The game Outlast was developed by the indie studio Red Barrels. The team’s founders are: David Chateauneuf – former level designer from Ubisoft, Philippe Morin – game designer from Ubisoft, Hugo Dallaire – 3D animation artist from Electronic Arts. The game’s main programmer is Rejean Charpentier, a former employee at Electronic Arts. These people are pictured from left to right, top to bottom. There are now 11 people in the Red Barrels studio.
The reasons for Outlast’s resounding success are obvious – it wasn’t created by young indie developers, but by experienced professionals who decided to leave big companies and open their own small studio. They couldn’t bring their revolutionary ideas to life in their previous jobs, but when they moved into the indie world, they immediately created a game with an unusual gameplay and high-quality graphics.
Plot
The game is about a journalist who has been invited to a press conference at a mental hospital in the countryside. Upon arrival, he finds out that no one is expected there, all the doors are closed, but cars are still parked at the entrance. The journalist does not give up so easily, and roundabout ways to get into the building of the psychological hospital. This is where the nightmares and horrors begin.
It turns out that in the mental hospital broke out all the patients, including particularly violent, schizophrenic and maniacs. Staying inside the building is dangerous to both physical and mental health. But, it turns out, getting out of this trap is much harder than getting into it.
Gameplay
In general, there are two main ways to scare people: either to suddenly create unforeseen danger (e.g., a sharp attack from around the corner), or to gradually build up an atmosphere of quiet terror (e.g., showing the types of tortured victims). Outlast does a very good job of both of these. The oppressive atmosphere is felt at once: there is a semi-darkness in all the rooms, only rare lighting lamps, somewhere non-aggressive patients wander and mutter the same phrases under their breath, and somewhere around the corner more dangerous lunatics are lurking, and they can suddenly jump at any moment.
The main feature of Outlast – the hero has no weapon, he can’t defend himself in close combat, so in the case of danger you need to either run away or hide in the dark corners, in the closets or under the beds. The main character is saved only by the fact that he has a video camera with night shooting mode. It helps to see in the pitch black dim silhouettes in shades of green. You just need to change the batteries in time, so you do not have to walk forward by touch.
In the course of the game it turns out that the escaped psychics are just the flowers, there are much more dangers: a ghost of quite earthly origin, a sadistic doctor, a religious sect and the deadly results of secret military experiments. Facing such problems in the narrow prison corridors, alone and unarmed, can frighten the most mentally stable person.
Conclusion
There hasn’t been such a scary horror movie in computer game format in a long time. It has everything to excite your bored mind. Outlast took the honorable place of the scariest horror among computer games overnight, and also took its place in the gaming culture, and now it is mentioned at every opportunity.
