These monsters вЂ“ and one utterly terrifying human(?) woman вЂ“ are faster and smarter than the aforementioned rabble, so while you can evade them for a while by hiding, they have a curious tendency of digging you out of your hole. Among these, however, are a handful of creatures who pursue you relentlessly and kill you much faster вЂ“ think the Xenomorph in 2015вЂ™s Alien: Isolation. The garden-variety enemy - a mix of deranged and deformed religious cultists and вЂњheathensвЂќ вЂ“ are dangerous, but you can take a few knocks from them before you die and not all will attack if you keep a respectable distance. Like the original, you are completely (and letвЂ™s face it, inexplicably) unable to defend yourself, so fleeing or hiding from enemies are your only options. The Evil WithinAnd you will very likely die in the 13-odd hours of Outlast 2, as I did multiple times. Couple these limitations with your own frantic panic, and youвЂ™ve got a recipe for instant death when you run toward an obstacle that appears surmountable but isnвЂ™t. Although he can jump across wide gaps if theyвЂ™re there to be jumped across, he canвЂ™t leap over small objects on the ground, and while he can clamber over some waist-high obstacles, he canвЂ™t climb over others of similar height. While making him move like an all-star athlete would go against the limitations that tend to define the survival horror genre, itвЂ™s frustrating how context-sensitive and inconsistent his movements are. The only real aspect of Outlast 2 that breaks the illusion of authenticity is BlakeвЂ™s limited maneuverability. Turning off electricity and finding rope to access an out-of-reach area are not unfamiliar objectives, but thereвЂ™s euphoria to be found in small conquests that inch you forward in the face of dozens of angry cultists. Mostly I just feared running out.Д®ven Outlast 2вЂ™s occasional puzzles, the most traditional staple in the survival horror genre, feel vital to your progress rather than busywork to keep you occupied.

Batteries for your camera вЂ“ Outlast 2вЂ™s most vital resource вЂ“ are few and far enough between to be believable, but not to a crippling extent, as I was only without a handful of times. Bloody handprints indicate that someone has crawled up a ledge before you, for example, but you have to look hard to spot them. Overall, traditional video game elements in Outlast 2 have been kept to a minimum, which kindles the minute-to-minute sense that youвЂ™re surviving by your own scared wits with little to help you along the way. Here, fires, dim lamp-posts, and flickering fluorescent bulbs mark the way, but never obviously enough to dim your panic. YouвЂ™re armed only with your camcorderвЂ™s battery-reliant night vision mode to make your way through the omnipresent darkness, and because you spend most of your time being chased at a clip you have to rely on the most basic of visual signals to stay on the right path. Much of this comes down to Outlast 2вЂ™s use of lighting. Developer Red Barrels has created a world where linearity exists but is deceptive, where each escape feels skin-of-your-teeth frantic thanks to smart world building.

I felt constantly disorientated while blindly running to a half-glimpsed place of safety, and while this might look like bad game design on paper, itвЂ™s effective in practice when the goal is to create a sense of desperation. With multiple labyrinthian structures and outdoor environments like tall grass and rivers to hide in, itвЂ™s easier to simply run from enemies, but itвЂ™s also harder to see them coming. ItвЂ™s a lot more open than the original, which adds to an authentic horror experience. Outlast 2 is deep South horror, but without the trappings of domesticity we saw in Resident Evil 7 Supai is untamed cornfields, dilapidated shacks, and вЂ“ go figure вЂ“ gory remnants of unspeakable religious rites. The ending, however, stayed with me for days.Outlast 2 benefits from ditching the somewhat tired mental asylum setting of the original and travelling the less-trodden road of the Sonoran Desert, where protagonist Blake Langermann is searching for his wife Lynn after crash landing in the cult-ridden Supai region during an investigative journalism assignment. While it suffers from a couple of pacing problems and some finicky navigation issues, its careful - and sadistic - manipulation of my fight-or-flight reflex had me experiencing an overwhelming sense of dread throughout, which abated only once the credits were rolling. Not for the faint of heart, Outlast 2вЂ™s relentless scares, unforgiving monsters, and provocative meditations on faith are an anxiety-inducing but cathartic horror experience.

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