Outlast II Review – Return to Red Barrel’s Brand of Fear

By Wesley LeBlanc
9 years Ago

When I played Outlast in 2013, I thoroughly enjoyed almost every second of the game, but I was well aware of the few problems that stopped a great game from being an incredible game&&num;8211&semi;long corridors, linear progression through levels, boring character designs and repetitive gameplay&period; With the release of Red Barrel’s second crack at their Outlast franchise, I’m happy to say that almost all of these problems have been fixed&period;&NewLine;You play as Blake Langermann, the cameraman to your journalist wife, Lynn Langermann&period; The two of you are investigating a murder in the Arizona desert&period; The game opens with both of you flying in a helicopter&period; Guess what happens next&quest;&NewLine;Yup&period; The helicopter crashes&period; &NewLine;This is where Blake and Lynn’s descent into madness begins&period; You’re directed forward in search of your wife who is nowhere to be seen after the crash&period; This leads you to where you’ll be spending most of your time&&num;8211&semi;Temple Gate&period; Temple Gate is a mix of backcountry, keep-it-in-the-family camp and a radical Christian settlement, set on isolating itself from the rest of the world, and it is absolutely terrifying&period; Brought to life by photorealistic graphics, Temple Gate is littered with dead and decaying corpses, machete-wielding psychos and the sounds of your nightmares&period; &NewLine;<figure id="attachment&lowbar;124667" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-124667" style="width&colon; 1000px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-124667 size-large" src="https&colon;//cdn&period;bagogames&period;com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/24122418/April-Screen-2-1024x576&period;png" alt="Outlast II, Red Barrel" width="1000" height="563" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-124667" class="wp-caption-text">Outlast II, Red Barrel</figcaption></figure>&NewLine;I found myself taking far longer than necessary to move even a few steps forward due to the dread and horror I felt crawling beneath my skin when advancing through the first settlement of Temple Gate&period;&NewLine;And yet, the game only continued to get more and more terrifying as I progressed through the hell-on-earth&period;&NewLine;If you’re looking to be horrified, this might be the game for you&period;&NewLine;If you played Outlast, you know exactly what you’re getting into in terms of gameplay&period; Like the first, in Outlast II, there is no combat&period; You can run or you can hide&period; Some areas are graciously lit by bonfires and torches&period; Some are pitch black&period; This is where your camera comes into play&period; You’re welcome to try and brave the dark, but it’s near impossible (trust me, I tried)&period; You’ll need to turn on the night vision on your camera if you plan to continue forward&period; Sadly, you won’t be able to keep it running all night long&&num;8211&semi;you’ll need to find batteries to keep it working&period; &NewLine;The game hands you a few batteries every now and then but if you plan to use night vision in every section you’re meant to, plan on searching every nook and cranny for a battery&period; These batteries also power the microphone of your camera, which can be used to hear those around you&period; I could tell that this mechanic was meant to be used to track enemy movement and position relative to you, but I found myself using it very little and needing it even less&period; &NewLine;<figure id="attachment&lowbar;124663" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-124663" style="width&colon; 960px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-124663" src="https&colon;//cdn&period;bagogames&period;com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/24120915/Outlast2-Cornfield1-e1493051522612&period;jpg" alt="Outlast II, Red Barrel" width="960" height="540" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-124663" class="wp-caption-text">Outlast II, Red Barrels Games</figcaption></figure>&NewLine;About as often as you find batteries, you’ll find bandages, which you use to heal after being stabbed, sliced or pushed by one of the game’s many enemies&period; If you fail to heal, or run away in time to heal, expect to watch a gruesome and disturbing death sequence play out&period;&NewLine;And speaking of enemies&period; &NewLine;Where Outlast failed to feel inspired in its character designs, Outlast II has brought to life some of the most horrific enemies I’ve ever seen in a game&period; You’ll encounter country folk who stalk you through the town, a grudge-like lady who is set on mutilating your genitals (you read that right) with a giant cross, humanoids devoid of skin, and outcasts corrupted by disease, unfit for sight, and each one of these enemies means something to the story&period;&NewLine;After making it through the game’s first area, you’ll soon discover what’s really going on in Temple Gate&period; The radical Christians are attempting to kill an unborn baby that they believe to be the Antichrist&period; Doing all they can to stop them are the heretics&period; Sadly, Blake, in search of his wife, is stuck in the middle of this fight&period;&NewLine;<figure id="attachment&lowbar;124668" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-124668" style="width&colon; 960px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-124668" src="https&colon;//cdn&period;bagogames&period;com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/24122503/April-Screen-1-e1493137471561&period;png" alt="Outlast II, Red Barrel" width="960" height="540" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-124668" class="wp-caption-text">Outlast II, Red Barrel</figcaption></figure>&NewLine;As the story unfolds, you’ll learn more about Blake through flashbacks, or hallucinations, to a Christian academy&period; As time passes, you’ll begin to see the connection between these moments and what Blake is currently enduring&period; &NewLine;While Outlast II managed to open its areas up more (bye bye corridors), I still found myself growing bored of the gameplay&period; You’re either stealthing through a large open field or a small, cramped space&period; You’re either running from an enemy hot on your heels through an open town or a linear shack&period; When you’re not doing that, you’re likely looking for batteries or bandages so you can continue stealthing or running&period; I understand that this gameplay is what the Outlast series is about, but it could use just a little more variety in gameplay&period; &NewLine;A few times, I found myself so frustrated with stealth sequences&&num;8211&semi;specifically the ones involving the woman trying to stab my genitals&&num;8211&semi;that I wanted to quit playing altogether&period; After dying 15 times, the stealth sequence meant to get my heart racing grew very, very stale&period; All of these problems are heightened in the Christian school flashbacks, making these segments of the game, which are quite frequent, my least favorite&period; &NewLine;Fortunately, these problems don’t stop Outlast II from being an incredible entry, and formidable competition to January’s Resident Evil VII, to the genre of horror&period; After my 12 hours with the game, I found myself satisfied with the ending and still haunted by what I witnessed through the eyes&&num;8211&semi;and camera lens&&num;8211&semi;of Blake Langermann&period; If you enjoy horror, this is a game you cannot pass up but take caution&colon; this game is not for the faint of heart&period; A fan of horror myself, even I had to put the controller down to take a break and remind myself it’s just a game&period; &NewLine;A PC Review Key for Outlast II was provided by Red Barrels Games for the purpose of this Review&NewLine;

Categories: Game Reviews, PC Reviews
Tags: Games PC Red Barrels Games Top Stories

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