GameLog Page

Please sign in or sign up!

...blogs for gamers

Find a GameLog

... by game	... by platform

[ advanced search ]

HOME	GAMES	LOGS	MEMBERS			ABOUT	HELP

dkirschner's Outlast 2 (PC)

[March 21, 2020 06:06:06 PM]

I did not enjoy this as much as the first game. The story was worse / more convoluted, and the perpetual darkness and looking through night vision on your camera got real old. Does the game succeed at being scary? Yeah, I jumped a few times. Gross? Yeah, it's bloody disgusting. This is the only game I've ever played where the player-character endures a crucifixion AND the only game I've ever played where you witness a birth. I mean WITNESS. You see everything. Outlast 2 is not afraid to punish the human body.

You're a journalist, just like in the first game, whose helicopter crash lands in rural Arizona. Somehow, a crazy huge Christian cult exists here that has murdered thousands of their own people. Everyone lives in squalor, is disease-ridden, and very, very religious. You spend the game tracking down your pregnant wife (also on the helicopter), whom the cult wants to sever from her baby (the antichrist), kill them both, and eat you because you are their new messiah. It doesn't make a lick of sense.

There is a parallel narrative from the protagonist's past which, I assume, much of the present is something of a metaphor for. Basically, he feels responsible for a former classmate being assaulted by a teacher. Catholic guilt is real. This causes him to, in these stressful times, slowly lose his mind.

For gameplay, you just run and point your camera. There is some light platforming later on (walking across thin beams, jumping across gaps). You're generally doing these few things in pitch black darkness, so you need to use your camera's night vision. This requires batteries, so don't use it too much or you'll run out and I have no idea how you could possibly play this game without night vision.

Stupid fanatical cultists are patrolling everywhere. They'll chase and kill you if they spot you. I spent the first half of the game sneaking around, trying to stay in cover, watching their movement patterns. In the second half of the game, I just started sprinting through entire villages toward the well-sign-posted (always with a light) next area. This was much more efficient and made it so I didn't have to listen to the inane ramblings of the cultists.

You can also turn on your camera's mic, which detects sound, but this mechanic is inessential. I'm glad I will never hear these characters again. The game was tense enough, really dark, and the story pushed a lot of edgy buttons. It felt over the top in a bad way. Glad it's over!