Outlast Lost Footage – Outlast Fan Made Tribute – Horror

I was excited to discover the independently developed Outlast Lost Footage game recently. I’ve played and completed both of the original games in the series, and I’ve also started the one DLC that was released for the original Outlast though I have yet to complete that DLC. Outlast Lost Footage is another game I will be reviewing during this spooky month of October. It was developed by independent developer Omar Hidoussi.

• About The Project: 

This game is a fan-made creation, dedicated to the Outlast series developed by Red Barrels Studio. It is offered for free as a token of appreciation to Red Barrels for their original work. All copyrights, trademarks, and intellectual property rights for the Outlast universe belong to Red Barrels Studio. This fan-made game is an independent project and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Red Barrels Studio. We encourage players to support Red Barrels Studio by purchasing and experiencing the Official Outlast series. Thank you for your understanding, and we hope you enjoy Outlast Lost Footage. 

If you are familiar with survival horror gaming, surely you’re aware of the Outlast series. Outlast and its sequel Outlast II are a couple of my all time favorite games. They are major standouts in the genre and continue to be standards in which survival horrors are measured against . The Outlast games on the surface play out from a lost/found footage viewpoint and the unique nature of the gameplay continues to set them apart from old and new games of the genre..

Outlast takes a different spin than other survival horror games. You play the character of Miles Upshur a reporter who is tasked with following up with a whistle blower and exposing the violations against humanity which are taking place at Mt. Massive Asylum. You are no gung ho warrior wielding weapons he can barely lift. In fact, during game play you essentially have two options. Running, or hiding. You’re character is skilled at discovering the malfeasance performed by unscrupulous corporations and reporting it in the news. You are not a trained killer with a wide variety of weapons or any kind of tactical skill or training, though this will definitely change by the end of the game. You have been trained to investigate and report the news and take pictures and videos’ to backup your investigative reporting. You are armed with paper and pencil as well as your trusty digital video camera. Hopefully you have some common sense to go along with those. Here’s a quick excerpt of the gameplay mechanics lifted from Wikipedia:

The player cannot fight except in scripted scenes, and so must run and hide from the numerous hostile enemies across the game. The player can also crouch, run, jump, walk, vault, slide, and climb much like the first game and can hide in lockers, barrels, wardrobes, under beds, water pools, tall grass, cornfields, and houses. The player has a limited stamina meter, and must manage how long they run, or else they will become exhausted and move more slowly.

Outlast Lost Footage continues to follow in the tradition of the Outlast series and picks up slightly after the original game where Miles Upshur, the protagonist in the original Outlast, is currently performing his investigation. That’s the backstory for this character. Miles reaches out to this character and tells him about all the dead bodies and the all around decrepit state of Mt. Massive Asylum. I started the game but was only able to play for about five minutes. From what little I’ve seen it’s a near identical adaptation mirroring the look and feel. The game especially hits home when you flip on the night vision to inspect or clear dark areas’ which can’t be seen otherwise. This month I have a few more games I’ll be playing all in the horror genre and I’m saving Outlast Lost Footage for last. So stay tuned.

You can find out more about the developer of Outlast Lost Footage as well as download the game by visiting the itch.io release page:

https://omarhidoussi.itch.io/outlast-lost-footage

Thanks for taking the time to read this introduction. I may put out another article when I ultimately complete the game or may just post a comment but the first five minutes of gameplay hooked me and I can’t wait to get back to the Outlast universe.