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Outlast
Outlast favors solitary exploration over combat: as Miles Upshur, you sneak through an asylum, hide from its inhabitants, and look for a way out. It is a focused choice for solo survival horror; Steam lists single-player play and full controller support. English full audio comes with subtitles in several languages, while the description warns of intense violence and graphic content.
The current price at 
GOG is ≈ $2.25. Steam player reviews are 96%% positive across 106,902 reviews; use that as context alongside whether evasion and hiding fit the kind of horror game you want. The interface languages English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Russian, Polish, Portuguese-Brazil, and Japanese and activation on DRM-Free help you compare the purchase with your needs.
All-time low ~ $1.49across Steam & third-party stores
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Price History
Past 36 months · Updated dailyHistorical Low~ $1.992024-11Current Low Across Stores~ $3.75Humble Storevs. Historical Low+88%
Prices cover Steam and 39 authorized stores; only legitimate offers are counted. The chart shows weekly market-wide lows and Steam's official price across the past 36 months.
01About Outlast
As journalist Miles Upshur, break into Mount Massive Asylum and try to uncover its terrible secret. This first-person survival horror game offers no fighting; sneaking, hiding, and running are your means of survival. Steam player reviews: 96%% positive from 106,902 reviews. English full audio is accompanied by subtitles in several languages.
Credits
Developer
Red Barrels
Publisher
Red Barrels
Lowest recorded in 36 months
$1.992024-11-21 · Humble StoreBase game · same records as the chart above; USD history, not a regional Steam low.Language support
| Language | Interface | Subtitles | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| French | Yes | Yes | — |
| Italian | Yes | Yes | — |
Show 6 more languages
| Language | Interface | Subtitles | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|
| German | Yes | Yes | — |
| Spanish | Yes | Yes | — |
| Russian | Yes | Yes | — |
| Polish | Yes | Yes | — |
| Portuguese-Brazil | Yes | Yes | — |
| Japanese | Yes | Yes | — |
Steam PC edition data · 2026-11-14
02Before you buy
Play and controls
Outlast is a single-player game on Steam and has full controller support.
Language
English full audio is accompanied by subtitles in several languages, including English and Simplified Chinese.
03Frequently asked questions
What is Outlast about?
Journalist Miles Upshur enters Mount Massive Asylum to uncover its secret.
Can you fight back?
No. The protagonist cannot fight and must run or hide to survive.
What content warnings are listed?
The description warns of intense violence, gore, graphic sexual content, and strong language.
8.5
Overall Score
Graphics6.5
Audio8.5
Gameplay9.5
Story8.5
Content7.5
“The first-person run-and-hide horror benchmark that swaps weapons for a night-vision camcorder and makes helplessness the core mechanic”
Our Verdict
Set every dimension side by side and Outlast reveals itself as a game with razor-clear intent: it never reaches for completeness, it pushes pure survival horror to the ceiling of its generation. Grasp that and you understand why it still resists replacement, and whether it is for you.
Where the reputation sits
The objective scores stack up cleanly. Metacritic lists the PC version at 80, the OpenCritic top-critic average at 77, and Steam player sentiment at a 96% positive rate built on well over a hundred thousand reviews. Press reception is steady, player reception nearly overwhelming, and that pairing of professional approval and grassroots fervour is the footnote to its phenomenon status.
What matters more is its place in the timeline. Outlast all but single-handedly fixed the template for first-person pure run-and-hide horror — no combat, only hiding and sprinting, lit and recorded by a single handheld device. That design vocabulary shaped a great many later works, to the point that you can spot its shadow across countless successors, from corridor-bound indies to the streaming-era boom of camcorder horror. It took home multiple honours at E3 2013 and an ID@Xbox Mega Sales Award in 2015, and those concrete accolades underline the weight it carried in its moment. It is not merely a good game; it is a milestone you cannot route around when you map how modern horror got here.
Who it is for, and who should think twice
So who is it actually for? If what you want is pure atmospheric pressure — the tension of being wrapped in helplessness and surviving on instinct alone — and you are willing to face horror at the psychological register, then Outlast is close to an unmissable peak. It will hand you a memorable, high-concentration experience.
The flip side is just as definite. If you need combat to vent your tension, if you are used to the satisfaction of fighting back and putting threats down, then a game that denies you any means of resistance from start to finish may simply grind you down. And if you are sensitive to dense scares and oppressive subject matter, its unrelenting pressure may be more than you want to sit with. There is no difficulty slider that softens the core of it, no way to play it on your own terms; you take the experience whole or not at all. None of that is the game falling short — it is the directness of its design. Outlast never set out to please everyone, and frankly has no interest in trying, which is precisely the conviction that makes it land so hard for the players it does fit.
The mountain that resists copying
Back to the core question: what is hardest to replace about Outlast? It is the way it stitches a deceptively simple subtraction — take away every means of resistance, leave only a night-vision camcorder — flush against the immersion of an investigative frame and the pressure of sensory deprivation. Successors can imitate the no-combat mechanic, and plenty have, but the whole-cloth restraint, mechanic married to narrative married to art direction, is far harder to reproduce. Copy one pillar and you get a knock-off; copy the discipline that holds all of them in tension and you have essentially rebuilt the game.
A ten-person indie team, in fourteen months, raised a tower built on fear that more than a decade of weather has failed to topple — a near-legendary high-water mark for independent horror.
Its visuals may be dated and its run short, real and admitted limitations, but treated as a specimen of pure terror, Outlast remains, to this day, the answer hardest to copy and hardest to surpass. When the conversation turns once more to what horror games can be, its name is still the one you cannot get past.
Popular Steam reviews
Native-language selection · 10 reviewsSelected helpful reviews in this language show both recommendations and criticisms. This selection does not represent the overall positive rating; opinions reflect the version reviewed.
RecommendedSteam player
If you are constipated this game is a solution for you! You will poop yourself within minutes of playing!Show moreShow less
1.8 hours at review1,455 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
Though I might be giving a 'thumbs-down' to Outlast, that doesn't mean for one moment this review is exclusively negative. This review will be more negative than positive, but ultimately this is deriving from my own personal experiences with the game rather than some form of absolutist judgement! Despite my lack of enthusiasm of the game, and my general disappointment after my initial playthrough of it (and resulting headaches that accompanied said playthrough), I can certainly state Outlast is anything but a disaster. On a technical level the graphics and sound are very impressive (my PC isn't a high-end one, but it was still capable enough to deliver a performance that left me impressed with its technical accomplishments). It's got superb lighting effects, great textures and character models. The sound design is fantastic (Dead Space standard, give-or-take). It also runs nice and smooth with minimal control baggage. The premise and story is cliched but well-done accompanied with good voice work and what-not. Some of your pursuers are legitimately sinister figures too. However, despite the hardwork that has been clearly lavished on to this game, I came away from it more critical than praise worthy. Why so? Well, a number of things. The first being that the use of the camera, though clearly mimicking the handheld camera sub-genre found in films (with some being better than others), was, for me, excessively implemented. I concede that its use was clearly a very conscious design decision by the developers, but it was very much overkill as far as I'm concerned. Or to be more precise about it, the switching to the camera's nightvision facility. The nightvision facility on a technical level was impressively handled, be there no doubt about that. But the rate in which you have to utilize it and switch back-and-forth was not only excessive, but, for me, headache inducing! I can't speak for everyone, but I refuse to believe people didn't recieve headaches for the constant switching from nightvision to standard (particularly in some of the latter parts of the game). And this overlaps into another criticism I have, the batteries. Yes, baterries. I know many modern gadgets guzzle-up energy at alarming speeds, but the rate in which the camera's battery would deplete was, if you'll excuse the bad language, taking the piss! I have absolutely no doubt that cameras with nightvsion facilities would indeed eat away at batteries like nobodies business, but I refuse to believe that they would last mere minutes before being completely drained! But that's exactly what happens in Outlast. While you're hiding away from your grotesque pursuers, your either faulty or cheap camera (must be one or the other) is consuming battery life at an absurd acclerated speed! As a result of this you're always on the look out for spare non-Duracell batteries around the asylum and its grounds (which would be fine if it wasn't for the absolute constant need to do so at all-times), all the while having to induce a headache(s) on yourself because you're having to switch from camera and back again to conserve its energy! Not only is this a suspension of disbelief too far, it's ultimately an overly forced contrivance on the gameplay in an attempt to inflate its fear factor! And another problem I had that had an effect on both gameplay AND narrative involvement was weapons, or the lack thereof. Now let me make myself abundantly clear here, my complaint about the lack of weapons isn't because I'm some shallow modern day gamer who has an insatiable appetite to hit, shoot and stab everything without fail. Anyone who applies that assumption to myself invalidate their own argument. I've recently played the two Amnesia games and neither of them have weapons that you can pick-up and use to defend and, indeed, defeat your pursuer(s). They not only don't them, but it enhances those games to play and it also makes contextual sense (how can you attack spectres / ghosts / psychological apparitions?). In Outlast however I don't believe it applies. Take a step-back and think about it. You're in this very disturbing place with tangible, physical beings pursuing you and as events unfold you become increasingly desperate. You honesty think that not at one moment in the game the protagonist isn't going to pick-up something - anything - to defend himself with?! That, ladies and gentlement, is taking the suspension of disbelief too far! And to confound matters further, this not only makes no narrative sense whasoever (if you can make the effort to keep posession of your camera, look for batteries for it but not find one moment to arm yourself then the character must be mentally screwed) but is also a poorly implemented gameplay contrivance used for no other reason than to inflate the sense of fear and panic in the player! Now many of you would say it succeeded, and normally I'd agree. But as I've mentioned already, in this particular game I find it's a suspension of disbelief too far. My verdict is one of disappointment. Though my complaints will be more relevant to some than others, I personally feel that Outlast - though far from being a bad game - has been overrated. It's like a mix of Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Condemned: Criminal Origins but, for me, inferior to both. That's all.Show moreShow less
5.5 hours at review363 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
Never play this at night, a rainy day, a cloudy day or with curtain closed Never play this alone, if you are planning to do so, check the house and make sure there's no one! so when something or someone touches you, you'll know you need to run the duck out of it! Never play this when you have a pet that could potentially jump on you(this one almost killled me) Never play this when you are stoned (Credit to Someguy583), tried this, but i might have gotten myself too stoned that i fell asleep while playing this game, i guess it's still a no right? Never play this when you are drunk (no, i'm just worried you gonna puke on your keyboard) Never play this with a headphone on, be aware your surroundings, or if you have to, Never play this with a cord one, you gonna whelther break the cord or hurt you neck. Never play this before, after and while eating Never play this if you have to go to toliet Never play this more than 1 hour (in human time not some crazy gamer time!) Never play this before bed Never play this on a laptop in bed Never play this 48 hours prior to sex (Viagra won't help!) Never play this while camping in the woods Never play this at a friend's house if you have to leave at night Never play this when your friend told you he's just gonna stand there and watch. hmm no. Never play this if you have kids, but if you are sick of all kids sleepovers, show them this they will never come to your house agian! Never play this on a big screen, tried to play this with a projector once, guys you have to try it. Never play this if you have any mental illness, or even you think you might not have. Never play this under any illness Never play this under medical condition Never play this under pregnancy or planning to Never play this if you have been holding any ♥♥♥♥ Never play this game if you are under 25 Never play this when your imaginary friend or friends are with you. Never play this game! Never play this Never Never Never Ever ................................................................WARNING!........................................................... Gamer's who fail to follow these instructions might lead to seriously death or pants ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. But aside from that, great game 10/10, thanks for all the comments and likes guys!Show moreShow less
4.1 hours at review1,159 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
English: When I heard about Outlast it thrilled me. The idea of being alone in a dark asylum, unable to fight against its crazed denizens, tantalized me and I was eager to buy the game and explore its surroundings. In the end, I was disappointed. The game's environment is interesting, but you're never encouraged to explore it. Instead, you're given extremely repetitive tasks you must repeat over and over to advance the story along. Most of the game can be described as turning on valves/switches, as you're chased by random enemies over and over again. These enemy encounters eventually went from tense and apprehensive to aggravating, similar events (eventually I could predict where and when an enemy would appear). Not to say Outlast doesn't have its scares, but they lessen as the game goes on, due to the games increasing predictability. Any feelings of fear are eventually replaced with feelings of annoyance and anger as the game's plot is painfully dragged out. The gameplay itself is unrealistic. At one point the main character, Miles, was beaten violently and fell at least thirty feet and then got up without a scratch. Earlier his fingers were cut off, but he somehow ignored the pain and kept going despite massive bleeding and trauma. Miles himself does not seem to act like a normal human being. Throughout the game you are forced to make stupid decisions that a rational human would not. At one point I had to retrieve my camera from a dark foreboding place and although the game insisted I needed the camera to see, I could see fine without it. A note system also exists in the game that supposedly contains the Miles's thoughts, but these seem to be jokes and are not the thoughts of a normal person. In the end Outlast is only worth it if on sale. Its repetitiveness, predictability, and overwhelming lack of realism doom it in the end, and there are much better horror games on steam, worth full price. * This is a review of the main game of Outlast, and not the DLC. Español: Cuando me enteré de Outlast que me emocionó . La idea de estar solo en un asilo oscuro, incapaz de luchar contra sus habitantes enloquecidos , me tentaba y yo estaba ansioso por comprar el juego y explorar su entorno. Al final , me ha decepcionado . Entorno del juego es interesante , pero nunca se le anima a explorar. En cambio, te dan tareas muy repetitivas se debe repetir una y otra vez para avanzar a lo largo de la historia . La mayor parte del juego se puede describir como encender las válvulas / switches, y cuando usted está perseguido por enemigos aleatorios una y otra vez . Estos encuentros enemigos finalmente fueron de tensión y aprensión a eventos similares agravantes ( el tiempo que podía predecir dónde y cuándo aparecería un enemigo ) . No quiere decir Outlast no tiene sus sustos , pero disminuirá a medida que el juego avanza , debido a los juegos cada vez mayor previsibilidad. Cualquier sentimiento de miedo puedan ser sustituidas por sentimientos de disgusto y enfado como la trama del juego es dolorosamente arrastrado . El juego en sí no es realista. En un momento el personaje principal , Miles , fue golpeado violentamente y cayó al menos diez metros y luego se puso de pie y sin un rasguño. A principios de los dedos fueron cortados , pero de alguna manera ignoraron el dolor y siguió su camino a pesar de la hemorragia masiva y el trauma. Propio Miles no parece actuar como un ser humano normal. A través del juego se ven obligados a tomar decisiones estúpidas que un ser humano racional no lo haría. En un momento tuve que recuperar mi cámara desde un lugar oscuro presagio y aunque el juego insistió en que necesitaba la cámara para ver , pude ver bien sin él . Un sistema de notas también existe en el juego que supuestamente contiene los pensamientos de los kilómetros , pero éstas parecen ser las bromas y no son los pensamientos de una persona normal. Al final Outlast es sólo vale la pena si la venta. Su repetitivos, predecibles , y abrumadora falta de realismo condenan a la pena al final , y hay mucho mejores juegos de terror de vapor, vale la pena el precio completo. *Esta es una revisión del juego principal de Outlast, y no el DLC. Français: Quand j'ai entendu parler Outlast il m'a ravi . L'idée d'être seul dans un asile sombre , incapable de lutter contre ses habitants affolés , me titille et j'avais hâte d'acheter le jeu et explorer les environs. En fin de compte , j'ai été déçu . L'environnement du jeu est intéressant , mais vous n'êtes jamais encouragé à explorer. Au lieu de cela , on vous donne des tâches extrêmement répétitives , vous devez répéter encore et encore pour faire avancer l'histoire le long . La plupart du jeu peut être décrit comme tournant sur vannes / interrupteurs , que vous êtes poursuivi par des ennemis aléatoires , encore et encore . Ces rencontres ennemies finalement passé de tendu et inquiet à des événements similaires aggravantes ( finalement je pouvais prédire où et quand un ennemi semble ) . Pour ne pas dire Outlast ne dispose pas de ses frayeurs , mais ils diminuer à mesure que le jeu continue , en raison des jeux de plus en plus de prévisibilité. Toutes les sentiments de peur sont finalement remplacés par des sentiments de gêne et de colère que l'intrigue du jeu est douloureusement traîné . Le gameplay lui-même n'est pas réaliste . A un moment, le personnage principal , Miles , a été battu violemment et est tombée à moins de trente pieds , puis se leva sans une égratignure . Plus tôt ses doigts ont été coupés , mais il en quelque sorte ignoré la douleur et continué à aller malgré une hémorragie massive et un traumatisme . Miles lui-même ne semble pas agir comme un être humain normal . Tout au long du jeu, vous êtes obligés de prendre des décisions stupides que l'homme ne serait pas rationnelle . A un moment, je devais récupérer mon appareil photo d'un endroit sombre pressentiment et bien que le jeu insisté pour que je devais la caméra pour voir , je pouvais voir très bien sans elle . Un système de note existe aussi dans le jeu qui contient soi-disant les pensées du Miles, mais ceux-ci semblent être des blagues et ne sont pas les pensées d'une personne normale . En fin Outlast ne vaut que si la vente . Son répétitivité , prévisibilité , et manque flagrant de réalisme condamnent dans la fin , et il ya beaucoup de meilleurs jeux d'horreur sur la vapeur , vaut le prix fort *Il s'agit d'un examen de la partie principale de Outlast, et pas le DLC.Show moreShow less
5.5 hours at review152 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
This was probably the most fun I've had playing a horror game in a good while, which surprised me because I really wasn't expecting much out of this one. Jump scares are definitely not the only things that will give you the chills, this game has strong atmosphere, and lurking around to avoid being seen by enemies can be some of the creepiest parts of the game, and can be terrifying when you're being chased. The game also has enough meat to it to put all of it's mechanics to good use without ever feeling underplayed or gimmicky. I also feel that the game does a good job of making you care about the main character's well being, he goes through so much crap in this game that it makes it all the more motivating to keep going and see what happens next. I wont say more, overall I highly recommend this to horror fans, it's pretty awesome.Show moreShow less
6.7 hours at review1,079 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
I would prefer to give this a neutral rating, but Steam doesn't allow that. Whether or not you will enjoy it depends on whether you expect the plot to make sense, or if you're only going to be reacting emotionally. I didn't enjoy it, because I need plots to make sense to enjoy them. The Good: A plot that could have been written by a real paranoid schizophrenic. Fitting for a game about a spooky asylum, right? The spooky asylum atmosphere is pulled off well. They bothered to include non-violent mental patients, which is a nice change from games that portray everyone in mental hospitals as cannibalistic sexual serial killers. Some of these non-violent patients even become victims of the violent patients, making the whole thing more believable. Jump scares are used, but not overused. All the settings PC users expect are provided. The Bad: A plot that could have been written by a real paranoid schizophrenic. Math, science, technology, secret government projects, and the occult are mishmashed together in a nonsensical way. This word salad portrays any field that the laymen doesn't (currently) understand as evil magic, capable of doing anything (bad) that you can imagine. The Lawnmower Man (movie) gave virtual reality the same treatment in the early 90s, and probably seems as laughable to most people now as this game's plot did to me. It is often better to leave story elements unexplained than to give silly explanations. The plot is very poorly integrated with the gameplay. It is only revealed through documents you can find and notes the protagonist scribbles occasionally when you videotape certain things. Perhaps this is for the best. Some people may be happier ignoring the plot. There are some serious believability problems: How have the patients trapped inside the hospital lived for years without food and water? Miles Upshur, a thirtysomething journalist with his fingers freshly cut off, is a parkour master. Not only has he not passed out, he has no trouble writing notes, and even grabbing ledges from a flying leap. Miles Upshur, after having his fingers cut off, is still primarily concerned with his next Pulitzer, not saving his own hide. Miles Upshur, even after having his fingers cut off, never decides to even try to defend himself. The hospital layout (e.g. outside) seems to change significantly over time, and this isn't explained by you going insane. Enemies inexplicably know you picked up or activated something involved in solving a puzzle, teleport near you, and start searching for you, every single time. Battery life is unrealistically short. Not only is the whole parkour thing ridiculous, it's also buggy. When trying to sidle along eaves you will frequently move forward and fall when you are actually moving left or right with the controls. There is no automap, and the game badly needs one. The puzzles are repetitive. Someone at Red Barrels seems to have an obsession with water valves and fuses. Outlast makes some mistakes common to almost every modern horror game: It uses the tired mechanic of a limited use light (your video camera's night vision). The reason this mechanic is always a bad idea is there is a chance the player does not budget their use of the light correctly and is forced to play the game in the dark. Unlike the worst games that make this design error, you can see in Outlast without the light, but only for a very short distance. Outlast also makes the usual mistake of making the enemies just as blinded by darkness as the player (unlike monsters children have nightmares about), so you are actually safer in the dark, which quickly teaches you to not be afraid of the dark. The only thing scary about having your light go out is how much it slows down progress. Have fun spamming the night vision button like a strobe light to try to prolong battery life, so you can actually see well enough to gather items and solve puzzles. I wish someone would remind game designers that darkness doesn't have to be involved at all in a good horror game (e.g. Resident Evil 1 and 2). It forgets that familiarity breeds contempt. Specifically, Chris Walker is almost constantly present, interfering with the most basic of tasks, and generally being far more annoying than frightening. Outlast, as its name might imply, feels unnecessarily drawn out. I think it should have ended about 2/3 of the way through. Maybe it was that I wasn't enjoying myself, but I think it was due to there being an excess of setbacks relative to the successes. The experience felt unrewarding and full of filler.Show moreShow less
13.2 hours at review94 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
Having 42 hours on record and 100% achievements on this game, I think I can provide a useful review. This is a great game and excels at what it was made for. That said, it is not for everybody. Thus, I shall be listing what to and what not to expect from it. What to expect: - Survival horror: there is no fighting (on your part), running and hiding is the aim of the game. - Jump scares: yes, it's a survival HORROR for a reason. Keep a spare pair of underwear available when you are playing this game. - Explicit and dark: violence, gore, vulgar language, some nudity and sexually related incidents all play a part in creating the dark, horrifying atmosphere of Outlast. - Interesting storyline and background information: The storyline has a bit of a twist in the tale, things aren't exactly as you expected them to be. Also, with all the notes and documents one collects in this game, one gets a decent amount of background information which helps with the atmosphere of the game, develops the plot (and player understanding thereof) and gives the player insight as to the nature of the silent protagonist, as well as some of the antagonists you'll be facing. What not to expect: - Hours of replay value: your first playthrough will probably be about 5-6 hours and the DLC about 1-2 hours. As the game progression is always the same, there is little reason to play it again (with the exception of wanting to get achievements). - Competitiveness: There is no form of multiplayer or leaderboards of any kind. - Something suitable for children (you should have picked that up by now) - Sunshine and roses - Clean underwear - Being able to sleep at night (slightly exaggerated) I absolutely loved this game and highly recommend it to anyone that is a fan of the horror genre, whether it be movies or games. I hope the information listed will help you in your decision of whether or not to purchase this game. Happy Gaming!Show moreShow less
41.7 hours at review1,062 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
Outlast was a decent game. It's good points were it's ability to invoke a sense that you were being chased. Most of it's fear came from this. With the remainder being an equal mix of suspense and startle. The game cripples itself though with a created depenancy on batteries for your night vision camera. It creates a system where you aren't so much worried about hiding, as you are busy scavanging for batteries. Even to the point where dying is a welcome reset, as you now know exactly where the batteries are and don't have to waste time trying to find them. On top of that, when you are forced into a position where you get chased because of rail roading, the chase is too... Frantic. You don't have time to take literally two seconds to look left and right at the junction and decide which direction to run. Which ends up boiling down to this: You spawn and immediately grab the batteries under the bed (you already knew they were there), you run down the hall, you turn left because you know right is a dead end. You open the door into the locker room, but don't try to hide in the lockers because you already know you are guarenteed to get caught. You run to the far end of the room where there is another door. You open the door and die. A 'monster' was waiting there. Maybe you're suppose to try to jump out of the windows? You spawn and immediately grab the batteries...Show moreShow less
6.4 hours at review87 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
IM FEELING SO RELAXEDShow moreShow less
5 hours at review828 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
TL; DR Version: Recommended for jump-scare-junkies or body horror/torcher-porn people. NOT recommended for horror story lovers and/or atmospheric horror fans. I consider myself a lover of the horror genre, I own shelves of Stephen King novels, I’ve been hunting for H.P. Lovecraft books, and I love all the old cheesy horror movies... Anyway, after a while I’ve started to think the “cheap scares” became over used as an easy way to cover up bad writing and, well, this game is a good example of that. I want to start off talking about the game as just a game. -Every time the game is started you have to set the brightness and visual settings, saving user settings is a basic, A BASIC, in any video game. The weirdest thing, however, is for some reason the game now starts up in Italian, no idea why but I’m thankful it’s not Japanese. -Moving on, this was the first game in a really long time that ended up giving me a headache. Between the screeching high pitched tones that have become a horror staple (and make up the entirety of the games sound track) and the really bad visuals of the in game camcorder (which is used a lot in the worst night vision mode imaginable), I couldn’t stand to play the game in long stretches. -The lighting system is also one of the worst I’ve ever seen in any video game. Lights provide very little illumination even on the highest brightness setting, and the developers apparently have no idea that the human eye can adjust to accommodate for low light levels. (but one could also assume that the in game character had is eyes swapped out for ones that can always see clearly in darkness, but only in a three foot radius.) -Game play is also repetitive in the form of 1.) Find key, 2.) Hide from bad guy in the small map, 3.) Run the stretches to next map, 4.) Repeat. -Gore is another thing that is used poorly, the first sighting is shocking and works well, but then everything else is nothing but blood and guts, so it eventually losses any horror value at all. -As for the nudity and sexual content, it’s a farce to get certain people’s attention. All game characters are male, so the nudity is more to provide small levels of discomfort and the sex is a guy feeling up a dead body. So the "graphic sexual content" is just bait. -OH NO, A BARRICADE MADE OF A CHAIR!!! I’M TRAPPED! -Most jump scares are predictable. Now let’s talk story- You play a silent (faceless), hardcore investigative reporter, who has no idea what self-defense is, (or how to punch for that matter). You set off to investigate an asylum that is ran by a greedy corporation that always has ulterior motives, and now you’re trapped. (Which is debatable in my opinion.) -It seems like the developers couldn’t make up their mind on whether or not this asylum should have been an abandoned building to cover something more, or a working asylum use to cover up something more, as some parts do look like a functioning medical facility and others look like a long burned out and rotting condemned building. (A simple KEEP OUT, WING UNSAFE UNTILL FURTHER NOTICE sign could have fixed this.) -As you work your way around you find documents and take personal notes, these are the only background you ever get and it is bare minimum. (But this game wasn’t made with story in mind. Jump scares, gore, and no pants: Now that’s good horror! That’s this games motto.) -In terms of story there is just so much wrong, so much that is too basic in the horror genre, and so many questionable decisions. I really believe that the developers were so concentrated on the visual aspect that they gave no thought to story. This game is cheap horror, but most people like it because it scared them and that’s what they wanted. They don’t buy these games for stories, they buy them because of the same reason people go into haunted house attractions and ride roller coasters, it’s the lure of controlled terror, people want to be scared and say the thing is good because it scared them. I thought I would knuckle under and say yes, but that's not my style I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS GAME, so do your worst fan boys.Show moreShow less
0.1 hours at review71 people found this helpful
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Source: original Steam user reviews. Helpful votes are an archived snapshot, not live data. Last collected: 08/14/2026.