Outlast Reviews
If you love getting scared, Outlast provides you with an enjoyable weekend; if you don't, your weekend is better spent elsewhere
Outlast loses momentum occasionally, but its unsettling atmosphere and pulse-pounding chases keep pulling you along for the ride.
Outlast made a splash when it first came to PC and became a favorite among scare cam Twitch streamers and YouTubers, and it will no doubt see a resurgence thanks the PS4's streaming capabilities. The reason Outlast was such a phenomenon is due to its great sense of atmosphere and tense gameplay, all of which is all present in the PlayStation 4 version.
Outlast is not the most satisfying horror experience around, but it had my heart thumping and my head throbbing enough to make it a worthwhile trip.
Repetition and overfamiliarity are always the best ways to nullify fear, but until they set in this is one of the most effectively scary video games ever made.
Outlast has elements that are genuinely frightening, but they yield to predictability, and predictability leads to tedium.
Just remember to turn off the lights and try not to cover your eyes, because you're in for one hell of a ride.
Red Barrels seems to have crafted a character and a scenario that feels as real as the player wants to make it. Knowing that you have no way to fight, and a limited ability to see in the dark, affects your thinking within all situations. In addition, Outlast does not rely on jump scares. While there are some of those to be had, Outlast is truly shaped by the ambiance that it creates; by creating believable circumstances and enveloping you in them at a psychological level. Jump scares may have your heart racing for a few seconds, however, creeping across that darkened courtyard with your batteries running out while something out there wants you tortured and dead will have you on edge until the experience ends.
The terrifying debut of Red Barrels is a masterclass in the art of video game horror that is stretched a little thin
Red Barrels' Outlast is a solid indie title, which provides tension and scares in equal abundance. And while it lacks the sort of story depth a lot of us have become accustomed to, there is still a plethora of terrifying fun to be had. Get it on PlayStation Plus as soon as you can.
It's not perfect, but Outlast is still arguably one of the best survival horror games in recent memory. You'll need a strong stomach to get through the campaign, but if you can cope with jump scares and graphic content, then this is an exhilarating experience from bloody beginning to chilling conclusion. With fantastic audio work and a clever camera mechanic, Red Barrels' debut fear fest really will make you afraid of the dark.
There's actually some fun in traversing the asylum with friends around, or by streaming it online via the PlayStation 4's many sharing options. Plus, there's a decent enough mystery at the core of Outlast, and uncovering it bit by bit can be enjoyable if you're able to get invested. There's just not enough engaging material to keep you from getting bored after a few hours. There's plenty of room in the survival horror market for someone to come along and really revitalize the genre. Outlast just isn't that game.
One of 2013's best games, Outlast deserves success in 2014 as a PlayStation 4 release. Disturbing and macabre, sometimes to the extreme, this is one of the best horror games to grace the world in a long time.
Outlast is flawed in many ways, but it's the most exemplary offering these days of how to engage, entrap, and entice players looking for something that scares them out of their wits.
As a huge horror aficionado, it’s great to see that the horror genre is making more of a comeback in recent years.
Outlast is a shining example of the horror genre.
More intelligent enemies and less eye-rolling predictability would have made this one of my favourite videogame horror experiences.
Is Outlast the best looking game for the PS4? Certainly not. But it more than makes up for it in quality and gameplay, and with a free price tag for PlayStation Plus members, this game must be experienced by anyone who even has a passing interest in the horror genre. So, suck it up buttercup, and get ready to pee on yourself a little. Just a little. It's okay, that's what they make washers for, right?
The bigger issue is that Outlast accomplishes far more as an experience than it does as a game. That would be fine, but it tries to be a game more often than its stealth mechanics and AI could bear. Is it scary? For sure. But it's also capable of falling apart completely, deflating its own scare tactics, and leaving you wondering why Miles Upsher can't throw a single punch.
An intense survival horror experience from start to finish.