Outlast – Game

Outlast and it’s DLC were developed by Red Barrels and for survival horror fans like me, this is on the top of the list. It is a first person game and in both the main game and DLC you play unfortunate chaps trying to escape a bizarre psychiatric horror. Available on PC, via Steam if you should so choose, or Xbox and Playstation. 

I’m going to attempt to review this without spoilers, except to say that if you thought the first one had crazy scenes you won’t be surprised to find out there are more in the DLC and some pretty gross moments. Neither protagonist uses combat, you’re weapon is a camera used I that sort of found footage Blair Witch-type and you get to occasionally shove someone or orchestrate movements so they end up deceased or fatally injured as you run the hell away.

In the first, main part, you play Miles Upsher, he’s the guy that heads inside to expose the atrocities. He’s been tipped off and ends up trapped inside. The DLC is Waylon Parker’s story and he risks it all to send out the e-mail that ultimately leads to Miles into the asylum.

The game has plenty of places you can explore, lots of grizzly sights and in sections some fast paces gameplay. You use your camera as a light source and so you have to watch out that you don’t blow your chances by running low on batteries.

The ‘patients’ are often unhelpful, talk gibberish are are down right psychotic/violent. It’s a best guess scenario when you meet them but that just adds to the fun factor. Put the headphones on and turn off the lights, then have a great time immersing yourself in a game to keep your heart racing.

A Machine For Pigs – Game

10th September 2013, saw the Frictional Games release of the second Amnesia instalment, following the initial success of the older Amnesia, The Dark Descent. Without going into the plot this writer will tell you that the Machine really is about Pigs, it’s not misleading there!

Essentially for the horror enthusiasts this game is a survival horror, you play the part of a rather wealthy British Gent who is trying to rescue his two children. The story takes the player through a series of underground chambers, creepy parts of the house, into the streets overrun with monsters and predominantly an exploration into the character’s sanity (or lack thereof).

A mixed reception has come from the players, original fans of the series have been said to feel that it was not as scary as the original, perhaps also that it did not have the same interactive level. Others felt that this was a wonderfully constructed exploration into fear.

So why did I pick this for a blog?

What the games hold, that many others perhaps have missed out on, is that unknown fear and the glimpses of the creatures in the dark. One of the things that keeps me as a gamer engaged with survival horror is the unknown fear. H P Lovecraft’s stories have engaged me for many years, and with this instalment of the game it seems well placed amongst that type of genre. The scientific horror seems well placed for fans of H G Wells or Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The game has monsters that are freakish and grotesque, their lumbering half man and half beast nature captures the essence of freak pretty well.

So for me, yes Machine For Pigs was a good game. Not the scariest thing I have ever played but again that’s something personal to each player. If you pick it up I hope you enjoy it, if you have already played it feel free to leave your comments.

Images taken from my playthrough on Steam.