The Outlast II demo came out of nowhere and luckily enough, was available on the PlayStation Store in Australia, ahead of many other regions.
We took the opportunity to run through it last night and captured the gameplay above. Most notable is that while the setting may have drastically changed, the themes, scares and overall atmosphere remain the same. I mean that in the best possible way. Judging solely on this demo alone, Outlast II is going to be insane.
I’m honestly not even sure that I could play through the entire game without some serious downtime between sessions. During my run of the demo I could actually feel my heart pounding in my chest. This was even with all the lights on and my housemate sitting next to me. Red Barrels has done a phenomenal job of slowly ratcheting up the terror in what I can only assume is part of the game’s opening chapter.
The use of a camcorder and night vision makes a return, but in Outlast II, since your character spends much of his time outside at night, it’s a much darker experience that Outlast. If you watch the video, you’ll see that during some sequences I couldn’t see anything aside from the distant lights of a farmhouse unless I used my camcorder. While exploring these houses it was readily apparent that none of them were safe, so although the light in the distance might call to players so they can escape the dark, they’re better off steering clear.
The final moments of the demo had me running through a corn field and avoiding enemies looking for me with torches. It was an incredibly tense sequence and felt like I was really part of a horror film. The lighting is spectacular as it defracts and bounces off the stalks of corn and gradually grows larger as the enemy draws nearer. Never before have I been so terrified of torches in my life. The lighting’s terrifying partner in crime is the superb sound design which, at first, is quite subtle, but gradually grows until it claws its way under your skin and takes up permanent residence. Setting you on edge and never letting you relax.
The demo is available now for PC, PS4 and Xbox One and Outlast II will be released in 2017.
