd think it would be taught and suspensful. Eh. The game breaks down like this: Enter new area. Realize you need X amount of Something to open The Other Thing. Run around blindly for a minute, dodging the marauding bad guy until you find those Somethings and run back to The Other Thing.

Now, the biggest issue with this cat and mouse gameplay is that 90% of the game is pitch black, leaving you to rely on your camcorder's night vision to help you see. Two major problems with this: 1) Your camcorder must be a model from 1994 because your battery life is butt. Every 20 seconds you need to replace a battery. And 2) Any cool environment or spooky atmosphere is lost to the player because the whole game is seen via night vision. I get what they were going for, but it just makes the game frustrating, not scary.

I won't mention specific enemies or moments because I don't want to ruin the story for anyone. It is interesting, albeit a little simple. The atmosphere is nice, the locale is large (though mostly the same crusty halls over and over and over with rain streaked windows), and the game does look really nice (when you can actually see anything.)

It's just repetitive. The game devolves from survival horror stealth to just holding the run button down and side-stepping bad guys. If you like horror and can find this on sale, check it out. Just don't expect it to blow you away.

I heard so much about this game when it was released. I heard it was terrifying. I heard it was amazing. I heard it was a blast. It is none of those things. It's not bad, not at all, but it's not going to redefine what you know about horror. Outlast is a first person horror adventure with an emphasis on stealth. When I say, "Emphasis on stealth" I mean, "There is literally no combat at all, or any kind of defensive maneuver's for that matter." You can hide in and under things at times. But mostly you run and breathe heavily. Outlast: Panting the Game. The problem I have with this is that I've played Condemned: Criminal Origin. Similar premise: you're attacked by insane humans in ratty, delapitated buildings. Except in Condemned, you could pick up a pipe or four-by-four and use it as a weapon. In Outlast, the main character seems to have never learned how to swing anything at anytime in his life. The enemies are mostly just normal people. Hit them. There's plenty of debris laying around. But. As stealth is the order of the day in Outlast, you'd think it would be taught and suspensful. Eh. The game breaks down like this: Enter new area. Realize you need X amount of Something to open The Other Thing. Run around blindly for a minute, dodging the marauding bad guy until you find those Somethings and run back to The Other Thing. Now, the biggest issue with this cat and mouse gameplay is that 90% of the game is pitch black, leaving you to rely on your camcorder's night vision to help you see. Two major problems with this: 1) Your camcorder must be a model from 1994 because your battery life is butt. Every 20 seconds you need to replace a battery. And 2) Any cool environment or spooky atmosphere is lost to the player because the whole game is seen via night vision. I get what they were going for, but it just makes the game frustrating, not scary. I won't mention specific enemies or moments because I don't want to ruin the story for anyone. It is interesting, albeit a little simple. The atmosphere is nice, the locale is large (though mostly the same crusty halls over and over and over with rain streaked windows), and the game does look really nice (when you can actually see anything.) It's just repetitive. The game devolves from survival horror stealth to just holding the run button down and side-stepping bad guys. If you like horror and can find this on sale, check it out. Just don't expect it to blow you away.