This review contains spoilers
200 reviews! I had a hard time picking my initial 100th post, but it was easier to pick this one. Truthfully, I mainly wanted to choose a game that had "2" in the name for an aesthetic purpose. But I happen to have a lot to say about this game as is.
Let's start by saying this: Out of all the games I have played, Outlast 2 has been burned into my mind as the most "dark." This is a game with no light at the end of the tunnel. There's no hope, or joy, it is all miserable and bleak and intense start to finish. I'm sure you can name many other games that are similar, but Outlast 2 is the most agressive when it comes to that. One of the first things you see in the game is a basement that has a floor made of dead babies. And the dead babies are positioned to form a cross. I tell most people about that when I describe the game for how overly messed up that is. It's almost comicial to write it out but that's the tone of the whole game.
In the first game there was some ultimate goal of escaping, both in base and Whistleblower. You literally and figuratively are descending into madness here. Like by the end of the game you are underground, the elevator has descended into your own hell. No one is coming to save you. You have no allies, you are alone and trapped in this nasty cave as the world falls apart above you.
So that's the general setup for the game and what you're going to experience. So let's talk about the good here. First of all the game is utterly stunning visually. I must highlight how good it looks even on Switch. It looks identical to every release. The lightning, the wind rustling over fabric. The liminal space on display here is impressive. There are hallways that are so intriguing in design that make you wanna take a screenshot. There's so much purposeful framing on display here. The sound design and music are spectacular as well.
One thing this game does perfectly that I need to highlight is how it transitions into segments, this game plays a lot with time and it jumps back and forth between Blake's childhood vs the present. The way in which you transition into these school sections are unbelievable. It's mainly how smoothly it happens, no loading, no big reveal. You open a door, hide in a locker and come back out, boom, you're in the school. You turn around and you're in a new area. They are all placed at appropriate moments and the space between those sections are great.
So overall presentation wise the game is a knockout. But the rest of the game, sadly, for how much I love parts of it, is really lacking, messy, and ripe with problems. While it is intense to run around and be chased, your first time through, you have no clue what's going on and the map design is really bad. The area you're meant to go in is almost never marked, save for a few sections that are obvious, and visually the game is extremely dark a majority of the time. So you are just bumping into everything like an idiot and dying on repeat your first playthrough. The first game was a lot more linear with tight corridors, while this game is more open with empty space. But the window in which you need to progress is still the same size. So that dosent work.
I find this game really fun to speedrun. By design it's a running simulator, so speedruns to me just make sense. But that brings up a big issue with the game which is that running is really the only thing you ever do. It's actually not worth it to hide at all unless you don't know what you're suppose to do. You can just dart past everything, even most encounters on the hardest mode are able to be brushed over like this. There were times I legit ran the past the enemy and got into the checkpoint which despawned all the enemies. So about half of this game mechanic wise isn't worth doing. On a technical level, it's a very sufficient and beautiful experience, but in terms of structure, the game is poor. It's like having a stunning environment to play in, but the items you're given to play with are not that fun.
These issues also sink into the story as well. There was a lot of cut content here and it shows. The villains to start are non existent for majority of the game. Papa Knoth, who I consider to be the central antagonist, appears exactly twice in the game. His servant Martha is in the game more than he is. Val is the same story. You see her once in the beginning and then at the end, and you never find out what happens to them. Lo and behold, by looking at the cut content there are files that show Val and Martha getting into a fight. So that's what was meant to happen. In general, you'll find that basically all the cut content would have helped the story a lot.
Blake in particular has this the worst. There are audio files of him going crazy, repeating songs out loud, laughing like a maniac. It's reasonable to assume he is going crazy because he thinks he's a school child again, but then you play as him in the present and he seems totally normal. The only weird things he says are in the stuff you record with your camera, the commentary he gives shows his grip on sanity waning. But why aren't those other audio clips in the game? Dont get me wrong, I understand cutting out rape sounds and stuff, they felt like that was going too far. But they straight up removed parts of their game that give you a good idea of what's going on. I don't understand. Your first time through you have no clue what's going on unless you pick up a very very specific note really far off your path. In an area you don't have to go to and that you never would unless you knew about it. And for whatever reason this one note is the one that explains basically the ENTIRE story.
So ok, we established that thematically this game is lacking. But let me pose this question: what is this game aiming to do, and how does it want you to feel? Because my answer to that would be it's trying to make you uncomfortable and unnerved, and it does that very well.
Heres what it comes down to at the end of the day: despite all the issues this game has, it delivers on what it wants. Even with the weird story, forgettable characters and poor gameplay. This isn't like Blair Witch where you feel like the experience is a waste of time. This is so visceral and intense and in your face. Normally for average games I don't think of them much, yet this one has been burned into my mind since I first played it.
I've never played a game that is so mixed but I end up appreciating anyways. I personally enjoy it a lot.
So what do I rank it? I won't actually. Out of every post on this page, this will be one of the only games I will not assign a score out of 5 to. I think it exists on its own scale. You can't really evaluate a game like this if you ask me, with a score system, for all it does wrong and right. To me, this is one of the most bleak and dark games I've ever played and it will stay that way for a while.
Tune in to my next post as we look at the Freddi Fish games!
Let's start by saying this: Out of all the games I have played, Outlast 2 has been burned into my mind as the most "dark." This is a game with no light at the end of the tunnel. There's no hope, or joy, it is all miserable and bleak and intense start to finish. I'm sure you can name many other games that are similar, but Outlast 2 is the most agressive when it comes to that. One of the first things you see in the game is a basement that has a floor made of dead babies. And the dead babies are positioned to form a cross. I tell most people about that when I describe the game for how overly messed up that is. It's almost comicial to write it out but that's the tone of the whole game.
In the first game there was some ultimate goal of escaping, both in base and Whistleblower. You literally and figuratively are descending into madness here. Like by the end of the game you are underground, the elevator has descended into your own hell. No one is coming to save you. You have no allies, you are alone and trapped in this nasty cave as the world falls apart above you.
So that's the general setup for the game and what you're going to experience. So let's talk about the good here. First of all the game is utterly stunning visually. I must highlight how good it looks even on Switch. It looks identical to every release. The lightning, the wind rustling over fabric. The liminal space on display here is impressive. There are hallways that are so intriguing in design that make you wanna take a screenshot. There's so much purposeful framing on display here. The sound design and music are spectacular as well.
One thing this game does perfectly that I need to highlight is how it transitions into segments, this game plays a lot with time and it jumps back and forth between Blake's childhood vs the present. The way in which you transition into these school sections are unbelievable. It's mainly how smoothly it happens, no loading, no big reveal. You open a door, hide in a locker and come back out, boom, you're in the school. You turn around and you're in a new area. They are all placed at appropriate moments and the space between those sections are great.
So overall presentation wise the game is a knockout. But the rest of the game, sadly, for how much I love parts of it, is really lacking, messy, and ripe with problems. While it is intense to run around and be chased, your first time through, you have no clue what's going on and the map design is really bad. The area you're meant to go in is almost never marked, save for a few sections that are obvious, and visually the game is extremely dark a majority of the time. So you are just bumping into everything like an idiot and dying on repeat your first playthrough. The first game was a lot more linear with tight corridors, while this game is more open with empty space. But the window in which you need to progress is still the same size. So that dosent work.
I find this game really fun to speedrun. By design it's a running simulator, so speedruns to me just make sense. But that brings up a big issue with the game which is that running is really the only thing you ever do. It's actually not worth it to hide at all unless you don't know what you're suppose to do. You can just dart past everything, even most encounters on the hardest mode are able to be brushed over like this. There were times I legit ran the past the enemy and got into the checkpoint which despawned all the enemies. So about half of this game mechanic wise isn't worth doing. On a technical level, it's a very sufficient and beautiful experience, but in terms of structure, the game is poor. It's like having a stunning environment to play in, but the items you're given to play with are not that fun.
These issues also sink into the story as well. There was a lot of cut content here and it shows. The villains to start are non existent for majority of the game. Papa Knoth, who I consider to be the central antagonist, appears exactly twice in the game. His servant Martha is in the game more than he is. Val is the same story. You see her once in the beginning and then at the end, and you never find out what happens to them. Lo and behold, by looking at the cut content there are files that show Val and Martha getting into a fight. So that's what was meant to happen. In general, you'll find that basically all the cut content would have helped the story a lot.
Blake in particular has this the worst. There are audio files of him going crazy, repeating songs out loud, laughing like a maniac. It's reasonable to assume he is going crazy because he thinks he's a school child again, but then you play as him in the present and he seems totally normal. The only weird things he says are in the stuff you record with your camera, the commentary he gives shows his grip on sanity waning. But why aren't those other audio clips in the game? Dont get me wrong, I understand cutting out rape sounds and stuff, they felt like that was going too far. But they straight up removed parts of their game that give you a good idea of what's going on. I don't understand. Your first time through you have no clue what's going on unless you pick up a very very specific note really far off your path. In an area you don't have to go to and that you never would unless you knew about it. And for whatever reason this one note is the one that explains basically the ENTIRE story.
So ok, we established that thematically this game is lacking. But let me pose this question: what is this game aiming to do, and how does it want you to feel? Because my answer to that would be it's trying to make you uncomfortable and unnerved, and it does that very well.
Heres what it comes down to at the end of the day: despite all the issues this game has, it delivers on what it wants. Even with the weird story, forgettable characters and poor gameplay. This isn't like Blair Witch where you feel like the experience is a waste of time. This is so visceral and intense and in your face. Normally for average games I don't think of them much, yet this one has been burned into my mind since I first played it.
I've never played a game that is so mixed but I end up appreciating anyways. I personally enjoy it a lot.
So what do I rank it? I won't actually. Out of every post on this page, this will be one of the only games I will not assign a score out of 5 to. I think it exists on its own scale. You can't really evaluate a game like this if you ask me, with a score system, for all it does wrong and right. To me, this is one of the most bleak and dark games I've ever played and it will stay that way for a while.
Tune in to my next post as we look at the Freddi Fish games!