A lot of my strongest feelings about Outlast 2 regard issues I had with the first game as well. The basic setup and gameplay style are the same. You're still mostly just slipping by with no real way of fighting back against monstrous people, using a night vision camcorder to give you some form of advantage. The main difference between this game and the first Outlast is that this game moves away from the Mount Massive Asylum and instead explores a twisted cult in a remote village. This change in scenery and theme is probably one of the better things about the game as I found it a lot more interesting than the tired "people in asylums are scary" trope the first game relied on. As well, I found uncovering the mysteries of the cult to be more engaging than exploring the Asylum. I also liked that the characters and enemies feel a lot more varied now, even including women in the game, shockingly.

A lot of the things I didn't like on a taste level about the first game are pretty similar here. The game still aims to be as over-the-top as possible, if toned down some. The gameplay I didn't find too enjoyable, but I did appreciate that for the most part, like the first game, it was pretty easy to tell where to go. There are some other improvements though. On a more obvious level, the graphics are significantly better and the game looks quite good, even 6 years later. The cult angle provided a more interesting theme to explore throughout the game. The main characters are more sympathetic here and have a personal connection that gives the game stakes the first game lacked.

There is actually a bit more actual diversity in the game compared to the first. The first Outlast noticeably had basically no women in it at all. This might've been to avoid depicting the extremely graphic violence throughout the game on women in a way that might not look so great (or just to simplify how many character models they needed), but it was still weird, especially when the Asylum has a clearly labeled female ward and, presumably, female employees. There was probably a note somewhere explaining a convoluted reason why that I missed. Outlast 2 however does have more than just a few of the same male enemy copy/pasted over and over. There's even one story character who is androgynous in appearance and implied to be transgender, which is not representation I really expected in Outlast of all things, but that character is barely around anyway to the point I don't even have much to say on whether it was good/bad representation.

That last part sounds like maybe just something they did to shove a trans character to the sidelines but it's kind of a wider problem I had with the game more generally, not just special treatment for that character. Outlast 2 feels very segmented in some ways with lots of characters, villains, and set pieces that sound like they're going to be important or expanded on later, then they just...never do. I got the impression the game was fairly linear and I don't think I missed much other than potentially notes with some backstory, but I felt this way about so many of the characters that came up or were mentioned that I wondered at times if I was missing something. The game mostly feels complete and functional, so I don't think it was so much an issue of they just didn't get to finish in time, it just seems like they unintentionally did more foreshadowing than they should've for things they intended no follow-up on.

In the end, I think I liked this sequel better than the base game of 1, but the gameplay I found even more dull in this one, so I still wouldn't really rate it significantly better on balance. The most fun I had with the game was when I played it on stream and read the notes I found in my disturbingly-accurate southern preacher voice. I'm glad I played these games as I think they're a pivotal entry in the horror genre for the 2010s and it was interesting to get that perspective, but I don't plan to play the Outlast Trials or any other games they put out after this.

Stephenson: They killed us. They got out. The variants. You can't fight them. Have to hide. Can unlock the main doors from security control. You have to get the fuck out of this terrible place.

I was never a big fan of horror games, but after playing the first Outlast, I became one. This game truly made me fall in love with this peculiar genre and made me realize that "hide and seek" is indeed an interesting type of gameplay. It gripped me with its oppressive atmosphere and immersed me in the state of a prey fleeing from its hunter.

The game had certain strengths that many noted - from the excellent level design and soundtrack to the first-person perspective and the player's embodiment of the main character. But in my opinion, there were also extremely weak points in the form of the repetitive puzzles and the ever-repeating "find and run" gameplay.

Despite this, the first part was a breath of fresh air in the genre. Even such gaming giants as Resident Evil and Silent Hill began to try and replicate its success in the form of RE:8 and P.T. The game achieved tremendous commercial success, and development of a second part was launched, which we will now discuss.

Outlast?? The first thing that stands out when playing through it is the abrupt change of setting from an asylum to some remote forest with all its beauties. This raises questions, as the first part relied on its claustrophobia and lack of maneuver space, not "open" locations, the potential of which, by the way, was never fully realized.

Yes, they changed the location variant, but in this setting, the game simply crapped itself. The enemy AI has not changed, and they are still easily deceived, and many confrontations can simply be avoided. Instead of the asylum patients, we are now chased by cultists, which looks quite interesting given the protagonist's flashbacks, but this is not enough. What is baffling is the insufficient disclosure of the ongoing events. After completing the game, I only understood that there are three sects fighting each other for righteousness, and I would like to see something more.

The developers tried to diversify the gameplay by adding, for example, action-packed chases, but in my opinion, this only made the situation worse. The game became simply unbearably long, and the monotony, which was already a problem in the first part, was only exacerbated. Only the flashback moments look genuinely interesting and unique, while the rest of the game feels like a forced "feeding" of what has already become stale.

Honestly, I don't understand why they had to go this way. Perhaps it was the whim of the publisher who wanted more money. But in the end, we ended up with the same Outlast in the form of a third part. Why they didn't do it right away is completely unclear. Maybe they were afraid of being called a series of self-plagiarism and a conveyor belt. But to avoid this, you need to do better, not just "it'll do".

Other reviews of games I played as part of my horroresque October so far: Carrion, KONA, Outlast

I admit I wasn’t all that hopeful for this sequel considering my lukewarm experience with the first game. I was almost certain that the predictable gameplay loop that was so prevalent in the first one would be here too. Because of that, I was actually surprised to see some of Outlast’s issues were, at least to an extent, addressed in Outlast 2. The problem is that the sequel introduced a number of its own problems that stopped it from being markedly better than the original.

By far, the main improvement in this game was the fact that it relies considerably less on cheap, pointless and ultimately annoying jump scares. Outlast 2 still suffers from this issue, but there was a considerable drop in the absurd amount we got in the first game. This logical change was incredibly effective in increasing the game’s sense of unease, simply because it grants the player more time to absorb the dark environments and to wonder. Consequently, certain moments in Outlast 2 become much more enjoyable, because they allow your mind to roam free and inject its own internal tension into your playthrough. There still aren’t that many opportunities for that throughout the game which means a lot more could’ve been done here, but considering that this was basically non-existent in Outlast, it was welcome nonetheless. Additionally, the formulaic nature of the first game that unfortunately made it so predictable was reigned in in Outlast 2. This, too, brings a clear advantage to the game when weighing it against its predecessor; there were still quite a few moments where you could pretty much tell what was about to happen. There just weren’t as many of them. Another thing the sequel did better than the original was in the visual and sound (not music) department. This is impressive because the first game had already done a tremendous job here. The visuals in Outlast 2 take it even further: everything looks incredibly crisp, detailed and deeply atmospheric from start to finish, and the sound effects double down on that improvement. Ironically, the most memorable moments here were, to me, the high school scenes. I understand those who say there are too many of them, and I can agree to an extent. But the complete absence of music in so many of those scenes was so effective in instilling in me an actual sense of being scared (something I never felt in the first game or in any other part of this sequel), that I appreciated every single one of them. I genuinely felt wary every time I opened the door to one of those classrooms, and that was because the lack of music ‘forced’ the sound effects and, consequently, my own projecting mind, to take centre stage.

However, not all things were better, and this is why I feel that, even though the net gain is positive, Outlast 2 also leaves me thinking about what could’ve been. The poorer level design stands out here. I don’t necessarily agree with those who say the game was worse than Outlast just because of the change in setting. When done right, open spaces can be just as effective as closed ones in horror, and anyway there are still a ton of claustrophobic environments in Outlast 2. My criticism is that the level design didn’t seem to keep up with those changes. Oftentimes the navigation paths aren’t made clear to the player, and this results in confusing segments when you don’t really know where to go, which becomes particularly frustrating in those fast paced moments when escape is urgent. Another point of contention this game has is with its story. I really enjoyed how much more fleshed out the religious elements in Outlast 2 were when compared to the first game (though this would be logical given the change in tone). But there’s a catch here. How much you take from the narrative is directly related to not only how much attention you pay to the documents you’re bombarded with, but also how much you remember from the first game. At first glance, everything becomes so bizarre that you’d be justified in feeling the story falls apart in its conclusion. That’s how I felt in my first playthrough, which made me immediately start a new one on the easiest difficulty just to pay full attention to it. I now understand Outlast 2 much better, but I also had to watch a video connecting the first game with the sequel to fully understand how they relate. Once you get to this point, there’s a newfound appreciation for the story the game’s trying to tell, but I feel the writers simply demand too much from the player here, both in terms of previous knowledge and in willingness to connect pieces that are far from obvious, at least to me. Conversely, Blake’s own personal story, fundamental as it is, also ended up feeling like a bit of a letdown. However, that might be because the school scenes felt so much more unsettling than the rest that I was inevitably expecting more. One last thing I’d like to mention in this problem section is the difficulty. The game felt distinctively harder than the original for some reason. I don’t know if this was intentional by the devs, but I do think they kind of overdid it, unnecessarily so.

I know I’m in the minority, but my final impression after playing Outlast and Outlast 2 back-to-back is that the sequel is a better game. It does more things better than the ones it devolves on, and it is also a more fluid package as a gameplay experience, at least on console. The issue is that it also feels like a missed opportunity. Just like the first one, this too falls short of what it could’ve been. Its unremarkable level design and overly ‘demanding’ story, along with the fact that it still relies on jump scares quite often, means Outlast 2 isn’t a game I’ll be remembering as being amongst my survival horror favourites. I give it a 7/10, thus rating it slightly higher than Outlast, because to me, it does just enough to justify bumping it to a higher place.

First of all, I did not play this game, I watched gameplay of it. Because of that my review will be more focused on the plot rather than gameplay. My review will contain spoilers for this game and the whole Outlast series.

The setting is ok, I like the first one much more because asylums are my main bitches but I am down for a little Jonestown inspiration. My main gripe is that it is too much open world to the point where you don't even know where you're going and since the game is so pitch black it makes you confused even more. The river paddling and the school segments were incredibly boring. I wish they did something different in that regard.

The plot is where my main issue with this game lies. When a game has Outlast 2 as its title, you are immediately excited to hear more about the Murkoff Corporation and its bullshit but that is not what you get. All you get is a crazy cult run by Papa Knoth in some shithole. That's all you think is happening in this town. You are convinced that this is just a game where a crazy cult leader brainwashed the townsfolk into doing his bidding like Jonestown. Sure, sometimes you get this blinding light in the sky that seems to disorient everybody in this town and give you hallucinations but even then, you're thinking that Papa Knoth is the one controlling these towers or there's some supernatural bullshit going on. The only evidence you can find that suggests that the Murkoff corporation is behind all this are two documents that can be easily missed.

One is a report written by one of the Murkoff employees reporting on the strength of the signals (it's not even specified that this person is a Murkoff employee, you have to do further research outside of the game) and the other document is written by a resident of the town and he saw the towers when he was out and about. Even then, you might be under the impression that the first document is a guy under the employment of Papa Knoth and that the second one is a person who doesn't even know they're being brainwashed by Knoth because Knoth surely wouldn't be like "hey, I own these sick ass towers that I use to control you all".

Only by reading the comics, you will understand that Murkoff corporation is the one controlling this town and Papa Knoth is a victim as any other person living there. They are also the reason why Lynn is suddenly 9 months pregnant and why after giving birth, she says that there is nothing there. The comics and a document in Outlast Whistleblower explain that this is a side effect of the Morphogenic Engine where women are suddenly half-term in a matter of weeks and then give "birth" to nonexistent babies, usually dying after labor. This phenomenon would also explain why Knoth and Val are obsessed with children and why they think that the devil himself is going to be birthed. They could have witnessed these pregnancies.

I wish we were given some kind of inkling of all of this rather than having to look it up ourselves because honestly, the only reason I still like this game is that it has Outlast 2 in the title and because I researched why this town is so fucking crazy and found that it is linked to the first game. If it wasn't, I would have just trashed this game because it's quite uneventful without that link. If I didn't research further, I would have just been confused as hell and concluded that everything happening in this game was because supernatural forces are upon this town.

Maybe they could have spun this story in the direction that Blake finds some reports suggesting that Murkoff is in on this and because he's a journalist, he would have found that suspicious since everyone is curious about what Murkoff is doing in that asylum. Since they were here because of the death of a young woman who was living in this town, they could have heard something that linked Murkoff to that young woman.

Overall, I like it because its part of the Outlast series but if it wasn't, it wouldn't have motivated me to delve deeper into the game lore, watch all the documents and recordings hence I would just move on to another game in confusion.