The previous article I wrote for the site was about Outlast. Outlast was a great game and it’s always with trepidation one approaches additions to a franchise. Corporate motives by definition at times seem to be unclear. Is a sequel being released because of the fanfare from adoring fans from the first installment? Is the sequel just a cash grab nipping at the heels of it’s much beloved predecessor? Or is the sequel just a rehash of the original game with different levels and an occasional different enemy?

I can definitively say that this is not the case with Outlast II. It’s a much different game with a different look. I mean the mechanics and gameplay that made the original Outlast such a fan and YouTube favorite are all still there. What we get with Outlast II is a new story in completely different environments. Gone is the gritty, claustrophobic, and rundown Mt. Massive Asylum replaced with a few different environs. There’s the outdoor dark Appalachia esque environments with its low and narrow valleys with short and sometimes scalable cliffs. There’s the flashbacky catholic school environment which entails its own horrors. Then there’s the mine portal to the opening of the adit, or drift as some miners call it. At times it might be confusing flipping between the different areas however the changes are relatively fluid and if you keep up the story, the notes, the documents, and listen to additional notes as video recordings are made in the end it will all make sense. You don’t necessarily have to quibble over all the details and just power through the game but you will miss a lot of the story and things very well might become confusing.

The main thing about Outlast II that I was impressed with though was that the game mechanics for the most part are pretty much identical. Those being the use of your camera and its night vision, plus the ever enjoyable run, hide, or die. There will be no fighting back against enemies, just like in the original Outlast. However, the developers were able to put together a new story and Outlast II in fact feels like a new, different game. And this I think is the one thing that will have all previous Outlast gamers fall in love with Outlast II. The entire Outlast II team did a great job staying true to the original game but blessing us with a game that feels new, and it is exciting.

As I write this I am at the last chapter of the game and am probably about 30 minutes from completion. The entire experience was a blast. There were plenty of well timed jumped scares, wide open spaces which at times require thorough investigation to find the way forward, and occasional helpful friends are met along the way to bless us with help or hide us from the enemy.

I’m confident that if you enjoyed Outlast, then moving onto Outlast II will be a no brainer. There’s a DLC (downloadable content) for the original Outlast named Whistleblower which I will tackle and write a review on once I complete Outlast II.

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