Honest Opinion - Outlast + Outlast Whistleblower (There will be spoilers)
Before diving in, I just want to repeat what it says in the title, there will be spoilers in this review. To be clear, I won't give away every minute detail of the stories, but one of my favorite moments in this experience happened at the very end of the DLC and it's something I do want to mention. However, in mentioning this one specific event, it will not ruin any key details of the DLC or the base game itself. That being said, let's jump in. And after you're done reading, head to the link down at the bottom which will connect you to my YouTube playlist featuring all the videos that makeup my playthrough of the base game and Whistleblower DLC.
STORY
Outlast - The game begins with Miles Upshur, a journalist, pulling up to the entry gate of Mount Massive Asylum, a psychiatric facility set remotely in the mountains of Colorado. He is lead there by an unnamed person who claims that the Asylum is putting it's patients through inhumane experiments, and wants the truth exposed. Miles heads inside to find blood decorating the walls everywhere, and comes face to face with a hanged SWAT agent who warns Miles to leave while he can. He attempts to do so, but is attacked by one of the victims of the experiments and knocked unconscious. Once he wakes up, he's face to face with a self-anointed priest who believes Miles to be his own personal apostle, and sabotages Miles's escape. Now, his only way out is to trudge deeper into the mystery behind Mount Massive, uncovering the truth behind it and Project Walrider, all while fighting to stay alive.
Whistleblower - Outlast's DLC expansion puts you in the shoes of Waylon Park, a software engineer who works at Mount Massive. And, as you can probably guess, the man behind the email which led Miles to the Asylum in the first place, making Whistleblower a sort of prologue to the base game. After witnessing some heinous experiments and tortures, Waylon sends an email to Miles. Shortly afterwards, Waylon's supervisor learns about the email and forces Waylon to be "admitted" as a patient into the Asylum. Before they can do much, an incident occurs with the Project Walrider and Waylon begins to make his way to the exit.
CONTROLS & GAMEPLAY
These two elements remain the same through both the base game and the DLC, so there's no sense in breaking them up. Outlast takes on a survival horror approach, with survival being your only option. From start to finish, you have no option or way of performing combat in any form. The only item at your disposal is a camcorder, and all you can do with it is record your story, or use it's night-vision mode to see through the darkness.
Your keys to survival are scattered throughout the Asylum itself, in the form of lockers to hide in, desks, tables and beds to hide under, or other large objects to hopefully hide yourself behind. Despite not being able to defend yourself at all, you still have to deal with plenty of the homicidal patients that are now free and wandering the halls, a few of which make it their goal to stalk after you.
In the main game, you deal with Chris Walker, a hulking giant, and Rick Trager, a former worker at the Asylum who now shares the homicidal tendencies as the patients. Throughout the game, these two men make hunting you seem like a fun sport, and one they've been waiting to play. Numerous points of the story require Miles to turn on multiple switches or valves, to open up a pathway that is necessary to progress. And in these sections, not only do you need to figure out where the switches are, but you must also avoid being detected by your best friends.
Whistleblower gives Waylon Park his own set of BFF's. The cannibalistic Frank Manera follows you around with a bone saw, looking for his next meal, while Dennis, who suffers from dissociative identity disorder, and is hellbent on capturing Park and handing him over to Eddie Gluskin whom he calls the groom, who's goal is sexually mutilating him into the "perfect bride". Park still has to deal with the same as Miles does, finding ways to overcome hurdles to make his way through the Asylum to his hopeful freedom.
While sneaking your way through Mount Massive, you're able to collect a number of documents which further explain the background of the asylum itself, some of the patients, and even some of the doctors who worked their and the things they did. You'll also come across a number of events or situations which you can record with your camera, these being the key things Miles needs for his story, and the same goes for Waylon.
It's worth mentioning that the difficulty of this game stays very consistent throughout. You get thrown into the mix immediately, having to run and hide to stay alive. Not having any combat helps keep the difficulty curve stable. Your enemies tend to maintain a consistent level of determination in trying to find you. When you lose sight of them, they'll check the last area they saw you, meaning they'll bend down to look under beds and rip open locker doors. You also have the option of shutting doors behind you to slow down your pursuers, but they'll end up hammering the door in and you'll lose the option of using that particular door again. So this game starts tough, and stays pretty tough for the whole ride.
FEAR FACTOR
The one dominant entity of this game is the fear, and believe me it is real. Outlast not only sets itself up with a creepy setting and a twisted backstory, but it also relies on jump scares and orchestrated audio cues to mess with the player. Plenty of times, you'll find yourself needing to squeeze between two bookcases, or a crack in the wall, which is a perfect opportunity for things to pop out at you for a good spike in the heart rate.
This game doesn't even ease you into the eerieness. Once you're inside the Asylum, you're only path takes you into a small kitchen area with an open vent, and a massive pool of blood underneath it with more dripping out. Only seconds later, you find yourself face to crotch with the hanged SWAT member who warns you to get out ASAP, and seconds after that the bumbling giant, Chris Walker, is introducing you to your first flying lesson.
The almost constant darkness in Mount Massive will not only have you lounging in the hallways that have actual light, as well as wishing that you could just find the storage room where they keep all the batteries. Almost as soon as you put a fresh one in, you can watch it's energy drain out faster than it should. And when this game gets dark, it gets dark. I tried playing with the gamma setting up on the game itself, as well as my TV screen and my monitors, and still needed the night vision to get around.
If you're afraid of the dark, and creepy deformed things jumping out at you, Outlast is going to be a rough ride because it does not hold back. It's gonna be dark, it's gonna be bloody, and oh boy is it gonna be scary. But let's look at the highlights and lowlights for Outlast and it's Whistleblower DLC.
HIGHLIGHTS
True Survival - Horror went through an age where it was all about action and visuals, especially in gaming. Monsters got bigger and scarier looking, but you could also shit out bullets so the terror wasn't real. It went from surviving, to just being that much faster than the monster so you could kill it. Outlast takes all that away. You don't know how to fight for yourself, so the survival element is key.
Scary - What makes the enemies in this game so scary is how close to normal they look. It's been proven that the scariest things are those that look almost normal, but with a slight...twist. So instead of a massive snarling beast, human patients with slight deformities take the place and it works. All the jump scares come in two parts, the first being the initial jump itself, with the follow-up being the ever so slightly off look of the person launching at you. And again, it works every single time.
Base Game Dark Room - Thiis highlight is specific to the original game itself. At one point, you find yourself in the sewers, and eventually need to make your way upwards. But your path takes you to a room that is completely devoid of light. You're up to your chest in water, so you only have one speed to move at. Oh, the kicker? The giant Walker is lurking in the room with you...and there's nothing to indicate where your exit might be. So have fun inching around in the depths trying to get out and avoid being detected.
Whistleblower Ending - So this is the spoiler I was mentioning, but again I won't reveal any key plot elements. The one thing I will mention is that Waylon does survive and makes it out alive. But it's watching the story meld together because when you exit, everything looks just as it does when Miles arrives at the start of the base game. Waylon limps out the front door, hops in Miles's Jeep, and flees. You're never really given any indication in the main game how long it's been since Miles received the email, so it's really really cool watching where the two timelines intersect and how.
LOWLIGHTS
Battery Capacity - To be completely honest (and not just because it's in the name) this is one of my least favorite features in some horror games. I get that you have a "max capacity" or else it's unrealstic, but sometimes the limits placed on item carrying are too much. Like in the original Resident Evil games having a number of item slots blows my mind...because if I'm in a mansion being hunted by zombies and other creatures I will shove ammo anywhere and everywhere to make sure I have enough. Pockets, tucked into the waistband, under my hat, whatever it takes to help me stay alive. Same goes here, your maximum amount of baatteries you're allowed to carry is ten. Ten. Single. Batteries. Why? We're talking about AA batteries, I can fit ten of those in one pocket, but Miles can only carry ten on his entire person. I could write a full post how insane this idea is, but I'll leave it just at that : it's insane.
Final Thoughts
As far as these games being worth plaing, right off the bat it comes down to one question. Do you enjoy having your fear put to the test? If you do, play Outlast. If you don't, run as fast as you can in the other direction.
Outlast is an amazing experience. The survival horror is beautifully done, as you feel just as helpless as you should the moment you step foot inside Mount Massive. All the characters you meet are interesting in their own way, and lend their own unique spin to the events unfolding, so it makes it feel like more than just patients gone off the deep end due to experimentation. For such a short game, the characters you interact with personally have such well thought out backstories that it really makes the game feel fleshed out and much longer than it actually is. This game is terrifying at every corner, but it is so well written and orchestrated that as soon as you make it through the terrifying parts, you realize you actually enjoyed them a little bit.
As of now, you can find Outlast in it's digital form for around $20 in the Playstation Network, Xbox Live Marketplace, and Steam, and the same for the Whistleblower DLC for only $9. If you judge a game's value based solely on it's length, then these might not be worth it for you unless you can snag them for a deal (I was lucky and got the base Outlast game a while ago on Playstation Plus when it was available for free). There is a technically a physical version of the game, included with Outlast Trinity which is the physical copy that combines Outlast, Whistleblower, and the newly released Outlast II. At this time, I can't speak for the value of buying the triple pack, as I have yet to play the sequel. That will be changing very shortly. If you join me on my Twitch channel, Monday May 15th I'll begin playing Outlast II exclusively on stream.
For now, feel free to follow the link below and head to my YouTube page where you can watch my full playthrough of the main game and DLC expansion.
Twitch Channel : twitch.tv/honestgamermike
Outlast + Whistleblower Complete Playthrough : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLidNh-qtAfoMueKa_E-tSVQ6ZLVXyq3MZ
STORY
Outlast - The game begins with Miles Upshur, a journalist, pulling up to the entry gate of Mount Massive Asylum, a psychiatric facility set remotely in the mountains of Colorado. He is lead there by an unnamed person who claims that the Asylum is putting it's patients through inhumane experiments, and wants the truth exposed. Miles heads inside to find blood decorating the walls everywhere, and comes face to face with a hanged SWAT agent who warns Miles to leave while he can. He attempts to do so, but is attacked by one of the victims of the experiments and knocked unconscious. Once he wakes up, he's face to face with a self-anointed priest who believes Miles to be his own personal apostle, and sabotages Miles's escape. Now, his only way out is to trudge deeper into the mystery behind Mount Massive, uncovering the truth behind it and Project Walrider, all while fighting to stay alive.
Whistleblower - Outlast's DLC expansion puts you in the shoes of Waylon Park, a software engineer who works at Mount Massive. And, as you can probably guess, the man behind the email which led Miles to the Asylum in the first place, making Whistleblower a sort of prologue to the base game. After witnessing some heinous experiments and tortures, Waylon sends an email to Miles. Shortly afterwards, Waylon's supervisor learns about the email and forces Waylon to be "admitted" as a patient into the Asylum. Before they can do much, an incident occurs with the Project Walrider and Waylon begins to make his way to the exit.
CONTROLS & GAMEPLAY
These two elements remain the same through both the base game and the DLC, so there's no sense in breaking them up. Outlast takes on a survival horror approach, with survival being your only option. From start to finish, you have no option or way of performing combat in any form. The only item at your disposal is a camcorder, and all you can do with it is record your story, or use it's night-vision mode to see through the darkness.
Your keys to survival are scattered throughout the Asylum itself, in the form of lockers to hide in, desks, tables and beds to hide under, or other large objects to hopefully hide yourself behind. Despite not being able to defend yourself at all, you still have to deal with plenty of the homicidal patients that are now free and wandering the halls, a few of which make it their goal to stalk after you.
In the main game, you deal with Chris Walker, a hulking giant, and Rick Trager, a former worker at the Asylum who now shares the homicidal tendencies as the patients. Throughout the game, these two men make hunting you seem like a fun sport, and one they've been waiting to play. Numerous points of the story require Miles to turn on multiple switches or valves, to open up a pathway that is necessary to progress. And in these sections, not only do you need to figure out where the switches are, but you must also avoid being detected by your best friends.
Whistleblower gives Waylon Park his own set of BFF's. The cannibalistic Frank Manera follows you around with a bone saw, looking for his next meal, while Dennis, who suffers from dissociative identity disorder, and is hellbent on capturing Park and handing him over to Eddie Gluskin whom he calls the groom, who's goal is sexually mutilating him into the "perfect bride". Park still has to deal with the same as Miles does, finding ways to overcome hurdles to make his way through the Asylum to his hopeful freedom.
While sneaking your way through Mount Massive, you're able to collect a number of documents which further explain the background of the asylum itself, some of the patients, and even some of the doctors who worked their and the things they did. You'll also come across a number of events or situations which you can record with your camera, these being the key things Miles needs for his story, and the same goes for Waylon.
It's worth mentioning that the difficulty of this game stays very consistent throughout. You get thrown into the mix immediately, having to run and hide to stay alive. Not having any combat helps keep the difficulty curve stable. Your enemies tend to maintain a consistent level of determination in trying to find you. When you lose sight of them, they'll check the last area they saw you, meaning they'll bend down to look under beds and rip open locker doors. You also have the option of shutting doors behind you to slow down your pursuers, but they'll end up hammering the door in and you'll lose the option of using that particular door again. So this game starts tough, and stays pretty tough for the whole ride.
FEAR FACTOR
The one dominant entity of this game is the fear, and believe me it is real. Outlast not only sets itself up with a creepy setting and a twisted backstory, but it also relies on jump scares and orchestrated audio cues to mess with the player. Plenty of times, you'll find yourself needing to squeeze between two bookcases, or a crack in the wall, which is a perfect opportunity for things to pop out at you for a good spike in the heart rate.
This game doesn't even ease you into the eerieness. Once you're inside the Asylum, you're only path takes you into a small kitchen area with an open vent, and a massive pool of blood underneath it with more dripping out. Only seconds later, you find yourself face to crotch with the hanged SWAT member who warns you to get out ASAP, and seconds after that the bumbling giant, Chris Walker, is introducing you to your first flying lesson.
The almost constant darkness in Mount Massive will not only have you lounging in the hallways that have actual light, as well as wishing that you could just find the storage room where they keep all the batteries. Almost as soon as you put a fresh one in, you can watch it's energy drain out faster than it should. And when this game gets dark, it gets dark. I tried playing with the gamma setting up on the game itself, as well as my TV screen and my monitors, and still needed the night vision to get around.
If you're afraid of the dark, and creepy deformed things jumping out at you, Outlast is going to be a rough ride because it does not hold back. It's gonna be dark, it's gonna be bloody, and oh boy is it gonna be scary. But let's look at the highlights and lowlights for Outlast and it's Whistleblower DLC.
HIGHLIGHTS
True Survival - Horror went through an age where it was all about action and visuals, especially in gaming. Monsters got bigger and scarier looking, but you could also shit out bullets so the terror wasn't real. It went from surviving, to just being that much faster than the monster so you could kill it. Outlast takes all that away. You don't know how to fight for yourself, so the survival element is key.
Scary - What makes the enemies in this game so scary is how close to normal they look. It's been proven that the scariest things are those that look almost normal, but with a slight...twist. So instead of a massive snarling beast, human patients with slight deformities take the place and it works. All the jump scares come in two parts, the first being the initial jump itself, with the follow-up being the ever so slightly off look of the person launching at you. And again, it works every single time.
Base Game Dark Room - Thiis highlight is specific to the original game itself. At one point, you find yourself in the sewers, and eventually need to make your way upwards. But your path takes you to a room that is completely devoid of light. You're up to your chest in water, so you only have one speed to move at. Oh, the kicker? The giant Walker is lurking in the room with you...and there's nothing to indicate where your exit might be. So have fun inching around in the depths trying to get out and avoid being detected.
Whistleblower Ending - So this is the spoiler I was mentioning, but again I won't reveal any key plot elements. The one thing I will mention is that Waylon does survive and makes it out alive. But it's watching the story meld together because when you exit, everything looks just as it does when Miles arrives at the start of the base game. Waylon limps out the front door, hops in Miles's Jeep, and flees. You're never really given any indication in the main game how long it's been since Miles received the email, so it's really really cool watching where the two timelines intersect and how.
LOWLIGHTS
Battery Capacity - To be completely honest (and not just because it's in the name) this is one of my least favorite features in some horror games. I get that you have a "max capacity" or else it's unrealstic, but sometimes the limits placed on item carrying are too much. Like in the original Resident Evil games having a number of item slots blows my mind...because if I'm in a mansion being hunted by zombies and other creatures I will shove ammo anywhere and everywhere to make sure I have enough. Pockets, tucked into the waistband, under my hat, whatever it takes to help me stay alive. Same goes here, your maximum amount of baatteries you're allowed to carry is ten. Ten. Single. Batteries. Why? We're talking about AA batteries, I can fit ten of those in one pocket, but Miles can only carry ten on his entire person. I could write a full post how insane this idea is, but I'll leave it just at that : it's insane.
Final Thoughts
As far as these games being worth plaing, right off the bat it comes down to one question. Do you enjoy having your fear put to the test? If you do, play Outlast. If you don't, run as fast as you can in the other direction.
Outlast is an amazing experience. The survival horror is beautifully done, as you feel just as helpless as you should the moment you step foot inside Mount Massive. All the characters you meet are interesting in their own way, and lend their own unique spin to the events unfolding, so it makes it feel like more than just patients gone off the deep end due to experimentation. For such a short game, the characters you interact with personally have such well thought out backstories that it really makes the game feel fleshed out and much longer than it actually is. This game is terrifying at every corner, but it is so well written and orchestrated that as soon as you make it through the terrifying parts, you realize you actually enjoyed them a little bit.
As of now, you can find Outlast in it's digital form for around $20 in the Playstation Network, Xbox Live Marketplace, and Steam, and the same for the Whistleblower DLC for only $9. If you judge a game's value based solely on it's length, then these might not be worth it for you unless you can snag them for a deal (I was lucky and got the base Outlast game a while ago on Playstation Plus when it was available for free). There is a technically a physical version of the game, included with Outlast Trinity which is the physical copy that combines Outlast, Whistleblower, and the newly released Outlast II. At this time, I can't speak for the value of buying the triple pack, as I have yet to play the sequel. That will be changing very shortly. If you join me on my Twitch channel, Monday May 15th I'll begin playing Outlast II exclusively on stream.
For now, feel free to follow the link below and head to my YouTube page where you can watch my full playthrough of the main game and DLC expansion.
Twitch Channel : twitch.tv/honestgamermike
Outlast + Whistleblower Complete Playthrough : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLidNh-qtAfoMueKa_E-tSVQ6ZLVXyq3MZ
