Outlast: scary or not?

[Harlemura]

I've only seen a Let's Play of it so my opinion of it probably isn't very valid. Still, I felt it started out really scary, then just got less and less so because the same things happened throughout the game. Spotting a big dude looking at you as you round a dark corner seems like it'll always induce a little bit of pant-wetting, but it started becoming too easy to tell when you were going to run into those situations.

I found the later parts disappointing because of these patterns.

Spoiler

I was watching Markipier [http://www.youtube.com/user/markiplierGAME]'s playthrough, and when he got to the women's ward he got all excited to see how the wimmins would work in the game. It was then that it really started getting dull, because instead of taking the opportunity to make some new type of enemy, they use the exact same dudes you've been seeing since the start.

Doesn't take away from how well the game starts out though.

 

[thejackyl]

Minor spoilers:

The first... third of the game is pretty scary, after you meet Trager it stays tense and gets annoying rather than scary, and once you meet the priest at the end, the game has one section where I think they should have just let your character leave the asylum rather than what actually happened rather than turning it into a sci-fi thing.

Honestly though, if you can catch it during a sale, and you liked the Amnesia games (Dark descent, or it's predecessor Penumbra: Black Plague), get it, it's worth at least $10, imo.

 

[shogunblade]

Having bought Outlast during the winter sales (OMG, $7? Hell Yes, I'll buy!) and having played it some, not yet completed, I'm partially disappointed. I have a strange relationship with scary games and movies. I don't like playing lots of them because I am a coward in most cases, but when I do play scary games, I find it's the initial fear, and that most games don't leave me really scared, just tense.

Outlast sort of reminds me of the Friday The 13th movies in obvious ways, and that disappoints me, because it shows that jumping at the player is just unimaginative. A game I do like (kind of) that did the same things Outlast did, but in a different sort of way was Manhunt. Manhunt was a very tedious slog because snuffing out other bad people for points is quite depraved, but the last level, Deliverance, which has you square off against the chainsaw-wielding Pigsy is quite unnerving, and it's why I love that game.

There is no music, just the soundtrack of a man squealing like a pig whilst a Chainsaw revs, and you are armed only with a stake to drive into his shoulder until his health drops. It freaked me out more than Outlast did, because like most Friday the 13th movies, eventually, you can fight back. Now, I haven't beaten Outlast yet, but the game so far is just hiding from the Doctor, and that's uncomfortable because he's insane, but doesn't portray insane as well as the various patients do.

That being said, I do love the atmosphere the game exudes, but it's more a rollercoaster ride than a psychological one, but I have Silent Hill 2 for psychological terror. Some days you want A Nightmare on Elm Street and other days you want The Shining. I'll say it's well made, though I hope one day a psychological First Person game comes along (Amnesia or Penumbra may be it, I don't know).

I want more psychological horror games, but for what it does, It's reasonably tense and scary in some parts, and if you are like my sister who jumps at every scare, it might be enough, though for me, it's a game that's scary in other spots and not so scary in others.

TL;DR, it's personal preference, but it's not as scary as it could be.

 

[shogunblade]

Having bought Outlast during the winter sales (OMG, $7? Hell Yes, I'll buy!) and having played it some, not yet completed, I'm partially disappointed. I have a strange relationship with scary games and movies. I don't like playing lots of them because I am a coward in most cases, but when I do play scary games, I find it's the initial fear, and that most games don't leave me really scared, just tense.

Outlast sort of reminds me of the Friday The 13th movies in obvious ways, and that disappoints me, because it shows that jumping at the player is just unimaginative. A game I do like (kind of) that did the same things Outlast did, but in a different sort of way was Manhunt. Manhunt was a very tedious slog because snuffing out other bad people for points is quite depraved, but the last level, Deliverance, which has you square off against the chainsaw-wielding Pigsy is quite unnerving, and it's why I love that game.

There is no music, just the soundtrack of a man squealing like a pig whilst a Chainsaw revs, and you are armed only with a stake to drive into his shoulder until his health drops. It freaked me out more than Outlast did, because like most Friday the 13th movies, eventually, you can fight back. Now, I haven't beaten Outlast yet, but the game so far is just hiding from the Doctor, and that's uncomfortable because he's insane, but doesn't portray insane as well as the various patients do.

That being said, I do love the atmosphere the game exudes, but it's more a rollercoaster ride than a psychological one, but I have Silent Hill 2 for psychological terror. Some days you want A Nightmare on Elm Street and other days you want The Shining. I'll say it's well made, though I hope one day a psychological First Person game comes along (Amnesia or Penumbra may be it, I don't know).

I want more psychological horror games, but for what it does, It's reasonably tense and scary in some parts, and if you are like my sister who jumps at every scare, it might be enough, though for me, it's a game that's scary in other spots and not so scary in others.

TL;DR, it's personal preference, but it's not as scary as it could be.

EDIT: Please Delete Double Post, please. I don't know why I had to do Three Captchas before it did the double post, sorry.