Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Outlast 2

Nothing is more terrifying than a horror game where you can’t fight back. Running and hiding is all you can do in Outlast 2. Instead of taking place inside a crumbling building you’ll be forced to survive in the arid wastes of the Arizona desert. There is nowhere to hide and every house could serve as a new grave. After the success of the first title, expectations are high for what looks to be a very pure horror game.

Note: List is in random order. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Outlast 2

The first Outlast was an incredibly tense, scare-riddled romp through a mysterious asylum. With no weapons to fight back against the hospitals crazed Denizens, you could do nothing but run, hide, and pray that the creature stalking you wouldn’t look inside the locker that you were hiding in. The upcoming sequel will explore new characters, settings, and events. It will be set in the same universe as the original, so fans of the surprise, horror hit will have much to look forward to.

Frictional Games’ SOMA is looking mighty terrifying in its own way. With the team behind Amnesia: The Dark Descent working the scares, it’s no wonder that this newest trailer knows how to get under our skin. Or rather, get our skin underwater. Check it out above.

Frictional Games seems to recognize the horror that lies at the bottom of the ocean where differences in pressure are enough to crush humans into pulp with relative ease. What happens when the ocean becomes the “perfect place to explore in a horror game,” as the developer states? Nothing but scary things, we think.

SOMA is currently expected to release in early 2015 for PS4, Linux, Mac and PC. It follows your journey through the PATHOS-2 research facility as you encounter machines which begin to look more and more human. The footage we’ve seen thus far has been unsettling enough – what are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below.

Zombie Studios’ Daylight, a psychological horror game slated to release early this month but will now be out on April 29th for PC and PS4. To help you wait – or rather, provide more time to dread over the upcoming horrors – publisher Atlus has released a new trailer for the game which demonstrates how there truly is no escape. Check it out above.

Much like Red Barrels’ Outlast, Daylight sees you navigating an abandoned hospital. Playing as Sarah however means you have no memories of how you got there and must follow the ghostly voices to escape. You’ll be armed with a cellphone, which acts as your flashlight and map, and no weapons. To make things even more frightening, the hospital’s layout is randomized each time you start the game, ensuring total surprise at each corner.

Also, Zombie Studios revealed that on April 29th for two weeks, PS Plus subscribers will be able to avail of the game for $9.99 while non-subscribers get it for $11.99. PC players can pre-order the game right now till April 29th for $9.99 after which it will retail for $14.99.

What do you make of Daylight? Let us know your terrified thoughts in the comments below.

In between all the hype for The Evil Within and Dying Light, it’s easy to forget about Zombie Studios’ Daylight – a psychological horror game set in an abandoned sanitarium full of ghosts. Well, at least we think they’re ghosts. Who knows? A recent IGN preview has indicated that we may have a chance to find out soon as Daylight will release in April for the PS4 and PC.

Running on Unreal Engine 4, Daylight follows the Outlast and Amnesia style of horror. You have no weapons and can only rely on your phone, which provides a map and a light for seeing in the dark. It doesn’t help that the game consists of randomly generated levels, thus trying to surprise you at every turn.

A concrete release date is yet to be provided but we’re looking forward to how Daylight plays out. Stay tuned for more updates and news on Daylight as we approach release.

Endnight Games’ upcoming horror title The Forest just received several new screenshots which showcase new environments and fun activities you can take part in. One of them involves an axe and two people with nowhere to run – fun! The Forest will be arriving on Steam in the next few few months courtesy of an alpha release, so that means we’ll soon get a chance to try out the game’s open world, survival horror elements. It’s not all running and hiding as sometimes you need to get your hands messy.

You’ll encounter several enemies trying to impede your survival but have a set of tools on your hands to repel them back, like fire which can be spread to different areas in the forest by virtue of being fire. If all of this weren’t enough, The Forest will be releasing for Oculus Rift as well.

What are your thoughts on The Forest and will you be taking part in the alpha? Let us know below.

Red Barrels has announced on its official Facebook page that Outlast will be available for free to PlayStation Plus users when it releases for the PlayStation 4 in February.

“Outlast will be free in February for all PlayStation Plus users (PS4 only).” Given that Outlast is only available on the PC and now the upcoming PS4, we’d say that PlayStation Plus users have made out like bandits this time.

As a survival horror title, Outlast sees journalist Miles Upshur journey to the Mount Massive Asylum in order to unearth various unexplained phenomenon that have been happening since its closure. That means lots of spooks, more than a few maniacs and a crazy otherworldly being known as the Walrider tracking your every move. It also means one of the best indie and PC titles of 2013.

Will you be picking up Outlast next month for the PS4? Let us know in the comments below – or just brag about how awesome PS Plus is for distributing such games on a monthly basis.

The game is interesting due to the weather system, animals that interact with you and plants that actually grow and wither. You’ll have to use stealth to successfully maneuver your way past some odd monstrosities lurking in the forest. You can also psychopathy to build a tower of limbs and light it on fire as a warning to your foes. Or something.

Will you be able to handle this on Oculus Rift, especially given the number of beasts leaping at you? How about roaming through a dark cave full of even more imposing creatures? Let us know in the comments below.

But there was one game which served as the initiation for many into the dark world of horror gaming, kick-starting a bit of a renaissance for first person adventure games and frightening quests (along with innumerable Let’s Play videos). This was Frictional Games’ Amnesia: The Dark Descent, a relatively simple adventure that had you struggling to regain your memory while outmaneuvering a horrendous shadow. It was tense and the overall lack of information helped establish the frights of the darkness all the better.

"The visuals aid the atmosphere, aptly catering the mood of London on the eve of the 20th century while presenting a stark and macabre air overall."

Frictional has since moved on to other projects, with Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs being handled by The Chinese Room, developer of Dear Esther. This is immediately apparent in the treatment of the game, which forgoes an outright delusionary approach in favour of more solid story-telling. You’ll still be playing as an amnesiac, namely Oswald Mandus who struggles to rescue his children and solve the mystery of an odd machine under the directions of the mysterious Engineer.

Diary entries, documents and the like will help provide a bit of information on what’s happening but for the most part, you’ll be comprehending the events as they happen. You’ll also come across the human-esque pig beings and do your bit to run away from them but they don’t quite eschew the same feeling of fright that the unstoppable shadow did in the original.

This isn’t to say that A Machine for Pigs isn’t uniquely scary. Rather, the atmosphere is completely different this time around. There is a feeling of things not quite being what they seem, of a deeper evil at work and a grim reality to be faced. It is a more scaled experience, with a beginning, middle and conclusion but fragmented into different time periods. Not to spoil anything beforehand but the story is well worth the trip, even if it’s nothing very new in today’s day and age. There is a greater hint of mystery involved this time around. We won’t say the horror has been significantly dialled down, given how this still isn’t a game for kids.

"As a horror-filled ride, there isn’t much to note with Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs."

The visuals aid the atmosphere, aptly catering the mood of London on the eve of the 20^th century while presenting a stark and macabre air overall. You’ll be exploring a good variety of environments, transitioning from an abandoned house to the sewers beneath and the very confines of the mysterious machine. The art direction is stellar but under-stated. The voice acting thankfully enhances the experience, with the sound effects still being as strong and adding to the creepy atmosphere more than detracting from it.

A Machine for Pigs also differs very strongly from The Dark Descent in terms of gameplay. You won’t be battling for your sanity this time around, struggling to balance between light and dark or carefully conserving fuel in your lantern while collecting tinderboxes (in fact, tinderboxes and oil have been removed entirely – there is no inventory to access either). Encounters with the pig-men don’t lead to your mental well-being suffering and you have an unlimited supply of fuel for your lantern.

This means that new players will be able to acclimatize themselves to the horrific atmosphere without needing to micro-manage their emotions. However, for more experienced players, these very elements enhanced the horrific charm of The Dark Descent. The simplification doesn’t feel odd, but it is obvious more often than not especially when your health automatically regenerates when receiving injuries.

"Diary entries, documents and the like will help provide a bit of information on what's happening but for the most part, you'll be comprehending the events as they happen."

As a horror-filled ride, there isn’t much to note with Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs. On the one hand, it doesn’t break any new ground or combine several old elements into something staggeringly new like its predecessor. On the other hand, what it does do, it does extremely well, even if it comes off as an entirely different entity overall. You’ll still be peering around corners and turning off your lamp to blend in with your surroundings, thus letting whatever horror is hunting you pass. It delivers a tout narrative in its six hour run time, slowly building up and providing a cohesive whole. It’s not an adrenaline packed experience but does feel sufficiently creepy and provoking enough to leave you in deep thought afterwards.

After Outlast though, it just doesn’t quite feel enough. Hopefully Frictional Games’ Soma will take things forward that much more while giving us a downright terrifying reason not to sleep at night. As it stands, A Machine for Pigs is a dark fantasy and reflection on the infinitely ugly ways of man. Nothing more, nothing less.

This game was reviewed on the PC.

But there is always a fear of the unknown, even the slight anxiety of travelling to a new place that affects everyone in all walks of life. Magnify this journey into the ever-incomprehensible unknown to include the depths of an insane asylum, which is actually just the beginning, and you’ll have Outlast, a first person horror game from indie developer Red Barrels where you can run or hide but for which escape from the unknown holds unsurprisingly little possibility.

In Outlast, you play as journalist Miles Upshur, who receives a tip about a rather unscrupulous asylum, Mount Massive that is apparently conducting experiments in secret via a multi-national corporation. As Miles arrives at the front gates, it becomes obvious that nothing is what it seems. Abandoned military trucks dot the entrance. Blood is seen splattered all throughout the hallways. As you traverse deeper into the asylum, you’ll come to face to face with various monstrosities and in-mates. What is going on exactly? Hints throughout in the form of research papers indicate that something came back with the patients, and as disturbing as the imagery can get, nothing carries as strong an intonation of evil as the Walrider.

"While Amnesia: The Dark Descent linearly paced the discovery of its mysterious setting and encounters with its monster, increasing the tempo as you went further into the game, Outlast goes balls to the wall fairly early and only ever lets up for small intervals."

While Amnesia: The Dark Descent linearly paced the discovery of its mysterious setting and encounters with its monster, increasing the tempo as you went further into the game, Outlast goes balls to the wall fairly early and only ever lets up for small intervals. Not that you’ll find much reason to relax – even the most slightly deviant individuals in Outlast have the ability to make your skin crawl. Even if this is a video game and you don’t die instantly, it instills a fear unlike any felt before that your next unlucky trifle could be your last.

Outlast mixes in several mechanics from games past, including the aforementioned Amnesia, and even Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth which pioneered the idea of closing doors and locking them to evade foes. You’ll be hiding as well, throwing off erstwhile pursuers, sometimes in obvious places and other times behind what looks safe for the moment.

The tension is palpable but dulled somewhat when you have a running start and reach a hiding place well before your pursuer does. He’ll check the locker next to you and even snoop around a bit but you’ll be safe (but not all the time). Of course, considering the number of occasions where you need to run and never stop, shutting doors behind you and just narrowly finding a place to hide before you’re beaten to death, you’ll never forget the fear of being caught and pummelled to death.

"The video camera is what differentiates the Outlast from other first person horror romps. The camera can be used to glean different observations when you record specific events, which Miles will note down. It even helps to keep track of the story thus far."

The video camera is what differentiates the Outlast from other first person horror romps. The camera can be used to glean different observations when you record specific events, which Miles will note down. It even helps to keep track of the story thus far. But as you’ll encounter plenty of dark areas in Outlast, the camera’s night vision is what gives you an edge. You can see most threats coming from a ways off, aided by the zoom function.

There are genuine moments that will depend on your successfully hitting the night vision on and off in order to escape from a band of raving in-mates. You’ll need to refill the camera with batteries in order to use it though, which leads to some genuinely heart-pounding moments when you’ll be stuck in pitch-black surroundings, each second lasts forever, as you wait to see what’s ahead of you.

It’s to the credit of Red Barrels that it finds a way to continuously keep the action frenetic. Whether you’re wading through sewers, avoiding a big mean monstrosity named Chris Walker, or playing cat and mouse with a scissor-wielding doctor in order to find an elevator key, or feverishly pushing objects in front of doors to slow your attackers down, or shimmying across ledges and fighting off in-mates in the process, Outlast is forever finding new ways to mess with you.

Even the small discoveries – a particularly disturbing one which will make your skin crawl as you enter Block B or a ghostly presence becoming stronger and stronger as the game progresses – are enough to set you on edge. The only criticism is that for all the intensity it brings forth, Outlast does tend to go to the well too many times with objectives such as “find two valves” and whatnot but it doesn’t dull the fear one bit.

The aesthetic of the game brings its dingy, crumbling, blood-adorned surroundings to life. The subtle, film-grainish haze gives everything an ethereal feel, dispensed only in stark white light, itself sticking out among the dank corridors. Macabre is one way to describe it; disturbing is another. But all throughout, there’s an almost  twisted beauty to it all that has you staring at in-mates bashing their heads in for longer than you should. Of course, all the little touches such Miles’ hand touching the wall as he peeks around a corner, or his shifting vision and reactions to violence, also help drive the point home that you’re inhabiting a character and not just spectating.

"Outlast is one of those games you don’t see coming: Something truly phenomenal that immediately grips you, without any concern for the state of your heart. The atmosphere, visual style, gameplay, sound, story and presentation all combine together for an emotionally exhausting experience that could give any big budget title a run for its money."

What would a horror game be without the sound? Outlast is made all the more frightening with the chains rattling and scraping footsteps that accompany carnage, not to mention the sound of your heart beat and quick breathing as scary stuff goes down. But the music is also deftly executed.

Pick up a new document and a sudden swell will erupt, and you’ll unconsciously expect something to attack you. The music and sound effects are truly amazing – they become more pronounced and diabolic as the action ramps up, with slow and sudden swells occurring in isolated exploration broken up by thumping orchestrals during attacks. It’s a frightening rush.

It could be argued that some of the set-ups are a tad contrived, and there is only one right way to do everything, thus lessening the replay value. Honestly, once you’ve seen all the scares that are to be seen, it won’t take long to just rush through the game and see how quickly you can complete it.

It could be argued that some functions such as the camera’s zoom are useless more often than not. Also, for all the insanity inherent, the ending feels more like an ellipses rather than an exclamation point. If it signals more such games in the series, then we won’t complain. Nonetheless, it does feel a little disheartening, given all the effort made to survive – poetic, yes, but still disheartening.

Outlast is one of those games you don’t see coming: Something truly phenomenal that immediately grips you, without any concern for the state of your heart. The atmosphere, visual style, gameplay, sound, story and presentation all combine together for an emotionally exhausting experience that could give any big budget title a run for its money. It’s a game you can pop in and enjoy in ten minute bursts – and depending on your endurance, even ten minutes will feel too long – or an experience you can dive into, swallowed whole, with no possible escape.

Outlast may not be the longest or most feature-rich game out there, but it provides a hereto unknown experience in the realm of horror games: A thrilling, psychologically-amped rollercoaster ride of wretched images and disturbing frights that you can run from, hide from, and maybe even escape from but never truly forget.

This game was reviewed on the PC.