Outlast: Whistleblower (2014)

(Spoilers for the first game) Outlast's Operation Paperclip and MKUltra background was compelling as a backstory, but I was let down by how the base game failed to stretch beyond its source material. Outlast's ending revealing that an old Nazi was still alive and very much in control was predictable, despite that various ways to take the story into greater territories were present. I thought the game's events expanding beyond the Murkoff Corporation's understanding of science and the paranormal would have made for a greater story, yet Red Barrels committed to their source material.

While Whistleblower doesn't deviate from the historical background present in the base story, it does create further intrigue by depicting what Mount Massive Asylum was like prior to the Walrider slaughtering Murkoff's staff. It was reminiscent of the intro to the original Half-Life during the DLC's prologue, as the protagonist went about his job while the facility still thrived. I'd have loved it if the DLC spent additional time fleshing out the asylum's daily functions prior to when things went south, if only to steepen the sociopathy of Murkoff's experiments and staff.

The DLC delivers a short experience that is not lacking in tension. It takes Outlast's setting and is unrelenting in applying pressure, creating an experience that is arguably more stressful than the base game. Whistleblower's main antagonist, Eddie Glusktin, was vastly disturbing compared to any of Outlast's variants hitherto. For me, none of the other variants instilled a sickness in my stomach quite like Gluskin's vile body horror. While Glusktin's screen time is brief compared to the base game's villains, he was at least an original departure from what the series has presented thus far. I certainly won't be forgetting about him anytime soon.

Overall, I'd say that Outlast: Whistleblower takes what the base game did and refines it into a tighter, stressful, enhanced version of its predecessor. One who approved of the original Outlast will no doubt enjoy this DLC.

Despite not really enjoying Outlast very much, I heard from more than a few people that the DLC was much better and since it came with the version of Outlast I bought and wasn't very long, I thought I would give it a try. I generally don't plan to review DLC separately from their related titles, but I think Whistleblower warrants an exception as one of the coolest things I can say for it is that it is nearly as long, and just as good, if not much higher quality, than the main game.

That previous sentence says most of my more important feelings on Whistleblower. I think as a DLC, it's pretty awesome to see one that adds so much to a game it might as well be a full sequel (though to be fair, they probably should've just made it a sequel and sold it full price, I doubt it'd get a ton of complaints compared to the DLC model). The DLC I did find shorter than the main game on my playthrough (Outlast took me a little under 4 hours and this took me a little under 3), but that's still surprisingly close.

Most aspects of the story I found significantly better in Whistleblower. While the plot is mostly reliant on your having played the main game and contains spoilers to that story, this prologue I found much more compelling than the main story. Slight spoilers for the main game ahead, but I'm not tagging them since this isn't a review for the main game and they're rather minor anyway. You play as a software engineer for Murkoff, the company running the asylum's paranormal research division. After seeing the messed up shit that goes down, you decided to spill the beans to an investigative reporter (the protagonist of the main game) about said messed up shit going on at Mount Massive Asylum. You're of course caught in the act and sentenced to becoming subject to the horrific experiments yourself, only to be "rescued" to an extent when all hell breaks loose as the monstrous research subject breaks free and runs amok on its captors. This setup gave the game a much more personal feel to it than the investigative dude you play as in the main story. It was also satisfying to some extent to see the Murkoff researchers get their just desserts for the torture they inflicted.

Beyond this stronger premise, I mostly found the game suffered from some of the same issues I had with the main game. The gameplay simply isn't all that fun to me and while Outlast is desperately committed to constantly being disturbing, edgy, and over-the-top, this mostly only achieves at best an unsettling horror that you kind of want to just look away from rather than fear, and at worst is grotesquely hilarious. Whistleblower does more to characterize some key pursuers and enemies, which helps to add much more tension to some of the chase scenes as you know all too well what messed up stuff they hope to subject you to, but while I won't spoil the details, I found at least one of them definitely ran afoul of the "this is so outrageous, it's just funny."

After playing this, the main game, and Outlast 2 (review to come on the second game), and not planning to play other games they put out in the series, I think this DLC is the highpoint for me with this series. It feels like more care was taken to make the setting and characters have more depth and personal stakes than the main game and the things Outlast is aiming for are done with much more success, even when they're aspects I don't really care for. I still wouldn't really recommend this in general, but if you liked the main game, I think it's definitely worth picking this DLC up. I give this DLC 3 stars as I think it was certainly a step up from the main game (and Outlast 2), but admittedly, it's not a very comfortable 3 stars and is probably more a 2.5 rounded up.

Acting as a prequel to Outlast, it relies on the same ingredients that the original game put forth and suffers the same fate.

Bringing us back to the same scary Asylum with most of the same homicidal maniacs still run and roam through the halls, ultimately producing the same levels of scares.

I want to like these games, but it's execution lacks very much in the same way as the original.

It carries the same level of atmosphere but it's not enough to bring anything new to the series. Instead of going top down, you go down top, a prequel essential.

The one thing these games have taught me is; don't trust doctors with shady underground test labs.

Again, these games aren't for everyone.