Outlast 2's polarizing critical reception in 2017 only seemed to galvanize the series' ever-expanding cult following, and whereas we felt it missed the mark in our Outlast 2 review, Red Barrels' Philippe Morin reported the series had reached 15 million sales less than a year later – saying that, in 2018, it was worth $64 million all from a $1.4 million starting budget.įast forward five years, and Outlast now stares down its next iteration at a time when the survival horror scene is booming.
Still, the latter points aside, both games underlined a new era for survival horror, in both the indie and AAA spheres in turn generating a buzz that the biggest studios of the day had failed to capture for some time in this space.Īnd while Amnesia: The Dark Descent more than deserved its plaudits, it was Outlast that drove the core tenets of this new 'helpless hero' horror format forward. And both games pull heavily on genre tropes, not least trivializing mental health by way of sanity meters, and a mental health facility housing 'crazed' and 'catatonic' occupants. Both games require the use of light to navigate their atmospheric locations – Amnesia using a gas lantern Outlast a battery-powered video recorder. Dead certīoth are first-person survival horror games, with non-combative protagonists, who must run and hide from an array of horrible baddies. After all, this is a concept that borrowed so much from elsewhere in the horror genre 10 years ago, and yet has managed to stay relevant and appealing to this day. But as I prepare to down tools in another no-weapons tale of terror, I can't help but applaud Outlast's staying power. Due to launch tomorrow, May 18, via Steam's Early Access initiative, I'm looking forward to my next stint with Red Barrels' latest, somehow even more distilled take on wanton violence, jump scares and blood-curdling horror.
Now, almost a decade on since intrepid investigative journalist Miles Upshur first infiltrated the Bedlam-esque Mount Massive Asylum, Outlast is on-course to launch its third series entry: The Outlast Trials.Īfter a brief hands-on with an early build last year, I wrote about how The Outlast Trials has more gore than a slasher film and the potential to change the horror genre. But it was Red Barrels' first-person action-survival horror adventure that sunk its mind-warped teeth into me and didn't let go.
The likes of Killzone: Shadow Fall, Battlefield 4, Call of Duty: Ghosts, and Blacklight Retribution were all great games for showcasing the power of Sony's then cutting-edge hardware, sure. Outlast was the first game to blow me away on PS4.
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