The horror, said famous army colonel Walter Kurtz. The survival horror. Outlast 2 [official site] will have some of that, by the looks of things, and good news for impatient people who like to be scared: it has a demo out today. It s a short one at 10-15 minutes and will be familiar to anyone who saw the footage from PAX. But for those of you who were disappointed to hear about the sequel s delay into 2017, it is something to enjoy in time for spoooooky> Halloween.

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Ah, the early tensies! Cast your mind back to an era when a Slender Man lurked in every corner, crazed diary entries littered the streets, and Nicola Roberts was making a real go of a solo career. Of all the first-person stealth-o-spookers that followed Amnesia and old balloonhead, Outlast was one of the better ones. Following a touch of DLC, developers Red Barrels announced a sequel would follow in 2016 but… now that’s delayed. You’ll need to wait until 2017 to flee from a murderous religious cult.

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Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.>

As a survival horror fan, I was at first willing to overlook the asylum-set Outlast s [official site] stigmatisation of issues of mental health because it was a concept I thought otherwise sounded interesting. A combat-less scare fest that swaps Amnesia s gas lantern for a camcorder with diminishing battery power? That ll do me. But then I discovered its real horror: the batteries themselves.

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Outlast was one of the first shiny-polished horror games to rise from the growing trend for first-person unarmed spooky walkers in 2013. It was pretty good, Ben said when we gave him a pair of extra-strong pants and sent him into a spooky asylum.

Developers Red Barrels today announced a second round of spookings for autumn 2016, though it looks like Outlast 2 [official site] will be headed somewhere quite different. Judging from the short teaser trailer and a few bits of artwork, I’m going to guess… a reclusive religious community in the American South, and perhaps a little The Hills Have Eyes>-y? See what you make of it:

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Those darn Whistleblowers. Always huffing and puffing until they (whistle) blow entire houses down. Edward Snowden did it to the NSA, which now… remains frighteningly functional, and the main character of prequel DLC Outlast: Whistleblower will do the same to the game’s Asylum, leaving it… frighteningly functional for the main game’s plot. But that’s whistleblowing for you. The only thing it immediately> grinds to a halt is recess. Sometimes. Everything else is a process. Sink into the depths of this post’s madness for a trailer.

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It was not so long ago that our own Adam “Murder Maestro” Smith lamented the lack of imagination in horror stories. Implausibly trap-laden asylums, spoooooky forests, and hastily cobbled-together castles dominate, while more interesting locales and subject matters are few and far-between. While I wouldn’t go so far as to say that horror’s stuck in a full-blown rut, it could certainly end up there if it keeps wandering down the same predictable trail. I’ve been thinking about it, though (largely while replaying Amnesia: The Dark Descent as Halloween nightmare fuel), and I’ve come to realize that there are some amazing avenues ahead for stomach-lurching scares in gaming. Problem is, there are a few major, perhaps even primeval forces that could slip a dangling noose around possibility’s all-too-exposed neck.>

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Outlast might not have been the most inventive horror game ever, but it certainly brought the scares. There is, however, some intrigue in exploring its Standard Horror Setting asylum before> it became an implausible sea of saw blades and psychosis given flesh. In fact, I really like that idea – if only because I want to see horror attempt settings that are less trite, typical, or otherwise funhouse-y. Whistleblower is about, well, the whistleblower that clued in original protagonist [Silly Name] to the crazed goings-on at [Another Silly Name's] asylum. It takes place during a time when everything was still up and running, before it all descended into wanton slaughter. Sounds pleasant, right? Of course not. This is the beginning of the end. You just get to witness it up close.

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Looking through the recent releases on Steam, a casual observer might believe that there’s a horror game renaissance underway. In the last few weeks, several games have appeared, with titles like Paranormal and The Orphanage. I’ve installed a few of them, heard them go bump in the night, and then moved on. Despite some quality releases, horror is in a rut. And it’s an unpleasant one>.

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When a rag-tag collection of industry super-veterans form a new studio and come at you with a claim of “scariest game ever” you should sit up in your armchair and pay attention. Red Barrels, which is something like half fomer-Ubisoft and half EA Montreal folk crammed into one office, busily doing anything that isn’t making another Assassin’s Creed or Splinter Cell. Their first game, survival horror Outlast, has been kicking up a storm after strong showings at PAX and E3, while Youtube videos of it went viral in swedes-screaming-at-webcams circles.

Does it live up to this teacup storm of hype? Grab a pillow to hide behind and ready the heart medication, here’s Wot I Think.>

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