Outlast 2 Review

Developer: Red Barrels
Publisher: Red Barrels
Release Date: April 25, 2017
MSRP: $29,99
ESRB: Mature, PEGI 18
Players: 1 (Singleplayer Only)
Available Platforms: PS4 [Reviewed], Xbox One, PC
Genre: Horror

Story

“Outlast 2 contains intense violence, gore, graphic sexual content, and strong language. Please enjoy” – those are the words you are greeted with when starting the story. A promise it absolutely keeps! There is a lot of gore and humiliated bodies – ranging from eyes cut out to skinned alive and even some torture. Compared to the first game (I highly recommend that you play it if you haven’t already), I found Outlast 2 to be less scary and it has fewer jump scares. In terms of gore and brutality it’s about the same. They took it as far as they could without getting their game banned in certain countries.

The story is… confusing — and leaves many questions unanswered. On the one hand this is very interesting as you have to fill in the blanks yourself and must find collectibles (documents & recordings) to understand what’s going on. The cutscenes bring up more questions than answers. So it is vital that you look for these collectibles and read them carefully. On the other hand, the ending feels very unsatisfying because none of the big mysteries get solved. It basically cries for a DLC to give us the real ending. Many things contradict each other or just don’t make sense – not necessarily a bad thing because the story is intentionally portrayed in such a way that you must make your own conclusions. It’s one of those stories where you have to read “between the lines”, where the little details matter far more than the bigger picture.

Normally I’d not be a fan of this way of storytelling through collectibles, but admittedly it suits the game and setting. Just the ending feels very abrupt and there could have been some more revelations. My first thought after the credits was “that was it”? Not because it’s short (it’s about twice as long as Outlast 1… a thorough playthrough lasting 5 hours+ and a speedrun 2,5 hours), but because it was such a short ending scene without any resolution to the game’s events. It really bugged me at first, I was hoping for a post-credits scene but it never came. When reviewing all the collectibles it suddenly started to dawn on me. So again, collect and read carefully if you want to understand the game. Don’t count on the game giving you explanations, because it never will.

I can’t really say that I loved the story, didn’t hate it either. It’s just a very unique and frankly refreshing way of storytelling and I’m all for it. In order to keep this review spoiler free I won’t go into specific plot details here, but you can check out the Outlast 2 Story & Ending Explained to read a full synopsis and my take on it.

Gameplay

Outlast 2 is one of the games that anyone can pick up and play, even if you don’t usually play games at all. The controls are very simplistic and easy to get into, but to an experienced player they don’t feel unchallenging either. It’s a simple but solid control scheme. You are not a fighter, cannot attack or kill anyone. What you can do is run, hide and spectate. Being so defenseless only makes you more afraid of every enemy encounter. In a way, this makes a spooky horror game a self-fulfilling promise.

Compared to the first game there are a lot more chases, substantially more enemies and generally more hazards to die. On normal difficulty enemies are walking slowly and you constantly find batteries for your camera; as well as bandages to heal yourself. On nightmare difficulty the enemies run very fast, leaving no room for error, and there are fewer items spawning. If an enemy catches you it almost always results in a death (you can take 2 hits from normal enemies and instantly die from bosses). Insane difficulty speaks to those who want a real challenge. It’s a permadeath mode without checkpoints. One wrong move and you have to restart the game from the beginning. What seems like a straight forward 5 hour game now turns into a 30 hour challenge to beat the highest difficulty. This adds a lot of replay value and is a great challenge to test your memory and reaction speed.

Performance & Visuals

The voice acting and animations were very carefully done. The devil is in the details with this one. I was constantly astonished by the production quality. The animations, lighting, textures and facial details are more stunning than some multi-million AAA games out there. Lighting and sound design obviously play a big part in a game like this and the game passes perfectly in those categories.

Sure, it’s not a 30 hour long animated game, but what you are get is well done, especially when considering that Red Barrels a relatively small indie studio. It absolutely doesn’t feel like a low-budget indie title, rather like a proper PS4 game that takes advantage of the console’s graphics capabilities. The asking price of $29,99 is more than fair. I’d still buy it if it were a full priced game.

Trophies / Achievements / Collectibles

The trophy list is much like Outlast 1. There are 105 collectibles (55 documents, 50 recordings) and you must beat the game on insane difficulty. For an extra challenge they added the trophy “Messiah” for not consuming any camera batteries on insane (batteries are required to use night vision to see where you’re going). The platinum is not an easy one. In my Outlast 2 Trophy Guide & Roadmap I gave it a 7/10 difficulty rating. The insane playthrough is much more challenging than Outlast 1 and about twice as long. The speedrun, however, was surprisingly forgiving. You are supposed to beat it in 4 hours. I did it in 2,5 hours on my second playthrough.

I like the trophies because they are a good combination of skill and exploration. It’s probably going to be a rare platinum thanks to insane difficulty.

A shoutout to the devs for including a proper collectible tracker! From a game completionist like myself this is a big bonus point. A lot of games have no way to track collectibles whatsoever, but in Outlast 2 you can filter by chronological order, by collectible type or by chapter. Unlike the first game you can get missing items via chapter select and still pop the trophy – a very player-friendly solution if you missed a collectible by accident. Every developer should incorporate counters like that, just makes it more of a joy to look for these items than going in blind.

Final Thoughts

Outlast 1, in my opinion, is still a slightly better game overall than Outlast 2. The production quality has gone up but Outlast 2 trades scares for gore. I found Outlast 1 to be somewhat scarier but there are certainly many shocking and disturbing scenes here. It takes story telling in an interesting direction; and new ideas are always great. I really hope there will be an Outlast 3 in the not-so-distant future.

Gameplay *Overall Enjoyment Factor, Fascination with Game World, Level Design, Variety, Playability, User-Friendliness (Ease of Use / Readability / Controls / in-game Tutorials / Menus)

10/10 + Delivers on all its promises (the gore, the brutality, the strong language, the horror).

Story/Multiplayer *Quality of the Singleplayer Story, Cutscenes and/or Multiplayer Modes (whichever is available). If a game has no Story or no Multiplayer it won’t be rated (thus no negative effect on score).

9/10 Story: 9/10 (one of the best written horror stories in recent years, one in which little details matter more than the bigger picture and you must come to your own conclusion with the help of collectable documents. A really unique horror mystery. Only the ending is unsatisfying and cries for DLC, leaves too many questions unanswered). Multiplayer: Not available (not rated)

Technical Aspects *Graphics, Texture Quality, Character Details, Lighting, Weather Effects, Animations, Loading Times, Number of Loading Screens, does it run smoothly

9/10 + Runs like a high quality full priced game, not like a low budget indie title. Impressive for a small team of developers. The lighting, visual effects, sounds, facial details, textures etc. are on point.

Value *Amount of Content, Production Quality, Replay Value, is there enough content to justify a purchase

8/10 + Insane Mode is a nice extra challenge +/- (Neutral) $29,99 is an okay price. Game is not long but it’s quality time. For the horror genre it’s just the right length to not get boring.

Trophies/Achievements *Rates how much fun the Platinum / 1000 Gamerscore is to achieve: Are trophies fun to do? Do trophies restrict freedom of gameplay? Missable trophies? Multiple playthroughs required? Luck-based trophies? Pointless farming/grinding? Glitched Trophies? Are stats/trophies tracked correctly?

9/10 Finally a game with a proper collectible tracker! Insane mode is a cool challenge but some sections are too random.

Extraordinary Score Increase or Deduction *Reserved for extraordinarily good or bad features that the other categories don’t cover (such as game-breaking bugs). This score is directly added/subtracted from the final score.

Nothing

VERDICT:

Outlast 2 delivers on all its promises. It’s as gory as horror games come and feels like a high-budget AAA game. The permadeath “insane” difficulty speaks to experienced gamers who want a challenge. My only complaint is the abrupt ending that cries for a DLC and leaves too many mysteries unanswered. Props for including player-friendly collectible tracker — that’s how it should be done!

FINAL SCORE:

9/10

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Played on PS4 Pro with Patch 1.02. Review Copy provided by Red Barrels. If you’ve already beaten it and want to understand the story better, check out my Outlast 2 Story & Ending Explained.