Outlast: Whistleblower throws you right back into the dark and gritty world that is Mount Massive Asylum. Whistleblower is a prequel to the main outlast story and does a good job of filling in some blanks that the first story left as well as opening the players eyes to new details about the horrific wrong doings that the Murkoff corporation is responsible for committing.
In this installment you play as Waylon Park, a software technician hired by Murkoff to work on a project at Mount Massive. Early in the game you are caught sending an email with incriminating information and needless to say the higher ups of the corporation are extremely unhappy. Due to your transgression you are forcibly committed to the asylum, left to fight your way through the insane who are imprisoned within nightmare that plants it seed inside the old stone building.
Gameplay is the same as in the original game. You have a camera with night vision that requires you to collect batteries to maintain vision. The narrative is helped along with documents you find as well journal entries about the various things you are experiencing throughout the asylum. Unfortunately gameplay becomes repetitive, learning a specific enemies pattern, running to hide if caught and exploring to see where you can get through to progress further becomes the norm. This sense of repeating tactics really takes away the horror element to the game. However, the jump scares-even though cliche, still got me.
Whistleblower succeeds on creating the same dreary atmosphere as the original did, with extremely gruesome and down right uncomfortable scenes. Unfortunately the setting becomes repetitive and all to familiar. Whether it be running from one room to another, or trekking through a foggy forrest. I often found myself thinking “why does this look so familiar” and “is this from the original game?” only to come to the realization that it was just old models and locations used over again in a new layout. Note however, that you will eventually arrive at actual settings from the original game, and i am not referring to these.
Whistleblowers level design and layout quickly became convoluted and frustrating making me feel as if i were running through an incessant wave of mazes, wasting time and getting frustrated by dying from enemies simply because the games instructions and objectives were so vague, i got caught up in trying to decode where the game wanted me to go. Even when needed to do something as simple as climbing onto a ledge the player is hindered by there only being certain planks of wood to climb onto in order to progress. These planks are often inconspicuously placed and very easy to overlook.
Where Whistleblower truly shined was its narrative. I always wanted to find more out about what exactly was going on behind the walls of the asylum, as well as things about the character you are playing which are told through the journal entries and documents found around throughout the story. I also found it interesting to just stop and listen to dialogue of employees and patients which also give insight into events at the hospital.
Whistleblower takes you back into the dark and disturbing world of Outlast, unfortunately with not much more variation to show. It does not present or add much more to the horror genre. The narrative is well written and the sound design is spot on. With its frustrating and convoluted layout the games horror quickly turns into sheer frustration.
Outlast: Whistleblower throws you right back into the dark and gritty world that is Mount Massive Asylum. Whistleblower is a prequel to the main outlast story and does a good job of filling in some blanks that the first story left as well as opening the players eyes to new details about the horrific wrong doings that the Murkoff corporation is responsible for committing.
In this installment you play as Waylon Park, a software technician hired by Murkoff to work on a project at Mount Massive. Early in the game you are caught sending an email with incriminating information and needless to say the higher ups of the corporation are extremely unhappy. Due to your transgression you are forcibly committed to the asylum, left to fight your way through the insane who are imprisoned within nightmare that plants it seed inside the old stone building.
Gameplay is the same as in the original game. You have a camera with night vision that requires you to collect batteries to maintain vision. The narrative is helped along with documents you find as well journal entries about the various things you are experiencing throughout the asylum. Unfortunately gameplay becomes repetitive, learning a specific enemies pattern, running to hide if caught and exploring to see where you can get through to progress further becomes the norm. This sense of repeating tactics really takes away the horror element to the game. However, the jump scares-even though cliche, still got me.
Whistleblower succeeds on creating the same dreary atmosphere as the original did, with extremely gruesome and down right uncomfortable scenes. Unfortunately the setting becomes repetitive and all to familiar. Whether it be running from one room to another, or trekking through a foggy forrest. I often found myself thinking “why does this look so familiar” and “is this from the original game?” only to come to the realization that it was just old models and locations used over again in a new layout. Note however, that you will eventually arrive at actual settings from the original game, and i am not referring to these.
Whistleblowers level design and layout quickly became convoluted and frustrating making me feel as if i were running through an incessant wave of mazes, wasting time and getting frustrated by dying from enemies simply because the games instructions and objectives were so vague, i got caught up in trying to decode where the game wanted me to go. Even when needed to do something as simple as climbing onto a ledge the player is hindered by there only being certain planks of wood to climb onto in order to progress. These planks are often inconspicuously placed and very easy to overlook.
Where Whistleblower truly shined was its narrative. I always wanted to find more out about what exactly was going on behind the walls of the asylum, as well as things about the character you are playing which are told through the journal entries and documents found around throughout the story. I also found it interesting to just stop and listen to dialogue of employees and patients which also give insight into events at the hospital.
Whistleblower takes you back into the dark and disturbing world of Outlast, unfortunately with not much more variation to show. It does not present or add much more to the horror genre. The narrative is well written and the sound design is spot on. With its frustrating and convoluted layout the games horror quickly turns into sheer frustration.