PAX East Preview: Outlast

Outlast Title Screen




It’s obvious from the start what you are getting yourself into. The booth at PAX is a small, but mysterious affair complete with a black curtain where you can play the demo away from the leering eyes of attendees. You suddenly become aware of just how comfortable you actually were in that crowd, and how utterly alone you are now. And it is alone that you watch this descent into hell. You watch as Miles sneaks his way into the asylum, first trying the locked front door, and then climbing up on some scaffolding. You know this is going to end horribly, but first you must learn how to control him. This is the best way to learn the controls, and they are very simple, consisting of basic movement controls, jumping, interaction, and how to turn your camera on and off. It gets the gameplay out of the way so the horror and darkness can take center stage. It also shows how all of these elements will come into play in order to help you survive, creating foreboding visions of what you will have to do.

For example, Outlast’s main mechanic is the camera, which you use in lieu of a flashlight. Infrared mode allows you to search the pitch black rooms of the asylum with relative ease, but it quickly runs out of battery, forcing you to search for extras and conserve energy. Just like in Amnesia: The Dark Descent, you have to explore in order to maintain your ability to see, and during the demo, this is your only goal.

Even in this silence you start to get nervous. Outlast plays on the darkness in the same way that Amnesia does by introducing suspicious ambient sound, and nightmare-inducing treks looking for a light source, but unlike Amnesia, it is not your main enemy. The asylum, in a way, is alive. Each room you enter, each object you see, tells a story that you will eventually have to unravel. This is harder than it seems, as you have no weapons, and no real way to defend yourself from monsters and other creatures that want to stop you. When the time comes, all you can do is run and hide.

Many games have tried this mechanic before, but what Outlast does is give you an environment that makes this possible. The characters are balanced enough that you are still able to run successfully, but not successfully enough that the game seems cheap. It gives horror without sacrificing ability, making it more realistic but not frustrating. This is how this kind of mechanic was supposed to be played.

After the demo, I knew I had embarrassed myself by screaming and begging Red Barrels to just turn the game off. I almost quit halfway through out of sheer terror. Short-term effects aside, the game sticks with you even after you’ve moved on to the next title. It can’t be determined if this will remain true when the game is released this summer for PC and Mac, but based on the demo, many players can look forward to having to buy new pairs of pants.