From Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Red Barrels comes the stunning horror collection Outlast Trinity, which compiles the original 2013 survivor thriller Outlast, the DLC Whistleblower and the brand new Outlast 2! Available now – here is my review on Xbox One.
Outlast revolves around a freelance investigative journalist, Miles Upshur, who decides to investigate a remote psychiatric hospital named Mount Massive Asylum, located deep in the mountains of Lake County, Colorado. The downloadable content, Outlast: Whistleblower, centers on Waylon Park, the man who led Miles there in the first place.
Outlast 2 is a twisted new journey into the depths of the human mind and its dark secrets. Blake Langermann, a cameraman working with his wife Lynn, must take risks and dig deep to uncover the stories no one else will dare touch. As the two follow a trail of clues that started with the seemingly impossible murder of a pregnant woman known only as Jane Doe, the investigation leads them miles into the Arizona desert to a darkness so deep that no one could shed light upon it, and a corruption so profound that going mad may be the only sane thing to do.
Developer Red Barrels have shaken up the first-person horror survival genre by taking away your weapons and thrusting you into easily the scariest videogame series since Resident Evil 2 burst onto the scene all those years ago. Outlast Trinity collects for the first time on disc, the 2013 classic Outlast, its downloadable content and the fresh and horrifying Outlast 2 in one spectacular set. This is a must-own for anyone that appreciates getting the shit scared out of them unmercifully. I had not played the original Outlast before trying this one out, so I was legit shocked at the content.
You play a journalist equipped with only a camcorder and a tip that there’s some crazy shit going on at this Asylum — so of course you venture forth and get caught up in one of the most disgusting, disturbing and traumatising experiences you’re likely to ever have. There’s something captivating about playing a victim in what is essentially the world’s nastiest torture-porn ever produced. You absolutely cannot fight back – all you can do is run, hide, collect data to figure out what the hell is going on and then run, hide and try not to die some more. In some ways, Red Barrels have done a throwback title to the good ol’ days of gaming when we were scared of falling off platforms in Super Mario, or when we had to outrun an explosion in Sonic The Hedgehog — they’ve just updated the graphics and now the threat is a naked beast man covered in blood who is trying to tear heads from bodies or scissor your dick off.
The first scare is always the worst. My wife and I jumped at the same time early on and even though over time you become slightly de-sensitised to the gore and jump scares, the game really does a wonderful job at continuously ramping up the grotesque and discomfort level. Whether you’re strapped to a table (while naked) about to be dissected or your fingers are getting hacked off by someone looking like Dr. Satan from House of 1000 Corpses, there will always be moments in Outlast Trinity that will stick with you for hours/days after playing. Acclaimed torture-porn films like SAW or Hostel don’t have shit on the horrors you’ll witness in Outlast and even though it’s a videogame — the stunning graphics and suspenseful gameplay all add up to a truly frightening experience and one that you will likely try to finish in one sitting just to get the hell out of this nightmare.
Since you only have a camcorder, you need to keep finding batteries lying around in order to keep the recorder’s night-vision primed (goddamn all those dark rooms…. brutal) and usually after you are forced to turn a switch on in some area – I recommend hiding under a bed or in a locker until a villain comes in to check out the noise before vacating to your next destination. The chase sequences are truly thrilling as well (press the trigger to look behind you as you jolt down a hallway). The action is frantic and the chilling breath sound effects emanating from your main character really intensify these sequences.
Outlast Trinity is an experience unlike anything else right now because as gamers, we’ve all grown a little too comfortable with our endless supply of godlike weapons, instant re-spawns and mountains of ammo to mow down hordes of monsters. This time – we only have our will to survive and no choice but to run fast as hell to avoid a gruesome and alarming death at the hands of the creepiest villains I’ve encountered in a videogame. Buy this immediately.
Rating: [star rating=”4.5″]