Outlast 2 (english review)

Gore part 2

Blake Langermann acts as a cameraman for his wife when the couple explores rural areas of Arizona trying to find clues about murdered pregnant girl. After helicopter is brought down by unknown flash Lynn is missing and place is inhabited by a cult waiting for the Judgement Day. Of course they regard Lynns baby as the anticrist! Needless to say the religious violence is really important theme in this one.

Note: The article has a content warning.

Game information

Name: Outlast 2 Publisher/Developer: Warner Bros Interactive/ Red Barrels (2017)
Platforms: PC, PS4, XBox One Type: Survival Horror
Age ratings: PEGI 18, Australia: R18+, ESRB: Mature (17+)
Reviewers: Rami (37)
Videos and pictures
Trailer
Let's play (Storpmella)

First impressions

Outlast 2 is sneaking in the dark through mud, blood and guts with camera. Sometimes running away and hiding from the enemies. Additionally it is very open about the kind of the content it has:“Outlast 2 contains intense violence, gore, graphic sexual content and strong language.  Please enjoy.”

Mechanics and play

Outlast 2 owns most of ideas and core gameplay to the first game. Only options given to player is run, escape and hide. The hiding however doesn’t remove monsters from the game (as it might in Amnesia) so sneaking around has somewhat important role in the game. Blakes only superpower is the nightvision with camera that has a UV-lamp. The camera is also used to record his thoughts about the happenings. Time after time Blake needs to escape from angry redneck cultists and human monsters so player really doesn’t have time to panic. Sometimes he needs to push crates or vagons to the places that allow him to reach next level. Of course this happens often with being hunted. Overall sneaking mechanics are not that strong so I did found myself playing with the rather arrogant style.

Interesting features?

Horror either turns you on or off. Outlast 2 is about ‘christian’ - a theme that adds ugly factor to the story. Blake suffers a lot when he searches for his wife - these scenes include being crucified and buried alive. However the interesting part here is that he hallucinates (?) himself being in St.Sybills chatholic school time after time again. His classmate made suicide in during the fourth grade and Blake returns to those memories for some reason.

Ethical message?

The evil company from the first game is again hinted to be behind of the madness but this is only implicated. At the heart the story is about dark things in human psyche and christian cults.

I was somewhat suprised that crossed did stay correct way but in the other hand their message was opposite. Local cult is following their leader ‘Papa’ Knoth who has new evangelion about upcoming doomsday.

One of the most off-putting things in the game were crossing the line and actually both implicating and showing violence against the kids and females. Every children is killed and adults are dying in quite alarming rate. Theological base is somewhat erect the Knoth explains this as ‘Abrahams sacrifice’ but the actual thought progress is alien because human sacrifices don’t belong to the christianity. The actual Abraham sacrificing Isaac did end to the clear order not to do it (Gen 22:12)

In other hand Knoth testament is bat shit crazy but interesting to read. The third pary here is ‘heretics’ who oppose Knoth but these are even more insane than Knoths cult.

The idea behind the game is based on Jonestown massacre from the year 1978. During that time 918 people made suicide in French Guyana! Such cults have existed before and while Outlast 2 is strongly absurd it tells about hidden darkness inside people which exists despite religious affiliation.

About school… I have to wonder. Was the decision to include it to the game based on the fact that Catholic church has long been protecting abusers and it’s rather difficult to talk about the issue when there is large denial? If so I am interested to see what kind of dicussion Outlast 2 generates because allegory and negation are storytelling ways to approach the difficult issues otherwise. However not every game generates public discussion, for example Spec Ops: The Line tried this and didn’t really start any kind of public debate.

Ending should be mentioned here because it actually does affect to the overall message of the game (actually it has weight in some age ratings as well). This time the ending manages to deliver much better cathartic experience and while it has generated some questions and debate I would say the ending isn't that controversal, considering the topic.

Effects and tropes

In comparision to tvtropes.com Nightmare fuel-list there's about 24 elements that are either horror or fear tropes. This is rough estimate but illustrates the point that the game is much more hardcore than before. For example Syndrome reviewed earlier generated 22 elements and Amnesia only 17.

Yes, things that generate anxiety are pretty subjective but nightmare-fuel is kind of list of common tropes of things that do cause fear effect on most people. Primal fears are based more an a instinct than sense so they are widely used. Adult fears like 'end of the world' are other kinds of tropes that are prevalent to the number of adults. These tropes are well used in Outlast 2 while Blakes journey can be called 'via Dolorosa' with it's fullest sense: he gets nailed to the cross and even buried alive (nobody is suprised, I see).

The game is about stealth - through the narrow pipe but still - but once in while big thing called 'Martha' ends up chasing Blake with her scythe. She's also first opponent in game and new players will see brutal death animations before getting past her. Towards the end player can see more and more forced running sequences which did get a bit old despite hallucination sequences pace the story. Similiarly the dead and mutilated bodies are seen so much that by the end the player is pretty much desensitized...

DLC?

Thank God! No!

Age raiting?

I have to admit, the games that I do recommend not to play are far between but Outlast 2 has it’s load of triggers. As for the depictions and emotional load this game doesn’t fit to juveniles. However I have to admit it would be good game to reduce work stress. PEGI rationale stands as it is:


“This game features frequent depictions of gross violence towards human-like characters. Characters in this game are frequently killed in disturbing and gory ways. One scene shows the player character being crucified from the first-person perspective. Nails are hammered through their hands with strong blood shown. Torture and dismemberment are seen in multiple scenes throughout, all paired with strong blood and gore. This game also contains scenes of violence towards defenceless human characters. In one section a woman is attached to a torture device which stretches her whilst she is being interrogated. This game also features scenes of sexual violence. During a scene later in the game, the player character is drugged and is led into a cave where multiple couples are seen having sex. The player is then pushed onto the floor where a female character then rapes him. The scene is shown from the first-person perspective with the woman naked on top of the man while he yells out in protest. This game also contains frequent use of sexual expletives, variations of the word “fuck” are found throughout.” Source: PEGI API

Families can talk about

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