Red Barrels Games

''Outlast'' is a 2013 first-person psychological survival horror video game developed and published by Canadian independent studio Red Barrels. It revolves around freelance investigative journalist Miles Upshur, who decides to investigate Mount Massive Asylum, a remote psychiatric hospital, located deep in the mountains of Lake County, Colorado.

The game was released for Microsoft Windows on September 4, 2013, PlayStation 4 on February 4, 2014, and Xbox One on June 19, 2014. Linux and OS X versions were released on March 31, 2015 while a Nintendo Switch version was released on February 27, 2018. ''Outlast'' received generally positive reviews from critics for its atmosphere, horror elements, and overall gameplay. As of October 2024, the game has a playerbase of 37 million.

A sequel, ''Outlast 2'', was released on April 25, 2017, while a prequel, ''The Outlast Trials'', was released on March 5, 2024. ''The Murkoff Account'', a comic book series set between ''Outlast'' and ''Outlast 2'', was released from July 2016 to November 2017. A film adaptation is also in development.

Gameplay

In ''Outlast'', the player assumes the role of freelance investigative journalist Miles Upshur, as he navigates in Mount Massive Asylum, a dilapidated psychiatric hospital in the mountains of Lake County, Colorado, that is overrun by homicidal patients. The game is played from a first-person perspective and features some stealth gameplay mechanics. The player can walk, run, crouch, jump, climb ladders and vault over objects. Unlike most games, however, the player does not have a visible health bar on the screen and is unable to attack enemies. The player must instead rely on stealth tactics such as hiding in lockers, sneaking past enemies, staying in the shadows, and hiding behind or under things to survive. Alternatively, the player can attempt to outrun their pursuer. If the player dies, the game will reset to the most recent checkpoint.

Most of the hospital is unlit, and the only way for the player to see while in the dark is through the lens of a camcorder equipped with night vision. Using the night vision mode will slowly consume batteries, of which there are not many, forcing the player to scavenge for additional batteries found throughout the hospital. ''Outlast'' makes heavy use of traditional jump scares and audio cues, which alert the player if an enemy has seen them. If the player records specific events with their camcorder, Miles will write a note about it, providing further insight into his thoughts. Documents can be collected, which offer backstory and other expository information about the facility, including pages taken from patients' diaries and reports from the hospital's staff.

Developer Red Barrels have pointed to the survival-focused gameplay in '' Amnesia: The Dark Descent'' (2010) as a primary influence on the combat-free narrative style of ''Outlast''. Found footage horror films like ''Quarantine'' (2008) and ''Rec'' (2007) also served as influences.

Plot

Freelance investigative journalist Miles Upshur receives an anonymous e-mail about inhumane experiments at Mount Massive Asylum, a remote psychiatric hospital owned by the notoriously unethical Murkoff Corporation. Upon entering, Miles is shocked to discover its halls ransacked and littered with the staff's mutilated corpses. He is informed by a dying officer of Murkoff's private military unit that the hospital's deranged inmates, known as "variants", have escaped and are freely roaming the grounds. The officer implores Miles to escape and reveals that the main entrance can be unlocked from the hospital's security control room.

As Miles moves on, he is suddenly ambushed by hulking variant Chris Walker, who knocks him unconscious. While incapacitated, Miles meets Father Martin Archimbaud, a self-appointed priest with schizotypal personality disorder, who claims that Miles is his "apostle" and sabotages his escape by cutting off power to the entrance. Miles restores power in the control room, but Father Martin injects him with an anesthetic. He also shows Miles footage of the "Walrider", a ghost-like entity that kills patients and staff alike, which he claims is responsible for the hospital's dilapidated state.

Regaining consciousness, Miles finds himself trapped in a decaying cell block filled with catatonic and demented patients. He escapes through the sewers to the main wards, pursued by Walker and two cannibalistic twins, only to be captured by Richard Trager, a former Murkoff executive driven insane. Trager amputates two of Miles' fingers and prepares to do the same to his tongue and genitals. However, Miles escapes to an elevator, inadvertently crushing Trager to death between floors when he attacks him. Miles then reconvenes with Father Martin, who tells him to go to the hospital's chapel.

Miles reaches an auditorium and learns that the Walrider was created by Rudolf Wernicke, a German scientist brought to the United States during Operation Paperclip. Wernicke believed that intensive dream therapy conducted on traumatized patients could connect swarms of nanites into a single malevolent being. Miles also learns that the experiments were originally part of the MKUltra program. In the chapel, Miles finds a crucified Father Martin, who gives him a key to the lobby elevator that he insists will take him to freedom before immolating himself. Miles takes the elevator, which descends into a subterranean laboratory.

Walker arrives and attacks Miles, only to be eviscerated by the Walrider. Miles locates an aged Wernicke, who confirms that the Walrider is a biotechnological nanite entity controlled by Billy Hope, a comatose patient of Murkoff's experiments. Wernicke orders Miles to terminate Billy's life support in the hopes that it will destroy the Walrider. Miles accomplishes the task; however, just before Billy dies, the Walrider attacks Miles and possesses his body. On his way out of the laboratory, a heavily injured Miles encounters a Murkoff private military unit led by Wernicke, which guns him down.

While a horrified Wernicke realizes that Miles has become the Walrider's new host, the screen fades black as panicked screams, gunfire, and mauling sounds are heard.

''Outlast: Whistleblower''

A downloadable content, ''Outlast: Whistleblower'', was released for Microsoft Windows on May 6, 2014, PlayStation 4 on May 6, 2014, and Xbox One on June 18, 2014. Linux and OS X versions were released on March 31, 2015. It serves as an overlapping prequel to the original game, showing the events both before and after the main plotline, and follows Waylon Park, the anonymous tipster to Miles Upshur.

Plot

Software engineer Waylon Park works at Mount Massive Asylum, entailing maintenance to the "Morphogenic Engine", which allows Murkoff scientists to manipulate lucid dreams in the hospital's comatose patients. After witnessing the engine's effects on the abused patients, a horrified Waylon sends an anonymous e-mail to Miles Upshur to expose Murkoff's inhumane experiments. Shortly after, Waylon is summoned to the laboratory's operations center to debug a monitoring system.

When Waylon returns to his office, his supervisor Jeremy Blaire has him detained and exposed to the engine after discovering his e-mail. However, Waylon escapes his restraints when the Walrider is unleashed. He roams the increasingly decrepit facility as surviving guards and medical personnel flee from the newly freed variants, searching for a shortwave radio that he can use to contact the authorities, all the while eluding cannibal variant Frank Manera, who wields an electric bone saw. Just as Waylon manages to find a working radio transmitter, Blaire destroys it and tries to suffocate Waylon, but is forced to flee by an approaching Chris Walker.

Waylon finds his way into the hospital's vocational block, where he is captured by Eddie Gluskin, a serial killer obsessed with finding the "perfect bride" by killing other patients and mutilating their genitalia. Gluskin tries to hang Waylon in the hospital's gymnasium with his other victims, but during the struggle, he is entangled by his pulley system and a sudden weight shift causes him to be fatally impaled on a loose section of rebar. As dawn breaks, Murkoff's private military unit arrives at the hospital, intent on eliminating all the variants. Waylon slips past them and escapes into the lobby, where he finds a gravely wounded Blaire.

Blaire suddenly stabs Waylon and insists that no one can know the truth about the hospital before the Walrider kills him. Waylon then stumbles out the open main entrance and towards Miles' jeep, which is still parked near the entrance. He drives away as Miles, now possessed by the Walrider, also emerges from the hospital. In the epilogue, Waylon is sitting at a laptop with his camcorder footage, ready for upload to expose the hospital's experiments. An associate informs him that it will be more than enough to ruin Murkoff, but is warned that they will seek to retaliate against him and his family. Despite some initial hesitation, Waylon uploads the footage.

Development

''Outlast'' was Red Barrels' first game, although the team had worked on big AAA games in Ubisoft prior like ''Prince of Persia'', ''Assassin’s Creed'', and ''Splinter Cell''. The game was made in 14 months with a team of 10 people. Red Barrels' CEO Philippe Morin said in 2018 that they initially could not find anyone to invest in the project for 18 months, though they eventually secured a investment from the Canada Media Fund.

Release

''Outlast'' was released on September 4, 2013, for download through Steam, and it was released on February 4, 2014, for the PlayStation 4 as the free monthly title for PlayStation Plus users. In December 2017, Red Barrels announced that ''Outlast'', including the ''Whistleblower'' DLC and ''Outlast 2'', would be coming to the Nintendo Switch in early 2018. The title was released by surprise on February 27, 2018, under the title ''Outlast: Bundle of Terror'' via Nintendo eShop.

Reception

''Outlast'' received generally positive reviews from critics. Aggregating review website Metacritic gave the Xbox One version 80/100 based on 6 reviews, the Microsoft Windows version 80/100 based on 59 reviews, and the PlayStation 4 version 78/100 based on 33 reviews. It has been received with numerous accolades and awards from E3 2013, including the "Most Likely to Make you Faint" honor, and one of "Best of E3".

The PC gaming website ''Rock, Paper, Shotgun'' gave ''Outlast'' a very positive review, noting that "''Outlast'' is not an experiment in how games can be scary, it’s an exemplification." Marty Sliva of ''IGN'' rated the game with a score of 7.8, praising the horror elements and gameplay while criticizing the environments and character modeling.

''GameSpot'' gave the game a positive review as well stating that "''Outlast'' isn't really a game of skill, and as it turns out, that makes sense. You're not a cop or a soldier or a genetically enhanced superhero. You're just a reporter. And as a reporter, you don't possess many skills with which you can fend off the hulking brutes, knife-wielding stalkers, and other homicidal maniacs who lurk in the halls of the dilapidated Mount Massive Asylum. You can't shoot them, or punch them, or rip pipes from the walls to clobber them with. You can only run and hide".

Sequel and prequel

On October 23, 2014, Red Barrels revealed that due to the success of ''Outlast,'' a sequel was in development. It was initially intended to be released in late 2016, but was delayed to early 2017 due to complications during development. Subsequently, the release date was further pushed to Q2 2017, despite the intended Q1 2017 release. On March 6, 2017, Red Barrels announced that a physical bundle, ''Outlast Trinity'', would be released for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 on April 25.

The sequel, titled ''Outlast 2'', was made digitally available for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on April 25, 2017; and came to the Nintendo Switch, alongside ''Outlast'', in February 2018. It takes place in the same universe as the first game, but features a new storyline with different characters, set in the Arizona desert.

''Outlast 3'' was announced in December 2017, though no time frame or target platforms were confirmed. During this announcement, Red Barrels said that because they could not easily add downloadable content for ''Outlast 2'', they had a smaller separate project related to ''Outlast'' that would be released before ''Outlast 3''. The project, teased in October 2019, is a prequel for both ''Outlast'' games, called ''The Outlast Trials'', and is set in the Cold War. The game was released on May 18, 2023 via early access for Microsoft Windows, and for a full launch on March 5, 2024 on Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PlayStation 5.

Film adaptation

On October 30, 2024, it was announced that a film adaptation was in development at Lionsgate, with Roy Lee producing and J. T. Petty, who wrote the original game, penning the screenplay.

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://redbarrelsgames.com/games/outlast/

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