Outlast

Outlast is a first-person survival horror game made and published by Red Barrels. The game takes place in an asylum explored by Miles Upshur. Outlast: Whistleblower is Outlast's DLC, which revolves around Waylon Park, the man that requested Miles to investigate the asylum.

A sequel named Outlast 2 was released on April 25, 2017. An upcoming third title called The Outlast Trials is set to release in 2022. The Murkoff Account is a comic book series set between Outlast and Outlast 2, it ran from July 2016 to November 2017.

Plot
A freelance investigator Miles Upshur receives an email about experiments occurring at Mount Massive Asylum. Interested, Miles is willing to uncover the asylum’s experiments. Upon entering, corpses and dying patients are seen throughout the asylum. He is informed by a dying Murkoff officer that insane inmates known as “variants” have escaped and are now roaming the asylum. He tells Miles to access the security room, unlock the main doors and escape. While attempting to escape, he is grabbed and thrown off the second floor by a strong variant and ex-soldier, Chris Walker. On the first floor, he is found by Father Martin who appears as a priest and considers Miles an “apostle” and prevents him from leaving by turning off the generator. After Miles restores the power, Father Martin injects Miles with anesthetic and shows him footage of the Walrider massacring soldiers.

Miles finds himself stuck in a prison cell with other variants. He is later freed by a variant and encounters two cannibalistic and naked twins who wants his organs. Miles escapes through the sewer after being chased by Walker and multiple hostile variants and is captured by Richard Trager, one of Murkoff’s former executive. He cuts off two of Miles’ fingers and chases him throughout the Male Ward. Eventually Miles finds an elevator key and uses it to escape from Trager, crushing him with the elevator door in the process.

He discovers a burning cafeteria and a variant who informs him of Murkoff Corporation and tells him to escape through the kitchen. However, Miles decides to turn on the sprinklers before going through the kitchen. After escaping Chris Walker and proceeding through the kitchen, he exits to the asylum’s courtyard only to find the Walrider escaped. In an alley, he finds Chris Walker on the other side and crawls through a hole to evade him. Miles finds Father Martin and suggests him to go through the Female Ward.

After retrieving his broken camera and getting chased by relentless variants, he finds himself in a theater who reveals that the Walrider was created by Dr. Wernicke and how the lucid dream experiments where performed. He finds a key in the projector room which unlocks a gate that leads to a chapel where Father Martin is being crucified. He tells Miles to take the key and unlock the elevator after witnessing him committing self-immolation. Miles unlocks the elevator to reach the main floor, but instead leads to an underground lab.

As Miles roams throughout halls filled with dead guards, he is then pursued by the Walrider. Walker then grabs Miles and is attempting to kill him until he is murdered by the Walrider. Miles then enters a room only to find Dr. Wernicke and demands him to cease Billy’s life support believing it would kill the Walrider. Miles succeeds but later becomes the new host for the Walrider. Being incapacitated, he limps towards the exit only to be confronted by military soldiers and Dr. Wernicke, who shoots at Miles. The Walrider then unleashes towards the soldiers and Dr. Wernicke, and the game ends.

Outlast: Whistleblower
Waylon Park, a software engineer at Mount Massive Asylum who has encountered multiple incidents after working with the Morphogenic Engine and as well witnessing a torture. Desperate, he sends an email to Miles Upshur about the dark secrets of Murkoff Corporation. Jeremy Blaire, a supervisor, later catches Park’s actions and forces him to test in the Morphogenic Engine. He frees himself and runs through the halls with freed patients and surviving guards while also searching for a radio to contact the authorities. He encounters a cannibalistic Frank Manera who chases him with a bone saw throughout the lab. Park eventually finds a radio but is later attacked by Blaire who destroys the radio and leaves him with Chris Walker which he manages to flee from.

Park reaches the vocational block where he is captured and knocked out by Eddie Gluskin, a serial killer who wants him to make him his bride. He finds Eddie Gluskin mutilating other male variants. Park awakens and is tied to a sawmill but is later saved by a variant. After Gluskin gives up on Park, he decides to hang him with his other victims. Park’s weight makes Gluskin struggle until he is entangled by the pulley’s ropes and is stabbed by a metal rod.

Near the front doors of the asylum, he finds Blaire once again and attempts to stab him but is later attacked by the Walrider. Park barely escapes using Miles’ jeep, he takes one closer look at the Walrider using his camcorder who appears to be a silhouette of Miles, and flees from the asylum.

In the epilogue, he is almost ready to upload his footage of the asylum but is warned by a man that uploading the footage will expose Murkoff Corporation but he and his family will soon be in danger. Park decides to upload the file despite the severe consequences after.

Gameplay
Outlast features stealth gameplay and survival horror elements. The player can run, hide in lockers or under beds, climb ladders, interact, crouch, and jump. The player can use the camera’s night vision to navigate dark areas. However, using it will consume the camera’s battery life but the player can find batteries throughout the game. Enemies take multiple hits to kill the player which restarts them from the nearest checkpoint. Throughout the asylum, the player can record events or collect documents. The events recorded by Miles is accompanied by a note which tells Miles’ thoughts, but the documents give information about certain characters or events. The AI of enemies is determined by the game’s difficulty, in Nightmare and Insane mode, enemies are more active and also reduces the amount of hits to kill the player. In Insane mode, the player is limited to two batteries only, and checkpoints do not exist which means if they fail, they return back to the very beginning of the game.