[SPOILERS!!!]
This is one game that doesn't shy away from breaking the idea of what most people these days think that a "horror" game should be, that's for sure. This isn't like Call of Duty or modern Resident Evil, with all the gun-blazing, balls to the wall action. No, in Outlast, you must use your wits to survive. You can't fight back, so your only chance of escaping those monsters is to run and hide. Think of this as a modern era version of Amnesia: The Dark Descent.
So here's the story. You play as Miles Upshur, a journalist. Miles receives a folder of reports based on experiments at Mount Massive Asylum, a psychiatric hospital in the mountains of Lake County, Colorado. Apparently an abandoned home for the mentally ill, it has been re-opened by Murkoff Corp. When Miles sneaks into the building, he's already shocked by the corpses of the staff. He also finds a dying SWAT officer who warns him to get out while he still can. But Miles decides to investigate further. He finds the patients, known as "Variants", who start going after him. There's especially a hulking sadist who grabs Miles and throws him off the edge of the 2nd floor. As Miles lies there, barely conscious, he meets a cult leader who goes by the name of Martin Archimbaud. This crazy coot tells Miles that he was sent by "God" to witness all the crazy shit that goes on there. So now, Miles is trapped, and he needs to find his way out of the asylum, all the while evading many Variants, including that big sack of shit that tried to kill Miles earlier, and two other cannibalistic maniacs.
One thing I didn't like about Amnesia, is that when you die, the enemy doesn't respawn from your last checkpoint. So if you want, you could just let the enemy catch up to you and cut you up. Then you could try again without the sense of horror that the bastard is still there. That doesn't happen here. In Outlast, enemies will respawn no matter how many times you die. I like that, it makes the game more challenging.
Some of the other features are that you have a camcorder that has a night vision function. Obviously, you're gonna be using this in places that are otherwise too dark. Your camera will use up battery power, but only when you're using night vision. Also, when you hold up your camera at certain parts of the game, notes related to that event will be written. You can also hide in lockers, sorta like hiding in closets and cabinets in Amnesia. Except that this time, instead of holding down the button to open the door, a single press of a button will get you in the locker at the snap of your fingers. That's another welcome upgrade. But what's more, is that you can also hide underneath most of the beds as well.
So if I think that this game is so awesome, why am I only giving it 3 stars? Mostly, it's because the ending sucks. I'm sorry, it just does. Apparently, there's this ghost that everybody calls The Walrider. (This is the God that Martin worships.) Miles is suppose to shut off a life support system to be rid of The Walrider. But upon shutting it down, Miles becomes possessed by the ghost. He staggers to the exit, but a security team shows up and shoots Miles to death, releasing the ghost so that it could wreak havoc some more. The end.
Still, this isn't such a bad game. If you've grown tired of Amnesia: The Dark Descent, and you're not looking into buying the other "horror" games that look more like Call of Duty DLC rejects, I'd say pick this up.
