Outlast

[Kreekakon]

Honestly I think you guys maybe didn't want it to be scary, judging from the extremely pessimistic thoughts some of you aired pre-release. You don't find these types of negative reviews anywhere else; most people agree that the horror element is very well executed in spite of everything else, and the game certainly is flawed. I went in with no expectations and was extremely impressed - and believe me I don't get scared simply because I'm told to be.

Trust me, I went into the game trying to be scared to death just like I do any other horror game.

Actually after giving the game more thought I think that the game is still definitely scary, but just maybe not for me as I very much think that you CAN be desensitized to a certain form of horror after you've been exposed to it too much. I've still been able to be scared witless through simply watching videos of other different types of horror games, but perhaps my brain thought Outlast was too similar to the Amnesia form of horror to be affected too much by it.

Also, I think there were two enemy segments in the game that I was legitimately scared more than the others (Bit spoilerly):

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.

The doctor is effective to me I think mostly because of his quote, and what he did the scene before. This is a case where I think "knowing" a bit about your enemy beforehand actually benefits the scare factor. He's just crazy...and not just mental asylum crazy...he's a complete sadistic psychopath who gleefully demonstrates it right to you. His character design as well as weapon choice helps a lot as well.

The other enemies I feel kind of lack that extra juice to amplify their scare factor.