I really liked the first one and Whistleblower. An hour or so into this one and I'm feeling bored and I think it probably sucks. Railroading everywhere, cheap deaths all the time, a feeling of very little control (and not in a good horror way, in a, "Is this game broken? Do I need to do things exactly like the devs want to progress?" way).
It's not really scary, and I don't know what is going on, and I don't know that I care.
It was not as disappointing as the A Machine for Pigs as horror sequels go, but goddamn they tried hard to match that... first 1/3 of the game was actually decent, after that everything just crumbles
Currently in the fifth chapter, pretty baffled by the negative reactions, I've been absolutely loving the game so far. Perhaps if I had played the first game my response to the game might be flipped.
It's because it's basically entirely trial and error with insta deaths. It's not often clear how the game wants you to play or where it wants you to go, and if you do things differently, you die. That's not scary. It's a haunted cart ride that stops all the time, backs up, and makes you ride the same short section again and again until you look where they want you to look.
Yeah, you still have a ways to go. Only just finished my 1st playthrough tonight but I'd say it's maybe around the halfway point? Someone else can probably chime in if I'm wrong. I'd say I probably spent another 2-4 hrs to complete the game but I'm usually slower than average players on games. I didn't see how long my entire playthrough was either.
Since I finished the game up tonight, wanted to add a few comments to my early impressions. The game certainly did pick up after the first 1-2 hours. Definitely more intense which I liked and had more of the chase gameplay that I expected after the first Outlast. I strongly preferred the 2nd half of the game due to more of the
school hallucinations
and also more scripted and linear chase sequences. I really did not enjoy the open-ended nature of the environments early on when I had to run and dodge enemies and I feel that the more linear, cramped locales work better to the run and chase gameplay. I also ran into a few sequences where I died over and over just because the game offered absolutely no indicator or hint as to what they wanted me to do next. This really diminished the scare/anxiety factor for me and just became frustrating.
The
school hallucinations
were hands-down my favorite part of the game and I have to echo other's sentiments that the game would have been much better if it was structured in that fashion for the majority of the game. They were honestly the only parts of the game that legitimately had me feeling scared to move around and the atmosphere was just oozing with fear and loneliness. The clean and sanitized hallways and rooms seemed to enhance the fear factor for me some reason. Almost an "everything looks to normal" to me vibe which made me anxious. All in all, these sections of the game are what most closely recaptured the magic and terror factor of the first game for me.
As for the story, I need to play through it again I think. Maybe I'm just stupid but so little of the game made any sense to me. Towards the end of the game I just straight up stopped reading the
Gospels of Knoth
because I couldn't make heads or tails of 80% of it. None of the religious stuff made any sense to me.
Why was Lynn pregnant? Did the world like actually end or something during the ending? I honestly just have no idea what happened. I didn't fully understand the Jessica storyline either. Blake, Jess, and Lynn all were friends at the school I gathered. After the scene with the priest I assumed that Jessica was sexually abused by him and hung herself at some point afterwards.
I guess I need to pay a lot more attention next time because I'm just completely lost.
Overall, I did enjoy the game and I feel like I got my money's worth. I do prefer the first Outlast to this one though. It was much harder to actually play due to the fear and anxiety I had playing which is what I wanted out of this one. The graphics were really well done though and the sound design was just world class. Props to the composer because the soundtrack was truly unsettling and terrifying. I hope for the next game (if there will be one one day) that they ditch the open-ended environments during enemy encounters and stick the cramped, claustrophobic locales (like the
school)
. Maybe keep the open-world areas strictly for exploration segments. Hopefully next time the story is a little more fleshed out or explained for dummies like me. I just felt like so much was unexplained or not explained very clearly so I struggled to try and put pieces together or understand really anything that was happening.
I would like this guy movie if he wasn't angry and yelling all the time since he actually makes some good points.
I finished playing this and if this game only had the school portion of the game, it would have been great. The rest of the game was pretty bad since it's trial and error and filled with chase scenes.
The atmosphere and story are really intriguing, but everything else got bland as fuck really fast...the gameplay loop is really tiring and instead of helping the scariness of the game it just makes it 10 times more frustrating
Man I'm with you. I'm not scared, and I'm tired of just running until I find the right path. The first game was so intense and claustrophobic. What happened? I'm not even sure I want to finish it.
Edit: did beat it. Came together much better in the second half, although never quite scary. More school, less impossibly dark sequences in forests being chased by weird enemies would have helped.
Finished this a while back and enjoyed it a whole bunch. Didn't have any problem with the pacing and I felt the numerous ways to hide or block enemies allowed me to dictate the speed at which I took things. Not to say running away a whole bunch didn't work either.
Feel like they didn't quite stick the landing. Knoth just didn't have enough screen time or tangible presence to be all that interesting. I really did like the whole Order of Dagon through a True Detective lense even though they weren't quite as iconic as the variants from the original game.
Ending spoilers
Very brave/kinda bullshit to have the real ending in an incredibly easy to miss note right off the beaten path. It connecting events together is really cool although it does undermine this story.
The priest reveal was just so flaccid that I wish they did leave in the more gruesome angle. It was pretty obvious from the start what happened so them dragging it on like a big mystery just made the game look dumb. Would have left the orgy in too as the way that scene alludes to and cuts away from it just made is jarring. Game didn't feel as shocking as I would have liked, dead babies aside.
I absolutely loved Martha and Val though. Then again husky voiced women is a thing I dig.
It's because it's basically entirely trial and error with insta deaths. It's not often clear how the game wants you to play or where it wants you to go, and if you do things differently, you die. That's not scary. It's a haunted cart ride that stops all the time, backs up, and makes you ride the same short section again and again until you look where they want you to look.
I just finished this morning, this sounds shitty -- but I guess I just had a better time than most of you in intuiting what was demanded of me in any given section, it's a weird case where I just have a difference of opinion on what's classified as trial and error in this case.
That ending though, huh, that was, something?
I'm surprised ya'll enjoyed these school sections as much as you did, I was way more invested in Arizona as a setting, vastly more interesting, I feel like I've played through a million haunted schools -- and not having a super clear sense of geometry probably didn't help with its identity. The transitions were always dope though.
I think that second chapter with the emaciated sick people was the most unsettling, frightening stretch of the game. That or the pre-
I'm (finally)trying to play the original Outlast, but when i launch the application my PS4 spits out CE-30012-6 error code.
Anyone had any dealings with this? Only game it does it for.
I'm currently doing a collectible run on Nightmare and I gotta say it's still very easy to die even you know where to go
the escape from the chapel gives you just enough time to open the barn door or the confrontation with Marta where you have to push the cart can be easily failed if you don't hear her coming or run out of breath when escaping her
. Anyone who manages to finish this game on Insane without resorting to backups should receive enormous respect.
I'm (finally)trying to play the original Outlast, but when i launch the application my PS4 spits out CE-30012-6 error code.
Anyone had any dealings with this? Only game it does it for.
Whistleblower was released 8 months after the first game. Also let's remember that the studio has less than 20 employees and they've been working on Outlast games exclusively so it's entirely possible they'll want to start some brand new project.
I haven't really seen much on Outlast 2 due to blackout, but is it safe to say that I'd enjoy it if I loved Outlast/Whistleblower? Is it massively different, gameplay wise?
The setting is very different, not worse, just different. Also less tight spaces and more scripted chase scenes with only one correct path to the finish.
The setting is very different, not worse, just different. Also less tight spaces and more scripted chase scenes with only one correct path to the finish.
Yep, but I feel like there's less of that as well. You're being stalked by one person for most of the game and almost all encounters with that individual are in open areas so you can plan your actions. Aside from that there are two other characters which hunt for you in certain parts of the game, but the encounters with them are very linear and there's only one way to evade them (and you'll keep dying until you discover what the devs want you to do ).
Yep, but I feel like there's less of that as well. You're being stalked by one person for most of the game and almost all encounters with that individual are in open areas so you can plan your actions. Aside from that there are two other characters which hunt for you in certain parts of the game, but the encounters with them are very linear and there's only one way to evade them (and you'll keep dying until you discover what the devs want you to do ).
I... don't really know what to feel lol. I'll still probably pick it up, even though it feels like what I enjoyed about the first has taken a backseat to what I didn't. I'll just treat it as it's own game and leave it at that.
Just finished it, it was pretty good, but I preferred the first one. There are a lot of areas in Outlast 2 that just aren't designed well and instantly lead to "how the hell do I get out of this area?" and "oh my God, something is stalking me....but how the hell do I get out of this area?"
I'm just not a fan of the open areas in this game. And the trial and error encounters were cheap and boring.
I also found the school sub plot to be pointless and unnecessary. I figured out what was going on as soon as I heard the
little girl scream
. They were much better off sticking with the cultists and the
corporation that is releasing a toxin that makes people crazy
) and oh boy has it been a long time since I've played a sequel to a great game with this big a drop in quality. This is a goddamn mess of ideas, brutalities and intercuts – an enormous disappointment so far.
None of the sequences really stand out, aside from some good school scares, and the tension is generally pretty low. I feel like this sequel shouldn't even exist given how well the concept was handled in the first one and even perfected in Whistleblower.
I just finished it last night and wanted to talk to people about it, there doesn't seem to be all that much discussion going on wherever I go though.
What an ODD GAME that was. I loved the first one + DLC, and I love corn field/americana/cult-y horror. This game was just such a mixed bag, I loved everything in the desert, I loved the mysteries of what they were all upto and why they were all mental.
But it seemed like such a shame for everything to be so disconnected. The religious cult-y horror I thought was going to tie up with the Walrider. The first game posits that there is ancient evil and spirit-y things out there (right? It's not just nanomachines?) and to have everything mysterious in this one just put down to people being insane seemed like a shame.
If I'm incorrect in this then someone tell me, but the first game was pretty paranormal/magical, and then this game gives you the impression that it's some wider-reaching ideas, but it's actually just brainwashed mountain dwelling people?
I wanted there to be some actual Knoth God that they'd stumbled upon correctly...or something. The feeling I got when you first stumble upon their massive mega church,
that thing is massive and grand. I found it so unnerving that people had built this in the desert, but ultimately they just did it because they were batshit.
I wish the
school stuff
had never been included.
I loved the sense of place and location that Outlast 1 had, and keeping it all in one place both helped that and the immersion. You felt trapped and without respite.
Then Outlast 2 for some reason ties together the two stories, of your childhood and the present, but to what purpose? The school felt so well trodden and banal and completely disconnected from the main story.
This is all a bit of a stream of conscious, I'd just like to get my feelings down.. apologies!
Not in the mines yet, but, I'm having an OK time with it. Can't say I'm not a little disappointed, but, there's been some properly nasty stuff in there, so, I'm sticking with it.
My only real major concern is that, even with the brightness turned all the way up, the game is almost impossibly dark. Don't want to waste my batteries, but, I literally can't see a damn thing without the night vision on.
I'm closing in on Chapter 5. I feel bad for not buying this day 1. To me, this destroys Outlast 1 and WB, and I really liked 1 (WB got pretty cheap towards the end). I had read there was a lot of trial and error parts in O2 (which I hated towards the end of WB), but I guess I'm just not seeing it.
Besides one chase sequence I haven't died more than once. Even the one I did die to, it was just 3 times. Maybe I'm able to navigate better I don't know. Also I noticed that only 9% of people got the microphone achievement (use mic for 20 min). 25% beat the game. I had the microphone achievement in chapter 1.
This made me realize how stupid people were when talking about how the enemies are broken and find you in stealth so easily. This rarely happened to me, the microphone is a freakin lifesaver.
Anyways, I think this is the most horror-ass horror game I've ever played. Kudos to Red Barrels. They absolutely crushed it and I feel bad for taking some of the more vocal reviews so seriously. Maybe the game is about to take a dump and just be garbage but I just don't think so. I'm pretty interested in the story too, some crazy ass dark shit happening. My mind is thinking all sorts of fucked up shit with what happened to Jessica. I hope everything is answered. I'll find out soon enough.
So I beat it. The
mines
was the weakest part of the game but it wasn't too bad. It was also pretty short. Everything leading up to that part was good-great imo. Ending was ok but of course confusing.
For me it's the 2nd best game of the year. I also put it up there with SOMA in terms of games that are a bit similar and how much I liked them. SOMA was my favorite horror adventure game and now Outlast 2 is right there with it.
I wish I hadn't listened to certain reviews and just bought the game on day 1. Cool to play it now though.
Holy shit .. extremely positive impressions incoming GAF. Will spoiler tag where necessary. Picked this up via the recent GameStop sale at $19.99 (the Trinity package) even though I've previously already bought the first and its DLC in an earlier digital sale. No regerts.
Currently just at the start of Lamentations. I am playing this game with my wife as she enjoyed the first game and Whistle blower. The technological improvements over the first game are tremendous. On the Pro it runs at 1440p at a very solid 60 FPS. It looks and runs FANTASTIC on my 4K TV, really good IQ even if its not native or CB 4K. The game's dark nature makes it so that you're almost never seeing any aliasing or shimmering or visual blemishes. Character models still look sorta low quality but that's ok.
The Night vision segments are incredibly realistic in a very eerie way, reminds me the first time we saw the C130 segments in Modern Warfare and everyone was like holy shit this looks like real footage.
The game has some very effective jump scares and some incredibly tense moments, it's very unnerving at times but really works well. The story is also intriguing and I hope the game answers the major questions before the credits start rolling and doesn't leave it vague like the first game did.
The only negative I have is that Resident Evil 7 has sort of spoiled me on first-person-scary games. I keep hoping to pick something up to start whacking enemies in the heads but this isn't that game.
Holy shit the hero is getting the living hell beaten out of him .. he's been crucified, buried alive, crawling through cow dung and guts to escape death etc .. my wife has commented multiple times about how she would have probably given up, holed up till morning or something in his place.
I'm pretty sure it was luck that we finally pushed it all the way. I think she killed me like 15 times lol.
I think when she first sees you, you have to run to the right of the cart, through the fence and then turn left and run. You'll find a barrel to hide in. She'll chase you and then lose you. Then you have to circle around the building that's there, make your way back to the cart and start pushing it. I think she eventually hears you as you're pushing it, but you have to keep going even when you hear her coming for you. Good luck, friend.
Finished the game, ending confused the hell out of me. Had to read a plot synopsis to understand what happened.
Also got the "good" ending, and I now see there is also a "Bad" ending. No idea what I did to trigger that, but I'm glad that's the one I got.
Great game, so much fun and horribly addictive. But my god, I'll bet I lost a dozen years from my life playing it. So many terrific scares, had me practically falling off my couch on numerous occasions.
I'm at the mines where it's all blood and I haven't touched it for weeks because that area scares the fuck out of me lol. Just the noises is enough to make me play it in short bursts lol.
I´m currently playing the game in 4k and a Fury Nitro.
FPS are locked 60, but in night vision mode I always get locked 30 FPS.
I tried all the settings, but nothing helps.
The game even locks to 30fps with V-Sync off.
I really liked the first one and Whistleblower. An hour or so into this one and I'm feeling bored and I think it probably sucks. Railroading everywhere, cheap deaths all the time, a feeling of very little control (and not in a good horror way, in a, "Is this game broken? Do I need to do things exactly like the devs want to progress?" way).
It's not really scary, and I don't know what is going on, and I don't know that I care.
Pretty much how I felt. The level design was pretty awful and forcing the player to use the camera 99% of the time was just annoying. It's like they not only repeated the mistakes of the first game but exacerbated them ten-fold.
Red Barrels is great at building atmosphere and they have some very talented artists and sound designers. However, they seriously need to hire some experienced gameplay and level designers.
