Having absolutely loved the first game and it's DLC, I was honestly very excited to get back to Red Barrels' horror series. And while I can't say it's the best they have offered us, that doesn't make it bad. In fact this is yet another masterpiece in it's own right. Just not in comparison to what came before.
Story: Blake and Lynn Langermann are a husband and wife investigative reporting TagTeam who's attention has been turned to a current unsolved murder mystery. The victim was an unknown pregnant teenager with no ties to the world at large, but forensic clues pointed to the wooded area she was found in not necessarily being as devoid of human life at was currently believed. Doing their due diligence, the couple rented a helicopter with the intention to fly over and see if something looks suspicious and maybe get some good intro video to their report if this investigation lead anywhere. Unfortunately for them, it did.
Suddenly a blinding flash hit, and the chopper's engine was gone, sending everyone plummeting to the ground in a firey inferno. When Blake comes to in the wreck, he finds his wife missing and the pilot tied to a pike like a ritual sacrifice. At least with a body missing, he knew his wife survived the crash and with this in mind, he began his new all-important quest: find Lynn so they can get out of this alive.
Not that it will be so easy to do so since you find out quickly he is not alone. Out here in the wilderness Blake soon finds a town named Heaven's Gate full of people who have cut themselves away from society who's whole goal is to prevent the Anti-Christ from being born... and believing it will be a child born in this town. The result is a cult who's practices include killing any woman in the town who gets pregnant before they can give birth and ensure the child does not survive either... and they have Lynn. Suffice it to say finding and saving her just became a lot more important then this loving husband could have possibly expected. Not that it can even be that straight forward as this is further complicated by Blake's own mental state as something about this place keeps showing him visions of his days in school when he knew a mutual friend of the couple growing up named Jessica.
This setup for absolute madness will be the backdrop as you slowly put the pieces together of what happened, what is happening, and what will happen from through Blake's eyes and mind. It is disjointed, confusing, and even at times tough to follow, but that seems to be by design due to the events around you and how much it requires you to question Blake's own sanity at times, making the tail itself captivating, if hard to follow. There are details that explain the reason for all of this to an absolute truth, but they are very easy to miss or even connect the dots (since you need to have found and recall a specific note in the original game to do so), but with or without it, get ready for a wild ride. I would probably rate it higher if it wasn't so easy to miss the real story in the chaos.
7/10
Graphics: When people look at old games and wonder why the hell modern games are so unoptimized, this is one that easily brings the notion forward. Despite being made with the Unreal 3 engine, it is absolutely gorgeous! The world you will explore is dark, bleak and stunning, whether in the wilderness, Heaven's Gate, or the flashbacks to Blake's school days, the world is damn close to photorealistic and with extreme attention to detail that will amaze or horrify you. Probably both.
This is a very graphic horror game that does not pull it's punches. You will see horrific events in graphic detail, whether it's happening to Blake or someone else... or even the left behind aftermath. Nor is it going to be just adults who are the victims. Early on, you will find a room that sets the stage of how bad things have gotten in the town of Heaven's Gate when you find it basically acting as a mass grave for infants murdered in one massive event you (thankfully) did not get there to witness. This is a dark tale and you will see things that reflect it, even as the quality and detail it shows those things in is frankly amazing. In fact, the only complaint about the quality of the graphical work is just how dark a lot of the world it exists in is.
You see this game takes place over night, so when the game should be at it's greatest glory in the natural light of the world, you will often find yourself in a darkness so deep, you will have to use the night vision of your camera to find your way around, taking away the color and focus for a deep green hue. It still looks good but it's obvious if you could see without the aid, it would look even better... and late game will prove you more right then you think.
But you are clearly not gonna be here alone, and this is where the game shows it's age. Even up close everyone still looks great, if not the same level of realism the world has. Rather they tend to look a little more obviously sculpted and modeled. In most cases, this won't stand out due to either you not wanting to get close (it doesn't usually take a lot to get killed) and those who do being clearly made to be not quite right, but there are a few exceptions to this: specifically Lynn and Jessica. In both cases, there are some very close up scenes which look relatively simplistic... even if relatively is the word to describe it.
But yeah, overall this is an incredibly gorgeous game which will floor you for how well this game can still stand up to modern games we see launched and played today, even as the game is almost 8 years old to the day as of writing this.
8/10
Sound: Just like the video side of this game, the audio in this game is absolutely brilliant as well. But unlike the graphical territory, it's a lot harder for this to age. You won't pick up on the music for large swaths of the game, but that is quickly becoming par for the course for these atmospheric pieces. I'm not saying it isn't there most of the time, but the developers knew when to let silence, your own foot steps, and the rustle of the foliage carry the mood far more then some dull note to kill dead air. Rather when music is here, it's here for a purpose, be it to enhance the mystery of the moment when you are disorientated with no idea what just happened, or the Gregorian chant of a choir when stumbling on a big, bold, dramatic, and absolutely haunting moment, the game knows how to use the music right without overusing it. It's never going to be anything you will want to listen to when the game is over, but it's not meant to be. It's designed to serve the game, and does this to the fault of just about anything else. And really, if you've watched a good horror film with an excellent score backing it, you understand exactly why this is the right path.
And those sound effects are absolutely perfect. Every creaking door you open, every bolt-lock you open or shut, every foot step you hear (yours or someone you haven't noticed yet), or really any crunch, thunk, or splash is just brilliantly done, both in quality and location. The system has several parts where your ears are as important as your eyes. Between closed doors to listen to and maze-like locations, you will need to listen for where others are... and this works exceptionally well.
But as always the one we all want to know about is how are the voices, and once again this is not a game that will disappoint. Most of the time the one you will hear is Blake between comments when events happen and over videos you can record along the way, and these are appropriately shocked and horrified sounding the entire time. But his voice is not alone, as many of the others here are quite talkative as well... be it the few allies you have along the way or the mumbling (and screaming) cultists you will have to avoid. It's pretty clear they don't have your best interest at heart and even more so when someone finds you and yells for their buddies to come join in.
9/10
Gameplay: In Outlast 2, you will play the role of Blake on his mission to find his wife in Heaven's Gate and get the two of them out alive and you will do so from his eyes in a first person perspective. You have no weapons, and you are not a fighter. You are a camera man who will have to hide and avoid those who would gut you as soon as they see you. All you have are your wits and your tool of the trade, the latter being your only real advantage as you explore your surroundings in your bid for survival.
Still, this camera is in itself a rather sizable advantage. The people out here do not make use of any such technology and are not supernaturally enhanced, so if you can't see, they can't either. To correct for this, they need to carry things like torches or flashlights, giving you vital clues as to where they are. Thanks to your camera's night vision, you have no such things on you to give you away, letting you see both where they are when they use such tools, and not give you away for using yours. This does come at a cost, however, for your camera's batteries get drained using this mode, and when it runs out, it basically turns off. Fortunately you can find plenty of batteries throughout your journey, so while this does add some pressure to be smart about how you use them, I was able to reach the maximum in my inventory multiple times (since the game will take them all away from you at specific points) without really being too concerned.
Furthermore night vision is not the only thing your camera can do. This time, you also have a microphone which will prove useful when in situations where sight isn't going to be enough. In places like corn fields where you can't really see more then a few feet away (outside the glaring flashlights of the hunting parting chasing you down) or behind a closed door where you need to be sure the danger has passed before you open it, or even pitch darkness in a vast open space, making night vision basically useless cause there is nothing to see, your ears will become your best allies and this will let you really focus in, including meters to detect the general volume of what the mic picked up on.
And finally damage can either be an instant death or be permanent and stack to one (and it doesn't take much). To remove it you will need to use bandages to heal up once in a while if you get caught, and like batteries, you will be able to carry a supply of them with you.
With all this in mind, it will be up to you to keep hidden from threats as do your best to survive the dual locations of Heaven's Gate and the high school Blake keeps hallucinating about between events of the main story. And while this will muddy up the story side (unless you find or are aware of the very specific details that tie this game with the first Outlast), these transitions are some of the best I've seen and played. Disjointed and fluid at the same time, I actually have to tell whoever designed them to take a bow as they keep the game going without missing a beat (especially late-game).
The only complaints I have as far as gameplay goes are a few specific escape sequences which really don't give you a good way to know where you are supposed to go. Most of the time, this isn't an issue, but there are two where it gets absolutely brutal: one because the sequences are basically back-to-back and you are too busy to note when saves happen, making you legit fear losing any progress a previous death hasn't proven safe. It's intense, it's panic inducing, but without a quick enough way to identify where to go next, it's also needlessly infuriating. This gets even worse later in the game with a specific bathroom related sequence which will have you, even if you know how to do it, guess which stall you need to hide in to make it work. It's a glaringly bad moment in another wise awesome horror game.
8/10
Bugs: Once again, we have another game that ran absolutely flawless from start to finish.
Digital Rights Management: With the exception of getting the game through gog or humblebundle, the store you launch the game from itself is the DRM for this game (and it is available in a few of them).
Source: PC Gaming Wiki
Score: This is honestly a great horror game. I don't believe that can be denied. It plays great, adds to the formula setup by the first, and ends on a note that is somehow obscure and yet satisfying. In addition it expanded on the formula for gameplay from Outlast and does so amazing well. But it is not without it's flaws, adding new types of gameplay that overall work great, but manage to stumble from time to time.
If it were not part of the Outlast series, I expect people would be singing it's praises, and in fact unless you found those same specific details I keep talking about, it might as well not be. However, that connection is perhaps the biggest issue the game has. It's absolutely vital you get it if you want to really understand what just happened in this game at all, and without it, the game is a weird mix of two stories that work on their own but are not related beyond memories surfacing for "reasons" while Blake is trying to find his wife.
In short it seems like this game's biggest crime is being "somehow" connected to the previous game and just not being as good as that last game was, however good it is in it's own right.
8/10
System Requirements:
- Intel Core i3-540
- 4 GB RAM
- Nvidia Geforce GTX 260 or ATi Radeon HD 4870 (1 GB VRAM required)
- Windows Vista, 7, 8, or 10 (64 bit only)
- 30 GB Hard Drive space
System Specs:
- Ryzen 7 (5700X) 3.4 Ghz
- 32 GB RAM
- AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (8 GB VRAM)
- Windows 11 (64 Bit)
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