But unlike other games like Amnesia (pretty much the reference game for the genre) where you're truly gripped by fear throughout the game environment and the plot, Outlast is just going for easy 'BOO! SCARED YOU!' moments. This isn't necessarily a bad thing because, among other things, Outlast knows when to activate these sequences and make you scream for your mommy. Once you're past this initial trauma, Outlast is just about guts, blood and mutilation, accompanied with multiple frights, all the while at top, terrifying volume.

Outlast isn't trying to (or doesn't manage to) psychologically terrorize you beyond that first hour. Finding the 'invisible path' - the bit that involves crawling on all fours, hiding in lockers or under beds, dodging deformed enemies or running for your life in intense chases - is the key to progressing through the game. Each section of the game has a specific order, and if you don't do it that way then you probably won't survive. The second effect of this linearity is that if you look thoroughly at Outlast you'll see that it is just a giant puzzle. If the game didn't have control over what you do or where you go, it couldn't activate certain unexpected events that make you jump out of your chair. This linearity has two clear objectives: the first is to keep you scared. Outlast is a very linear game.l It's rare to find a section of the game where you move freely, open doors or enter rooms that you shouldn't. Its 'scare' resources run out pretty fast and so every challenge in the game is a slight variation on the above, which means that they're overcome in almost the same way each time too: 'Go there, activate a button or lever, and repeat'. But after the first impact, Outlast slips into routine. The first time everything is new, terrifying, unpleasant and distressing, and it truly is a scary game, the sort that makes your hair stand on end and your pulse race. Now, Outlast makes the one mistake you should never make in any horror game: routine. Outlast is not a game for the fainthearted: it's gross, it's violent and really gets under your skin.

The story is a common one, but it's very effective on screen, especially for the many realistic scenes of blood and gore. The game does well at getting you into the shoes of the protagonist, Miles Upshur, and making sure you have a hard time (which is kind of the point).

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