Outlast: First Impressions

I am a horror aficionado, to say the least, and make it my business to find the best the genre has to offer, whether it's a film, a novel, or a videogame. Now, I recently heard about a new type of horror game, in which the protagonist is unable to fight the monsters that seek to rend you asunder. The first of these games I knew as the Amnesia series. I liked the idea that developers would give you a character to control, that is himself/herself the furthest from any kind of control. What better way to elicit fear than to make the monsters, for all intents and purposes, unstoppable?

Every game that offers you a way to combat the thing which you fear, is inadvertently, perhaps, making the game less scary. In my opinion, being completely defenseless is what is truly scary, and this lack of security also forces you to rely on your wits to escape harm; it forces you to rethink your tactic of survival - and rethink I did in Outlast, a survival-horror game by Red Barrels Games. Before I get to the game, there's something I'd like to bring up. I mentioned the idea of a helpless protagonist to my father, and he summarily said, and I quote: "That's fucking stupid". Elaborating on that, he went on to explain that anyone with half a brain would either be armed when exploring an unknown place (especially a creepy asylum suspected of violating human rights), or would at least find something to arm themselves with once they realized shit was going down (i.e. knife, scalpel, wooden board...). On the realism side of things, I'm inclined to agree with my dad. Whoever wouldn't try to arm themselves in such a situation deserves to be eaten or... have whatever other unfortunate method of execution befall them.

However, notwithstanding the unrealistic nature of the protagonist's behavior, playing the game is an entirely different experience. Last night was my first time playing, and within the 22 minutes I ended up playing, I was near to having a heart attack. Outlast managed to scrape together every sort of horror cliché, yet jumble it together more effectively than I've seen in many horror films. And then there's the video camera, which offers a surprising contrast to the visceral feel of controlling the player character, whose appendages are nearly always present on the screen, reminding you of your human frailty. Night vision mode is available for the video camera as well, which offers some reprieve from the darkness, and perhaps alleviates some fear of what might be lurking in the shadows.

Now, keep in mind that most of this is going through your head, and it's only been 20 minutes... This is enough of an achievement to where I feel the concept of the game merited some attention before I write my eventual review. My first impressions are good, and I look forward to (and dread) progressing further into the game. Playing without a gun or even an improvised weapon is certainly outside my comfort zone, but I'm sure I'll survive by hiding under many a desk.