OutlastвЂ™s general lack of difficulty sounds damning, but itвЂ™s actually a double-edged sword. Even if you manage to die, Outlast is liberal with its checkpoints. Just a handful of endgame enemies are capable of killing you in a single hit - everyone else has to whale on you a few times before you go down, which should never really happen, because it's not that hard to run away from your assailant. Even if you manage to die, Outlast is liberal with its checkpointsД®ven when youвЂ™re discovered, cornered and overrun, youвЂ™ll likely survive the encounter, as OutlastвЂ™s enemies possess a startling lack of lethality. All you can do is watch, wait and hope for the best. The latter strategy is far from foolproof, as your pursuer will spend some time turning over the room he last saw you in.

When you do encounter a violent patient, your only option is to flee until you can break line-of-sight - an enterprise aided by closing doors in your wake or vaulting over obstacles - and find an adequate hiding spot. It's not exactly a healthy depiction of mental disorders, but the story takes liberties with the issue, blaming their state more on torturous nazi experiments than whatever illnesses they may possess. Just about every patient is self-mutilated, gaunt and partially nude, either locked in a catatonic state or screaming obscenities while grabbing at the player through the bars in their cells. However, many of the asylum's inhabitants aren't actually violent, a fact belied by their near-universal grotesqueness. The game won't hesitate to even take that meager advantage away from you, whether it's due to Upshur's clumsiness or the seconds-long battery reloading animation, which frequently leaves you stranded in the dark and completely vulnerable. You never wield a weapon throughout the course of Outlast's campaign the only real power you're afforded is the ability to see in the dark, provided you've found enough batteries in the environment to keep your camera powered. To wit: Maybe one out of every five toilets is inexplicably plugged up with severed appendages. I say 'especially,' because pretty much every wall of the asylum is caked in gore the setting actually kind of undercuts itself with the almost comical amount of viscera strewn across the grounds. The camera also serves as a documentation tool, expanding Upshur's insight into Mount Massive's operation when he captures footage of certain, especially horrifying set pieces. Using the camera's zoom function is the only way to shed light on distant objects, and every time those objects include reflections from the eyes of a murderer, it's a guaranteed scare. The night vision effect is one of the scariest things Outlast has going for it, as it cuts the player's depth of view to just a few feet in front of them. Upshur's camera is more than just a glorified flashlight.

The latter lets him see in Mount Massive's pervasive darkness, though it chews through batteries faster than an overclocked Game Gear. The former provides all of Upshur's colorful internal monologue, as his mental state steadily deteriorates as he witnesses the facility's horrors. Following a lead, he enters the dilapidated Mount Massive Asylum armed only with a notebook and night vision-equipped video camera. Outlast casts you in the shoes of reporter Miles Upshur, a tenacious investigator with very few self-preservation instincts. Mount Massive's pervasive darkness chews through batteries faster than an overclocked game gear Unlike a lot of survival horror games, Outlast will only scare the bejeezus out of you if you really want it to. Where Outlast shines is in its moments of emergent horror the fully optional moments that occur entirely at the will of the player. Outlast weaves together a web of jump scares and scripted eviscerations, which, while fairly well-paced, don't always hit the mark. It taps into other sources of terror well trod by its survival horror predecessors - with varying degrees of success - but everything you need to know about Outlast's modus operandi is found in a single, completely impractical ability: While running away from a pursuer, you can look over your shoulder to catch a glimpse of the monster that wants to tear you apart.

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