Sound design completes the experience, assisting in the game’s ability to fake you out or deliver a well-timed scare. A longer draw distance accompanies the open environment and almost everything you see in establishing shots will end up being an area you traverse at a later time. This time around the environment provides visual tricks such as wavering fires, electric street lights, and plenty of weather effects. The game engine has been given a face lift that takes the decent graphics from the first game and steps it up. When Outlast 2 really ramps up the intensity is when it’s at its most effective and I couldn’t get enough of those late frantic moments. The back half of the game starts to put both your inventiveness and your reflexes to the test as you not only have to navigate these complex environments strategically but adapt at a moment’s notice. This all seems to be an attempt to reduce “hide and wait” scenarios and rather be constantly on the move to get away from danger. It’s now possible to hide in high grass, dash through cabin windows, hold your breath underwater, and even crawl under foundations of houses to avoid being found. Your options on how to handle getting spotted have become more dynamic. Unless you’re completely careless you won’t find yourself having to redo an entire section or reload a previous save because resources are much better balanced and those pesky fetch quests that plagued the first game are almost nonexistent. The storyline baits you to keep moving forward more than anything else and your handy camera is no longer simply night vision but also a journal that documents the plot points along the way, which can be reviewed at any time. Rarely do you see the same scare or scenario play out, which is a welcome change from the redundancies I experienced in the original and kept me far more in focus. It truly becomes more of a stealth title than anything else and dare I say reminded me more of the first half of Call of Cthulhu Dark Corners of the Earth than anything else.

Where the original Outlast tended to use confined spaces to build tension, Outlast 2 thrives in large, open environments where you could find anything among the foliage from intense danger to nothing at all. Things quickly escalate when their helicopter crashes and the wife, Lynn, goes missing and you take control of husband Jacob in search of her. The setting changes drastically, moving away from the confines of a lowly asylum and into Arizona’s Sonoran desert, where a married couple are investigating the mysterious murder of a young pregnant woman. If Outlast was a haunted house, Outlast 2 is the spook walk.

Then again, making you flinch is the entire point, isn’t it? If you want controversial topics, this game has it in stride from the inhuman, to unthinkable tortures, and even a strong anti-religious undertone. It also improves upon the flaws of the original and provides countless visuals that I fear may have made me more desensitized to brutal violence than ever before. Along your path you will be jarred, challenged, see things you wish you hadn’t, and even feel helpless. The follow-up to Red Barrels’ 2013 take on the horror genre demonstrates what you want out of a sequel by taking everything up a notch. No matter what you are doing at any one moment, there is sure to be something unpleasant about the situation, even when it’s more game design than content.

Outlast 2 game disc