Is Outlast Scary?
Outlast is a franchise of survival horror video games. In Outlast video games, players assume the role of a survivor or witness of various horror situations, and must overcome a variety of challenges, through stealth and puzzle-solving, in order to survive and escape these situations. The first Outlast video game, Outlast (2013), was developed and published by Red Barrels. Outlast video games have been praised for their atmosphere, innovative gameplay, stealth, enemy patterns, puzzles and storyline. In general, Outlast video games are played in a first-person camera perspective, and the player character is not able to directly fight and defeat enemies. Instead, players must often rely on stealth gameplay, puzzle-solving, and analysing enemy behaviour patterns, to be able to overcome the various challenges and progress in the video game. Considering that Outlast are described as horror video games, and that these video games feature survival elements, and many atmospheric elements meant to provide a frightening experience, players who have not yet played Outlast video games may wonder whether these video games can be scary, and how scary they are, especially if compared to other horror video games and to other video games in general.
Outlast games are scary for most people, providing an experience that will scare and frighten most players, due to their atmospheric and immersive elements, as well as sound effects and storyline.
The Atmosphere of Outlast
In terms of horror video games, the atmosphere of the video game is perhaps one of the most important and decisive factors in regards to whether the video game can provide a scary and frightening experience, or not. In the case of Outlast video games, these video games provide a scary atmosphere through the use of several atmospheric and immersive elements, including, but not limited to, absense of lighting (or limited lighting, especially through the limited flashlight batteries gameplay), first-person camera perspective, sound effects, tougher enemies, limited ways of confrontation with enemies (or absense of direct combat), among other features.
Considering that, in general, Outlast video games are played in a first-person camera perspective, these video games can be quite immersive, as the whole experience may feel as a first-person experience, in which the player is immersed in the atmosphere of witnessing and surviving various horror situations in suspenseful locations. Outlast video games feature a variety of enemies, challenges and puzzles, and different enemies present different behaviour patterns that require the attention of players. Moreover, the limited flashlight batteries increase the tension and suspense of the atmosphere due to the limited lighting. With the addition of the many sound effects that are present in this video game, Outlast video games provide a scary video game experience to many different players, including players who have previously played many horror video games.
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Is Outlast Scary Only During the First Playthrough?
Considering that Outlast video games are story-driven video games, and for this reason, they could be described as linear video games when compared to sandbox video games, players and horror video game fans may wonder whether the Outlast video games are only scary during the first playthrough.
It is true that players who have already finished a complete playthrough of the Outlast video games are more acquainted with the atmosphere, locations and characters of these video games, and in some cases are able to predict the story events that will transpire. However, considering that Outlast video games provide a complete narrative experience, with several hours of gameplay, and also considering the many sound effects, visual cues, limited lighting and other atmospheric elements of these video games, Outlast video games can still be a scary atmosphere in subsequent playthroughs of these video games. However, since these are story-driven video games, and not typical procedurally-generated video games, I suggest players to wait some time before a second playthrough. For example, players could play Outlast (2013), then proceed to play Outlast 2 (2017), and wait some months before playing either Outlast (2013) or Outlast 2 (2017) again. If the player proceeds for a second playthrough of a story-driven video game in a short time after playing it, then the story events will still be well-remembered by the player and the experience may not be as fresh. This is a general recommendation that can be used for most story-driven video games, not specifically only for Outlast video games. At the same time, players who are fans of Outlast and especially enjoy the atmosphere may find great enjoyment at playing these video games without such a long wait between each playthrough.
Analysis of Outlast as a Scary Video Game
While there are many different horror video games, these video games share the common goal of having an experience directed at scarying and fightening the player. It is often debated what makes a video game scary. While there are many different elements that can contribute to how scary a video game can be, such as limited lighting, tough and unpredictable enemies, difficult puzzles, and, of course, horror situations, each horror video game succeeds in different ways. Resident Evil video games provide a post-apocalyptic world of a zombie outbreak, with limited ammunition and resources. Alien: Isolation provides the isolated environment of spaceships and space stations with the presence of an unpredictable and dangerous alien life form. Dead Space video games provide the survival experience of being alone in a spaceship with dangerous necromorphs. Outlast, while does not featuring, in general, supernatural enemies, provides the experience of witnessing and attempting to survive horror situations that would be considered scary by most people. While Outlast does not feature supernatural or undead enemies such as other classic horror video games, it features ample use of atmospheric elements, limited lighting, limited resources, and other immersive elements in order to increase the tension of the gameplay experience. In addition to the fact that the player character in Outlast video games is generally to able to directly fight and defeat enemies, Outlast video games challenge the player to outsmart their enemies and use every resource available to survive and escape these situations in the video games. For these reasons, Outlast video games are considered classic horror video games.