Haunting Ground - Review (PlayStation 2 game)

A young girl finds herself trapped inside a castle with no memory of how she got there. The twisted and monstrous inhabitants of the castle chase and attack Fiona as she tries to find the way out, solving puzzles and hiding all along the way. Joined only by a white German Shepard called Hewie the two must team up and escape Belli Castle in what turns out to be a very well written, surprisingly artistic survival horror game where puzzle solving and hiding is prioritized over violence.

Developer: Capcom

Genre: Survival Horror

Release date: May 10th 2005 (Japan & PAL: April 2005)

Platforms: PlayStation 2

ESRB: M - Mature

So, the story of ‘Haunting Ground’ follows a young woman called Fiona who is taking a trip with her parents when all of a sudden they have a mysterious car crash. Fiona wakes up in a castle with no memory of how she got there or what happened to her parents and, as the story goes on, Fiona must uncover why she is at this castle and how it is connected to her. Whilst the castle is home to several inhabitants it’s safe to say that they most definitely have ulterior motives than what they may be saying as to why she is there. As Fiona searches for answers she eventually comes across a white German Shepard called Hewie who is being abused by another tenant of the castle and, after rescuing him, Hewie teams up with Fiona in order to repay her for her kindness and to escape the castle with her. Hewie is really the key to surviving the ‘Haunting Ground’ as not only is he an offensive character where he may bite and defend Fiona against the enemies but he’s essential to solving many of the puzzles in the game. 

Fiona herself is completely helpless and is able to do very little other than some fairly weak kicking that does very little to deter enemies, she’s unable to knock them down and generally she cannot damage them in the slightest. Since Fiona is helpless you must rely on other tactics in order to survive your stay in Belli castle and what this results in is a great deal of hide and seek as the creatures of the castle, known as pursuers, will doggedly hunt Fiona down and attempt to kill her. Due to this you must guide Fiona to hide constantly whether that’s under a table or inside of a closet the castle is littered with hiding spots that you need to take advantage of. Sometimes it’s better to simply run away whilst Hewie distracts your opponents but either way the pursuers cannot be killed so tackling them head on is extremely ineffective. Truly, the most that can happen is that they get knocked down and, even then, they’ll just get straight back up again so you’re better off running and hiding. 

The game contains chase scenes and these happen quite frequently, every few minutes or so but within this narrow time slot where you and Hewie are left alone you’ll be required to solve puzzles in order to advance deeper into the castle before they show up again. The puzzles are extremely varied and sometimes rather deadly, an example of this is that at one point Hewie was required to stand on a switch whilst Fiona navigated through an open gate, having to avoid a section of floor that would kill her should she stand on it, before deactivating a lever on the other side of the gate to let Hewie through. A completely different puzzle required you to clear a huge swarm of butterflies out of the way of a door by luring them with flowers whilst another involved pushing blocks around into a certain configuration. The constantly original puzzles means that you’re constantly being challenged to think through things in new ways so there’s very little room to become bored, tired or disillusioned with the castle as everything is interesting and new whether that’s the puzzles or the rooms that you venture through. The locations themselves, I should mention, are brilliantly designed with so many interesting places that you’ll be led through whether that’s a room of mirrors, vast libraries, overgrown gardens or the ever creepy merry-go-round room. This is a game that makes you want to explore more yet punishes you for venturing out of your hiding spot with constant harassment from some very disturbing enemies. Luckily, the game does feature boss battles and you’ll be given the opportunity to kill a pursuer, there are four of them, once and for all. 

Graphically the game is fairly interesting and very well detailed for its time. Something I particularly like is what happens to the screen when Fiona descends into a full scale anxiety attack. Fiona is actually unable to stay close to the pursuers, even if they are not attacking her, as if she does she will start to panic. The more Fiona panics the more obscured your vision will become as the screen turns black and white with a grainy effect that reduces how much you can see. Once Fiona hits the peak of panic she will start running of her own accord leaving you to guide her safely until she calms down as, if she happens to fall, she will be left totally vulnerable to a pursuer, and that’s never a good thing. Fiona doesn’t actually have any sort of life bar or hitpoints and you’re left to rely on how Fiona appears to be fairing than any concrete bar or numbers and whilst this feature is now more readily available in many games this was, at the time, quite an unusual element. As Fiona takes more damage you have to look out for things like her movement slowing and whether she’s clutching her side or slumping over. The game is pretty realistic in terms of how many damage Fiona will take from different offensive weapons or attacks so, for instance, if Fiona is attacked with a sharp shard of glass she will immediately be in a state of critical damage. It’s things like this which really add to the overall immersion of the game and which support that feeling of helplessness and weakness because, after all, you’re just a scared, trapped girl with no weapons, super powers or training. Fiona is no Lara Croft and so, whilst it may be annoying to some that she’s so fragile, that’s exactly how she should be. 

Fiona’s fragility means that Hewie is so much more valuable to you and what is done incredibly well is the bond that is formed between girl and dog and you do see their relationship strengthen as the game goes on. In times when Hewie may sometimes be roaming another part of the castle and not by your side there’s a tendency to feel significantly more afraid as your one and only defence is no longer there and, in this sense, Hewie does not feel like a gimmick or a burden on the player. Even though Hewie can die due to his limited hitpoints he’s a fairly hardy character and is so useful in terms of gameplay that you will fight tooth and nail to keep him alive as you would yourself. During periods of down-time the interactions you can have with him help establish a stronger relationship as you can give different commands to him. Fiona is able to praise, scold and instruct Hewie to search for hidden items in the ground and whilst scolding may sound a little harsh what it actually serves to do is to strengthen the relationship between Fiona and Hewie as, when Hewie’s being disobedient, scolding him sets him on the right path again and means he is less likely to disobey again. If Hewie is handled correctly then towards the end of the game there will be no instances in which he will disobey Fiona, so strong the bond that has formed between them. 

It should be mentioned that this game does have altenative endings, four in fact, and these range from the extremely ‘bad’ ending which is an entirely separate conclusion to three others which are slightly tweaked versions of one another. There’s a fair bit of re-playability factor in these alternative endings but what is also very nice to have is the amount of unlockable content in the game whether that’s costumes, additional cutscenes, art gallerys and awards for achievements such as beating the game within a certain amount of time. With all this in mind, and the fairly solid length of between 10 to 15 hours, it’s safe to say you get a fair bit of bang for your buck with this early 2000s game. The game is very well written with high quality voice acting, creepy and well detailed environments and a non-offensive musical score that didn’t really wow me but which provided a perfectly suitable backdrop to a very good game. Whilst some may criticize its similarity to the ‘Clock Tower’ series that doesn’t mar the fact that the ‘Haunting Ground’ delivers an enjoyable, albeit rather stressful, experience.

The Good: 

• Plenty of disturbing imagery keeps the horror alive
• Controlling both Hewie and Fiona is a nice, additional dimension
• The way in which you treat Hewie having an effect on the endings of the game is very interesting
• Lots of unlockable features and alternative endings adds in essential additional content
•  Character design is superb
• Intelligently build locations that are varied and interesting
• Challenging puzzles that are never too alike
• Perfect atmosphere 
• Well written, rather adult, storyline that keeps you guessing

The Bad: 

• The AI could be better in places
• The audio isn't particularly stunning 
• Fiona's helplessness can border on annoying at times

The Score: 8/10

Final thoughts: "This is horror done right with plenty of helplessness and survival elements. Whilst the game has some pretty intense and disturbing sexual imagery in the game that's not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it only adds to the repulsive situation that Fiona is trying to escape from.

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Among the Sleep - Review (PlayStation 4, Windows/Linux/OS X game)

There are always things we’re going to be afraid of, that much is certain, but it’s the things we are most uncertain of that tend to terrify or aggravate us the most. As children we lacked the understanding that we have now and trying to cope in a world where we’re unable to reason away the existence of monsters or understand the steps to take when you find yourself alone. This helplessness and vulnerability is the very core of what makes survival horror games so terrifying and usually this vulnerability is due to a lack of weapons, an abundance of darkness and a big splash of threat that is often unseen. In ‘Among The Sleep’, you’re dropped right back into the footy pyjamas of a toddler soon after his 2nd birthday party where he received a bite of cake and a slightly odd looking, talking teddy bear. You awake in the middle of the night to a strange commotion in your bedroom and, after you’ve been flung from your crib, you venture out into the dark corridors to find your mother for some much needed comfort. Unfortunately, she’s nowhere to be found. 

Developer: Krillbite Studio
Release date: May 29th 2014
Genre: Survival horror
Platforms: Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, PlayStation 4,
ESRB: Rating pending (likely to be a 16+/Teen rating)

Playing as a toddler is in itself a novel experience but what is particularly appreciable is the way in which tasks we would find simple as an adult become an instant challenge for a toddler such as the opening of doors. Although the mechanics can be a little clunky there’s a sort of realism to this as by dragging around say, a chair, you’re not only struggling to walk on two feet but you have to move a heavy object whilst you’re at it. In 'Among the Sleep' you have the ability to switch between walking, running and crawling and quite appropriately the crawling is a much faster way of getting around though, down there, you cannot interact with anything. This presents a problem in that you are significantly more vulnerable when you’re unable to see where you’re headed, interact with things or use your ‘flashlight’ which is actually a light emitted from hugging your teddy bear, awwh. ‘Among the Sleep’ has a fair few puzzles that are more about getting to your destination than solving anything too complex and the game itself is running off a ‘find three items’ objective that are obtained by going through very different areas. You start out in your house, naturally, and then move through increasingly more surreal areas that are wonderfully varied and consistently offer you new and interesting places to explore.

The places you tend to explore are, unsurprisingly, dark. By dark I mean, 'can barely see your hand in front of your face', kind of dark, so that teddy bear hugging I mentioned earlier is an extremely useful feature. As you can only hug your bear when you’re standing upright what tends to occur is a trade-off between being able to see where it is you’re going and getting there quickly enough. This is a surprisingly stressful situation to be placed in constantly as once you’re left alone in the darkness your over-active child’s imagination comes to life and things appear far much terrifying than they usually would do. Whilst the game isn’t necessarily full on horror there’s enough of an atmosphere that will drive you onwards and ensure you never want to linger too long for fear of what’s lurking in the shadows. The game tends to put you through phases of thinking there’s something there, to believing it’s just your imagination, to making you definitely think there’s something there and this rollercoaster of fear and paranoia will make you constantly question everything around you. 

What I’ve yet to mention is how fantastic the game actually looks and almost everything is interactive whether that’s a piece of fruit in the kitchen or a soft toy in your bedroom; everything can be picked up, carried and put wherever the hell you want it to go. All chairs can be dragged around whether you need to move them or not, drawers and cupboards can be opened and generally there’s a huge amount of detail. Even in places you’re not really supposed to explore you’ll still find a very respectable level of furnishings whilst the textures and detail have not been skimped on adding to a rather realistic, if slightly cartoony, feel. The game’s appearance also significantly contributes to the atmosphere of the game and little things like well-timed thunderclaps, partially lit corridors and the ability to hide under furniture at any given time with no prompting results in you questioning yourself about whether you need to be hiding or not. You’ll often second guess yourself in this game and there are some stupidly terrifying moments such as turning a corner and seeing a dark figure looming over you, just around the corner and out of sight, you turn to stumble away and then realise it’s, well, just a coat on a coat rack. You rarely get those experiences playing as an adult as you would almost immediately see its lack of a face but, as a toddler, all you get is the bottom of a coat and a pair of shoes and this whole new perspective puts you at a disadvantage even for seasoned survival horror gamers.

Don’t let me convince you that this game is all about running from your own shadow however as, trust me, there’s something out there to get you and though I won’t spoil it for you it’s definitely something that makes its presence known. Try as you might you cannot deny the tell-tale rattling of a door handle as you watch something unseen opening a previously looked door from the other side. Neither can you ignore turning around to see that, somehow, something you thought was inanimate has moved and now it’s standing right behind you, staring at you, still unmoving and leaving you very little choice but to slide around it, desperately hoping it doesn’t decide to wake up and do anything else whilst your back is turned. 

Overall

‘Among the Sleep’ is certainly a memorable game and a very unique experience that is well worth a look at, even if you don’t usually play horror games. Whilst the storyline tends to take a backseat during the main chunk of the game it is generally explained through the opening and closing cutscenes with some general illusions to what’s going on as you play. The game is by no means dull however and though it is in no way comparable to gore fests such as 'Amnesia' and 'Outlast' it’s deserving of its place as a horror game due to the undeniably spooky ambiance and the constant fear that something’s about to jump out at you. There are mechanical issues with the game, particularly when climbing on objects, but these can be generally excused as the rest of the game is very attractive with a strong, vibrant pallet and lashings of attention to detail. Occasionally I encountered some frustrating moments of not knowing where to go but generally the game is just about the right level of difficulty and it was probably just me struggling to put 2+2 together though, at times, the puzzles were somewhat lame. The game is unfavourably short at around 3 hours long and I would have definitely preferred a longer game with more build up and some more scares but, overall, the upcoming DLC should settle down the need to spend longer in this oversized world.

The Good: 

• Brilliant storyline, thought provoking ending
• Very atmospheric with a constant eerieness
• Interactive world and puzzle elements are a nice addition
• Looks very clean cut with bold, vibrant graphics
• Sounds fantastic with brilliant voice acting and high quality ambient sounds
• Original concept that was risky for developers but worked out great
• Few scare tactics used, instead more of an investigation into fear
• Playing as a toddler offered up some very interesting and new situations

The Bad: 

• Could have had 'more going on' in it
• Climbing mechanics need to be worked on
• Should have been longer with more build up
• The teddy bear is more creepy than comforting

The Score: 8/10

Final thoughts: "The ending is extremely poignant and made me glad I continued all the way through. I loved the concept of playing as a toddler and am extremely glad somebody took the initiative to put this into a game, now I want to watch everybody I know play it."

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Five Nights At Freddy's - Quick Review (PC and Android game)

If there’s one thing that’s going to effectively terrify me it’s those things that are supposed to be innocent, but aren’t. You know what I’m talking about; clowns, dummies, children’s toys, giant humanoid animal costumes, the horror genre has been drawing on the things from our childhoods and turning them into our greatest nightmares long before the arrival of ‘Child's Play’ or ‘Killer Clowns from Outer Space’ so it’s no great surprise to see them in horror games as well. ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ is set during the hours of midnight and 6am as you, the new night watchman at Freddy's pizza place, must attempt to survive with limited defences against some horrifyingly deadly mascots. This is a game where your own paranoia and attempt at protecting yourself will push you closer to sealing your own twisted fate as each and every nervous twitch lowers your resources and, ultimately, your chances of survival.

Developer: Scott Cawthon
Genre: Survival Horror, Point and Click
Release date: August 8th 2014 (August 27th for Android)
Platforms: PC and Android
ESRB: M - Mature

‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ works its way deep into my own insecurities and draws out of me a fear I didn’t even know I had until this game. The enemies you’ll encounter are anamatronic animals that sing and dance for children during the day, annnnd attempt to stuff the new night guard into a suit filled with cross beams and metal bits during the night. Needless to say, this action would kill you so it’s your new priority to survive five nights as the new security guard because presumably he really, really needs the money and values his life less than this. It sounds crazy but who am I to judge, finding work is difficult these days and the fact that you’d have to physically nail me to the chair to get me to stay there is no bearing on what this guy would do, apparently.  As an added extra you can define the AI of each individual enemy for two additional nights where, upon completing all five nights, you'll notice a night six is suddenly available. The reward for completing the seventh night is not just bragging rights at your own stubborn survival but in valuable storyline explanations where you finally learn the dark secrets behind the deadly mascots.

In order to survive five nights at this disturbing pizza place you must carefully manage your power supply whilst monitoring a bunch of CCTV cameras to watch where those dastardly murdering critters are going. They only move when you’re not watching them, reminiscent of the Weeping Angles from ‘Doctor Who’ which can only spell trouble, so by ignoring the cameras they’ll just walk on over to where you’re sitting and tear your face off. The building’s power percentage is tracked in a corner and every time you use a camera, flicker the light just outside either of the two doors to your security room or close the doors to protect yourself it’ll drop how much power is left, significantly so. There’s quite a few cameras and unfortunately a couple of them only have audio feeds so you can only listen to the ominous grinding of their motors as they shuffle down a corridor, worse still, there are plenty of blind spots. Cruelly, those blind spots are mostly right outside the two doors that lead to your little security room so you won’t know they’re in there until they’re either grinning at you around the doorframe or if you manage to hear their, fairly stealthy, movements. 

 
Whilst a lot of survival horror games utilize a player’s fear of being helpless, ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ cranks it up another notch by adding in the complete inability to move. So basically you’re stuck in a tiny room, unable to move and quite possibly nailed to that chair I mentioned now that I think about it, maybe the owners had to resort to brute force with their staff, who knows. Your only line of defence is closing the doors and even then, there are two of them on opposite sides from one another and they use up a lot of power so you can only close them very briefly. You have to survive from midnight to 6am in the morning which takes just less than 10 minutes of your life but at least three years off your life due to the stress it causes. Every night is harder than the last and whilst you’ll quickly adjust to the manner in which you must organize yourself the difficulty intensifies dramatically for the final two nights. The AI of the creatures can vary and they’re fairly unpredictable but generally they’re a lot faster and a lot more intelligent as you progress through the nights. Initially they’ll stay still backstage for the start of the night but, come Night 5, they’ll have mysteriously vanished from their usual spot as soon as your shift starts leaving you to switch between cameras manically, trying to pin point their location. 

What makes this game so effective at terrifying the living daylights out of you is how well it plays on your paranoia and nervous twitch reaction to check a camera or check the doorway, reducing your power in the progress. Whilst you need to constantly check where everyone has shuffled off to it’s difficult to reign this in and not flicker constantly, dooming yourself in the progress, and the feeling that it’s your own increasing OCD checking of everything that’s narrowing your chances of survival is very unsettling. What's particularly likeable about this game is it’s an extremely simple yet imaginative concept that breaks away from the current trend of ‘Slenderman’ or ‘Amnesia’ trend of snooping about houses, collecting up notes and newspaper clippings that many horror games are copying. Overall I found this game to be an imaginative addition to the survival horror genre and whilst the overall style and concept is extremely simple it's still a creepy venture into a nightmarish world of grinning, killer mascots and a gruesome story that you're gradually rewarded with.

The Good: 

• Simple, original and very effective concept
• You become your own worst enemy as you double check, triple check everything
• Decent jump scares keep you on your toes
• Disturbing character design
• Very atmospheric, feelings of isolation and helplessness predominant
• Looks and sounds great with very good voice acting
• Final two 'bonus levels' add in an element of freeplay
• Quite a brutal difficulty curve but the challenge is welcomed

The Bad:

• Although Night 2/3 offers up whole new gameplay feature, more variation would still be good.
• Tends to degenerate into careful time management which some may find boring.
  

The Score: 8/10

Final thoughts: “Some more variation in gameplay would have gone a long way, but this had me constantly jumping out of my skin as the AI are so unpredictable and it’s got such a disturbing atmosphere.”

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Daylight - Guest review on Darkstation (PS4 and PC game)

The success of a horror game is, very simply, measured by its ability to scare or disturb you. Daylight manages neither of these things and its fairly appealing hook of ‘constantly regenerating’ environments that allow for no two playthroughs to be the same is, in fact, fatuous and meaningless. Daylight initially looked to be a decent survival horror game and I hoped for something along the lines of Amnesia and Outlast only with a bit more unpredictability thrown in, which is always a good thing. The reality is that the game is bland, uninspired and lacking in character. The initial jump scares quickly become predictable and uninteresting once you realize they pose no real threat whilst the story itself is not only weak but agonizingly dull.

So as promised the Daylight review is now back up... only not here, but here instead so you can read the rest of it, undisturbed. Enjoy! Or in this case, don't enjoy, really it's a terrible game.

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Outlast DLC: Whistleblower - Full Review (+ Trailer) (PS4, Xbox One and PC game)

I thought that Outlast was already as bone-chilling, nightmare fuelling, panic inducing scary as it could get; I was wrong, I was so, so wrong. Outlast’s DLC ‘Whistleblower’ is more than just your standard DLC; it’s not one of those enjoyable but ineffectual additions that rides in on the back of an already successful game, oh no, ‘Whistleblower’ is by and large a whole new chapter in Red Barrel’s manifesto of fear.

Developer: Red Barrels

Genre: Survival Horror
Release date: September 4, 2013 (PC), Feburary 5th 2014 (PS4), June 18th 2014 (Xbox one)
Platforms: PC, Playstation 4, Xbox One

ESRB: M - Mature

Outlast is a game that sets out to test how far it can push the boundaries of the horror genre with some incredibly disturbing scenes that may have bypassed some due to the hidden nature. ‘Whistleblower’ hides nothing and just in case you haven’t yet realized how twisted Mount Massive Asylum has become then you’ll be reminded that immature descriptions like ‘scary’ and ‘gore’ have no place here, this is true, uncensored horror.  

Warning: The game contains M rated blood, gore, nudity and sexual content. As such, the screenshots below also contain such themes though with minimal spoilers and without representing the worst that this game has to offer.

‘Whistleblower’ has you step into the shoes of Waylon Park, a software developer for Mount Massive Asylum who, uncomfortable with the practices at the asylum, has been leaking information to outside sources one of whom is Miles Upshurr, the protagonist of the original game. Poor Waylon doesn’t get away with it for long however as, just as he sends the anonymous tip off to Miles, he’s caught and locked away in the asylum he was so desperately trying to draw attention to. I originally thought ‘Whistleblower’ was a prequel but as it turns out it’s much more than that. The experiences of Waylon Parks are wrapped snugly around the original storyline, taking place before, during and after the events of Outlast though in an entirely different region of the hospital.

Gameplay and environment

My previous complaints of a world that felt too linear and enemies whose AI was predictable and easy to outwit have been abolished leaving nowhere else to hide but plenty of places to run to in the blood drenched institute. Whilst the familiar sight of locked doors that progressively abolish any hope you have of escaping are still present there are now vast areas with interconnecting passageways and tiny rooms that leave you running in circles whilst a maniac relentlessly tracks you down. The enemies in this game are faster and even after sprinting for some time I would often turn to see them almost on top of me, leaving me no other option but to keep on running in the hope of losing them behind the next door, the next turn, the next table. The hiding spots too have been severely cut down and whilst the previous game had an abundance of beds and lockers to take refuge in I had a hard time finding anywhere to hide for the majority of the game. More often than not I’d simply crouch in a corner of a dark room, barely concealed by a table or a chair, and hope that they didn’t move close enough to spot me. Rather than a continual shifting of enemies to run from ‘Whistleblower’ essentially has one main threat but there are still approximately five different characters who will, at some point, try to kill you with a couple of them being familiar faces from the first game.

What makes this game so brilliant is how much emotion it draws out of you. I felt vulnerable at every step and, whereas previously wandering outside was a welcome breath of fresh air to be out of the corpse strewn halls, in ‘Whistleblower’ I was instead beset by further waves of anxiety as fog completely obscured my senses. This feeling of vulnerability that is essential to the survival horror atmosphere is completely accentuated when, at one point, you are left physically limping. As you can imagine, this does not work in your favour when trying to not be captured and killed. If you are spotted then there is quite simply no possible way of outrunning your pursuers so you just have to accept the inevitable reload as you blunder desperately on through the darkness.

The environments are thankfully different from the base game and though you do revisit certain locations it’s not in the least bit repetitive. Whilst ‘Outlast’ simply dipped its toes into exploring the grounds of the hospital ‘Whistleblower ’is more than happy to let you stretch your legs outside and, rather than confine you to rooms and corridors, frequently invites you to blunder about outside. As though it were any safer out there. Now and then you’ll find yourself bursting out through a window or a door to find yourself surrounded by the thick, impenetrable fog of the gardens or venturing through the maze of chain link fences that border the basketball courts. The worst thing about being outside is that there is quite literally no way of telling where your hunters are lurking as the fog is so thick you can barely see where you’re going, never mind whether somebody is hiding within it or not. Whilst the puzzles remain unchallenging the sheer pressure of completing them under duress is enough to make you have to replay certain portions of the game as it is inevitable you’ll get caught at least once. This is one of those games that is incredibly hard to play all in one playthrough without descending into a full blown panic attack. Unless, of course, you’re one of those people who are extremely desensitized to fear and carnage and play games like this to top up your macho-nerves-of-steel persona, if this is the case, what on Earth have you been doing to have become so unflinching? I shudder to think. 

 
Conclusion

I’m not sure how they managed it but ‘Whistleblower’ is arguably scarier than 'Outlast' though significantly shorter due to it being a DLC, not a standalone game. The shortage of batteries, lack of hiding places, twisting nature of the environments and extreme nature of the carnage encountered is the perfect recipe to foster a paranoid terror known only by the deeply immersed. ‘Whistleblower’ is a solid addition to 'Outlast' and it is quite simply an incredibly haunting game that looks, sounds and plays as brilliantly as the original. ‘Whistleblower’ has achieved what it set out to do and that is to terrify the living daylights out of you. It not only manages to do that but it does so brutal confidence; slapping you about the face with its controversial scenes without apology and without remorse. With its open ending there is also great room for a sequel and I can only hope, and dread, that Red Barrels continues to make such amazing survival horror games. I can only warn you now though, that there are things in this game you can never be unseen.

The Good:

• Very controversial
• Some brilliant twists
• Terrifying and disturbing
• Solid continuation of a fantastic game
• Strong characters, likeable protagonist
• Fantastic voice acting
• Storyline builds suspense very well
• Good length for a DLC
• The Groom.

The Bad

• Would have preferred varied antagonists
• NPCs have a tendency to all look the same
• The Groom.

The Score: 9/10 

Last thoughts: "Oh... My... Good... God. That was messed up."

Not played the original yet? Check out my review for Outlast here.

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Outlast - Full Review (PC, Xbox One and PS4 game)

I don’t often play horror games, especially not ones of such excruciatingly high visual quality, so perhaps I was ill prepared for the nightmare that followed upon deciding that I’d give Outlast a try. 

Developer: Red Barrels
Genre: Survival Horror 
Release date: May 6th, 2014 (PC and PS4), June 18th 2014 (Xbox one) 
Platforms: PC, Xbox One and Playstation 4.
ESRB: M - Mature

I’d found the game listed on Steam with plenty of people saying it was scarier than Amnesia; Amnesia, or what I’d managed of it, had disturbed me beyond measure so I quit playing halfway through. If you’ve heard of Amnesia I’m sure you’re aware of the gruesome reputation that closely follows behind it, Outlast is worse than that. Outlast is another survival horror game that seems to be becoming a more popular choice of game in recent years and this one doesn’t let the genre down. Outlast is set in a psychiatric hospital that is, for the most part, abandoned. You play a freelance journalist called Miles Upshur who is investigating ‘Mount Massive Asylum’ after receiving an anonymous tip-off about some troubling goings on in the asylum. Armed with nothing but a notepad, pen and video camera your job is to escort Miles into the building to expose some kind of conspiracy. Since this is a survival horror game we all know it’s going to be nothing pleasant, and my god, it is not pleasant.

Here's the trailer for your enjoyment.

Gameplay

The gameplay is predominately investigation and survival and you’re restricted to a permanently first person point of view. You’re completely unable to fight or defend yourself apart from in scripted cutscenes and you’re not going to be able to pick up a great deal of items aside from batteries and documents. The fear factor starts here; you’re completely helpless and there are plenty of things to be afraid of in Mount Massive Asylum. You’ll often find yourself running through corridors, vaulting over desks and scrambling under beds or into lockers to hide from the creatures that are hunting you. It’s only until they’ve meandered off are you able to exit and resume traversing through the hospital. The game leads you on with objectives but no map or means of finding out where you’re supposed to be going but the areas are fairly linear, not completely so, and it’s always quite apparent where you’re supposed to be going. There are a few puzzles, dotted here and there, but for the most part the game is dedicated to the horrifying storyline and desperate struggle that comes with it. The puzzles that do exist tend to be very similar to nature to one another so it’s probably a good thing that they’re few and far between.

 This is nothing; just wait until he turns around.  

The game utilizes an interesting mechanism which incorporates the journalism background that Miles’ character comes with; you need to keep your camera turned on. Simply having the camera out doesn’t use up any battery but does allow Miles to record events and for him to write in his journal. Without the camera on you miss out on Miles personal take on what’s happening around him which would be a shame as it really adds to the immersion of the game. The video camera is also your primary means of not tripping over furniture as, for the most part, the asylum is incredibly dark. It’s that type of pressing darkness that keeps you on edge; unable to take another step forward because you just don’t know what’s going to happen. At the beginning of the game I went so far as to lock myself in a pitch black bathroom, the battery low on my camera, where I physically couldn’t bring myself to move for a good two minutes out of pure dread. You quickly realize that by using the night-vision option on your camera you’ll be powering through Poundland’s own brand batteries at a tremendous rate that leaves you, quite literally, powerless. If you’re not constantly searching for batteries you’re going to find yourself unable to continue; locked in some dingy bathroom and hoping that the game enforces some kind of engine that allows your eyes to adjust to the pitch blackness. They don’t. On the plus side, if there is a plus side, this encourages exploration which yields a host of different types of document. These documents all contain the kind of information Miles is looking for for his article, provided he gets out alive that is, and they also usefully fill in all the gaps on what happened in the asylum so you’re not left confused. When you’re all stocked up on battery power you’ll find that the video camera’s night vision casts everything in a pallid, green tinge which makes everything, and everyone, startlingly apparent in the otherwise dim hospital. Those who have seen the gory horror [REC] or Blair Witch Project are no doubt familiar with the subtle but eerie terror that comes with viewing the world through night vision; seeing just enough to navigate but not enough to know the full horrors that lie within a darkened room.

Graphics and environment

The graphics are extremely good, plain and simple. I first noticed it when walking up to the front door of the asylum where I was struck with the sudden clearness and detail that the game boasted. The lighting was fantastic, the breeze through the trees was unnerving and the darkness was pressing in all around me. Further into the game it became obvious that the blood smears, flayed corpses and tortured inmates were all horrifyingly vivid which further added to the grotesque ambiance.

Usually, nobody in their right mind would break into this place.

The colour palette itself is all fairly neutral and mostly shaded in greys, browns and blacks. Rather than bringing the game down this actually elevates it as we are, afterall, in a fairly typical environment. Offices, wards, padded cells and corridors aren’t the most exciting of arenas but they’re all done very well with plenty of little embellishments and details so the areas don’t feel too bare. The normality of the environment is chilling; there are no spooky haunted castles or out of this world space stations to contend with here and I maintain that the best horror games are the ones that could be set within your own town.

At least somebody in this place is sane, I'm with this guy.

A minor complaint of mine is that several areas in the game are completely barred off and it becomes a familiar occurrence to be constantly running into locked doors. I passed this off as very tight hospital security when the place was up and running but in terms of gameplay experience it could have been better. The paths are very linear as I said mostly due to this feature; if it’s an unlocked door then that’s where you’re supposed to go, or failing that, that’s where a battery will be. A little more openness to the facility with maybe a few more random features such as random enemy encounters would have been well placed to add to the fear factor. Some areas are fairly open, one place was particularly maze like, and the increasing desperation to find your way is an emotion the developers could have utilized more.

Characters

The rather unhinged ensemble of characters in Outlast is a large factor in what makes the game so creepy. Jump scares, dark environments and helplessness are all well and good but when you’re faced with those who are truly disturbed you do start to become aware of just how much danger you’re in. With a psychiatric ward as their playground the developers have gone full throttle with dark and disturbing personality quirks and more often than not it’s the non-aggressive ward residents who are most likely to unnerve you. Like you, a lot of these residents are confused, afraid, and just trying to stay alive though several are just trying to make the best of things. Whether it’s a man doing unmentionable things to a headless corpse or a curious, deformed pianist, the characters of Outlast burn themselves into your memory with a lasting residue of unease and nervous laughter. All in all the characters are unique and interesting and I like how it’s not just restricted to the same few who are the main antagonists of the game. Rather, there are characters who will help you; though some in less standard ways than others.

What a gregarious young man.

As an added bonus those documents and hospital files that are littered throughout the game also give you additional detail on who these people were when they were ‘official’ patients of the asylum. One of my only criticisms of the game is the predictable AI that inhibits the enemies. You’ll spend a good portion of the game having to get to certain places or away from certain situations with somebody pursuing you. Provided you’re not seen entering a hiding place like a locker or beneath a bed you’ll never be caught, and that can be pretty frustrating. Even as the enemy bursts into the room they’ll always search one locker that’s not the one you’re hiding in and then give up and go back to patrolling. This rinse and repeat scenario of running, hiding, waiting and going back to whatever it was you were doing can be unfortunately boring. Without a way to distract or lure enemies away from certain areas your other alternative is to just run through and barge your way past the hulking menaces, experiencing the game primarily at a sprinting pace.

That said, it would make the game impossible if you were found every time as once they get their hands on you you’re pretty much screwed. Rather, there should have been some degree of random searching involved where sometimes they check everything, and sometimes they don’t, it would have most certainly made the game tenser due to the unpredictable nature of your pursuers. The combination of clunky AI and sluggish enemies makes the chase scenes a little lacklustre, though not exactly boring. I’ll make a special exception that a certain medical man is a bit more unpredictable due to the looping nature of the area, meaning he could be around any and every corner.

Music and audio

There’s not a great deal of music in the game as the atmosphere is mostly derived from the sensation of being completely alone and helpless. That said, there are sometimes a few high pitched chords shot out at you at roughly the same time a corpse or something worse does. The sudden, loud music does mean that you’ll have to take some additional time to unstick yourself from the ceiling and waste more time lingering in dangerous areas. As if that’s not bad enough you’ll notice that whenever you’re in the proximity of an enemy, whether you see him or not, Miles begins to freak out. His broken, frightened breathing as he tries to remain calm is enough to put even the most hardened gamer on edge, especially if you yourself haven’t yet identified the cause of his fear. The game is generally littered with lovely bits of audio like creaking gates, leaves rustling in the wind and hollowed footfalls on wooden flooring. Quite often I found myself stopping still to listen, trying to figure out if the noises I could hear were being made by Miles or something else, and it’s certainly a suspense builder. Each time you shut a door behind you you’ll be cursing Miles for his blasé attitude to your plight as, for some unknown reason, it is impossible to gently close a door. Instead, Miles feels it necessary to SLAM a door as though he was making a dramatic exit to an argument, how the creatures don’t pick up on this but notice a few little splashes is beyond me.

Overall

As games go Outlast is certainly a memorable experience and by the time you’ve completed it you’ll either feel richly rewarded or deeply distressed. Despite a few of my teething concerns I’d score this game very highly as not only is it a very entertaining game but it’s also produced by a small, lesser known company who are trying to tackle a difficult genre of games. Arguably, it’s too scary for a lot of people to play but since fear is such a subjective thing it’s not really something you can hold against it, besides, it’s a horror game. If you can stomach it then I recommend a play through or, failing that, watch somebody else play it on YouTube as either way you’re not going to want to miss out on the fairly unique experience that Outlast burns into your soul. 

Don't expect any central heating. Seriously.

The Good:

• The documents and notes you find are actually an interesting read
• Love the inclusion of the camera and filming your own footage
• Vibrant and memorable characters
• Very disturbing moments, which is great
• Nice length, lots of hours play and some great locations
• Fantastic ambiance, almost constant feeling of danger
• It's terrifying, if you're not a hardened skeptic.

The Bad:

• Enemies AI could be improved when searching for you
• Protagonist is a bit of a dick.
• The puzzles that are in the same are basically identical
• Miles always SLAMS the doors shut when you're trying to be quiet.

The Score: 9/10 

Last thoughts: That was the best, and worst, time of my life. I want more, so much more, and I want everybody I know to play this so I can watch them freak out. 

The DLC for this game, Whistleblower, is now out and you can read my review of it here.

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