Outlast

**LazyGunn** · 09-21-2013, 10:43 AM

You should try this on the OR, it's my fave game of the year thanks to that lovely premature junk

**Bridge** · 09-21-2013, 11:29 AM

(09-21-2013, 07:06 AM)Kreekakon Wrote:

Spoiler below!

The Walrider segments, and to a lesser extent the crazed Doctor.

Digging deeper, the reason I think these are much scarier than the conventional segments is that they are unconventional based on both immersion, and game-wise.

What this means is that the way the enemies are designed, particularly the Walrider is so unknown (Not just visually) as opposed to just a bunch of crazed humans. I'm having a hard time spelling out why exactly I found him much more disturbing than the other enemies from a critical stand-point, and that's really the best I can do.

Spoiler below!

That's funny, because I found the Walrider segment to be probably the least scary in the game, although it was a lot of fun. I guess it's the lighting and open level design, plus the fact that the supernatural doesn't scare me that much, but in this segment I definitely agree the game is more thrilling than scary - which isn't a bad thing, this segment was quite effective and very fun in my opinion.

The doctor level plus the two brothers near the end, as well as a few of Chris Walker's appearances are definitely highlights, but I disagree with you that the normal encounters are not scary. I mean, I completely agree that the character design and just the idea of these deformed lunatics is not that scary in and of itself, but merely the fact that you are totally helpless. It taps into the most primal aspect of horror, but when you combine this with the excellent lighting and amazing sound design it really becomes something much more than the sum of its parts to me.

Consider the scariness of a well-dressed and well-groomed man running up to you with a knife in a crowded street in broad daylight. If you take all of the aspects apart one by one then you could conclude quite easily that that scenario is not scary, and it probably would not be in a video game. There are plenty of people around, plenty of avenues for escape, bright lighting, the assailant himself is not scary at all, in fact he just looks ordinary. But he's still trying to kill you, and your body's fight-or-flight kicks in. It doesn't care about a well developed story or fleshed out characters with horrifying backstories. It doesn't even care if there was any build up to this encounter or if the encounter was "well designed" so to speak. If you don't run - you die. That's the reason why I find it scary. That's not to say I find Outlast to be badly designed although the story and character development is clearly horrible.

But as I said, I understand if you didn't find it scary because you're desensitized. After all, an army of mooks running after you with guns trying to kill you in most other games is not scary at all. Hell, even games with some horrifying imagery and creepy sound design like Half-Life 2 end up not being scary simply because there really is nothing to fear from the enemies. But for some reason I just felt Outlast struck an amazing balance in this regard and I ended up being legitimately terrified throughout the entire game.

**captain1337** · 09-21-2013, 05:05 PM

Sexy bearded guy streaming Outlast live at 20:00 Paris time!
Screams = game giveaways http://www.twitch.tv/vondrynn

Come join us =)

**ryabuz** · 09-25-2013, 09:58 AM

I'm now playing Outlast and its quite similar to frictional games only that there's no difficult puzzle. You equip with only a camcorder. Need to find batteries and u just run and hide from psycho's while trying to get out of the asylum. The graphic is great. But the psychos talk to much and their looks are not scary enough (Monster in Amnesia is wayy scarier and their silence is totally horror). Outlast environment is very very dark and make u jump scared a lot. But Outlast has a totally brilliant idea generously speaking from me compared to frictional games (i played Overture and Amnesia The Dark Descent and love it!) but this outlast give me some kind of different horror feeling.. because the character is 'lively'.

What I mean by lively is that you can see your lower body, feet and shadow when looking down, and for me this make the protagonist more of a human character. Even when u open doors u can push it slowly like Amnesia (to give it sense of interaction in game) the difference is only that u can really see your hand opening it! For me this is really something new. I would love Frictional Games to include something like this (to the character himself)

Won't you like you, (the hero/protagonist in game) been given details as detailed the environment and monsters are? Why would u see the detailed shadow of the environment but u yourself doesn't even have a body? For me it's a big difference in achieving the horror feelings. U don't need to have guns or even your voice talking whatsoever (which I agree in both games), only hear your heart pumping scared..and running for your life hiding from your pursuer, not flying! Wont u agree?

However, as mentioned above I played Overtures and finished Amnesia Dark Descent, love Frictional Games and still looking forward to play Amnesia A Machine for Pigs..

**Kreekakon** · 09-25-2013, 10:00 AM

Something that I personally found absolutely phenomenal in Outlast was the degree of feedback we get from the player character himself. You can constantly hear him, gasp, grunt, and heart beating whenever he's hiding from enemies.

**Paddy™** · 09-26-2013, 05:28 AM

I was screwing around with some of Outlast's .ini files and discovered a few different ways to cheat. If you're interested, here's how to do it:

The files you'll be editing are located here:

\Steam\steamapps\common\Outlast\OLGame\Config\

There are only two files you need to worry about; "DefaultGame.ini" and "DefaultEnemy.ini". Back them up before continuing, obviously Wink

These are the areas I've edited in my own copies.

DefaultGame.ini

Spoiler below!

DefaultEnemy.ini
I've left out most of this data and just included the stuff I've tested. Each enemy type has its own set of values, so I've removed all but the first because the functions are the same for each.

Spoiler below!

Happy cheating!

**Damascus Rose** · 09-27-2013, 01:24 AM

I'm going to comment a bit on why I don't find Outlast very scary, but I haven't finished the game yet. I'm just past the

Spoiler below!

I think the game just throws things in your face and says BE SCARED while playing scary music. I don't think this is very scary as it's easy to see it coming and after a while these things just give you no reaction. This is coming from someone who got scared playing bioshock and I've never felt myself getting desensitized from horror after playing a bunch of horror games. There's very little build up I've seen at all (yet, at least). It's just a scarefest. The monsters I don't find scary at all either, I think the fat one is funny because his voice acting is so bad.

**Bridge** · 09-27-2013, 04:18 PM

(09-27-2013, 01:24 AM)Damascus Rose Wrote: I'm going to comment a bit on why I don't find Outlast very scary, but I haven't finished the game yet. I'm just past the

Spoiler below!

sewer segment.

I think the game just throws things in your face and says BE SCARED while playing scary music. I don't think this is very scary as it's easy to see it coming and after a while these things just give you no reaction. This is coming from someone who got scared playing bioshock and I've never felt myself getting desensitized from horror after playing a bunch of horror games. There's very little build up I've seen at all (yet, at least). It's just a scarefest. The monsters I don't find scary at all either, I think the fat one is funny because his voice acting is so bad.

Have you given up? Because you're approaching one of the best parts in the game. It's really not that long anyway, I strongly recommend you just finish it, your opinion of it might change.

**Kreekakon** · 09-27-2013, 04:22 PM

(09-27-2013, 04:18 PM)Bridge Wrote: Have you given up? Because you're approaching one of the best parts in the game. It's really not that long anyway, I strongly recommend you just finish it, your opinion of it might change.

I second this notion. Finish the game. There are definitely great flashes of brilliance in the game even if you don't think the entire package was amazing.

**ExpectedIdentifier** · 09-27-2013, 04:32 PM

(09-27-2013, 01:24 AM)Damascus Rose Wrote: I'm going to comment a bit on why I don't find Outlast very scary, but I haven't finished the game yet. I'm just past the

Spoiler below!

sewer segment.

I think the game just throws things in your face and says BE SCARED while playing scary music. I don't think this is very scary as it's easy to see it coming and after a while these things just give you no reaction. This is coming from someone who got scared playing bioshock and I've never felt myself getting desensitized from horror after playing a bunch of horror games. There's very little build up I've seen at all (yet, at least). It's just a scarefest. The monsters I don't find scary at all either, I think the fat one is funny because his voice acting is so bad.

I'll be honest, up to this point in the game I didn't really get scared, from the next part of the game onward I found it got scarier (just my personal opinion though).