The farm may be where you begin, Morin said, but it's not the only place you'll travel. Its geographical landscape isn't just changing, but expanding, too. Although the sequel takes place within the same universe, it stars different characters.

The overall scope of the original Outlast was constrained. Red Barrels is telegraphing messages about its new game and the nature of sequels. The demo's disjointed setting means more, though. Morin told me that the demo isn't representative of the final product's progression, but more of what he called a 'mishmash' of things that players will see and experience. It was so eerie and disjointed that I was willing to accept each bizarre scenario as it happened. I can't remember exactly how I ended up in the Catholic school, and I'm not sure that it matters. But as with the best of suspense, the stress isn't in the happening, but in the anticipation. Camcorder on my eye, switching batteries as they wore out, I crept through the sparse outdoors and the cramped indoor hallways, where, well, mostly nothing happened. To do so, it relies less on gameplay than atmosphere. Outlast 2 is, like its predecessor, preternaturally preoccupied with cultivating a sour feeling in your stomach.

That its creators disagree about its meaning is as sure an indication as any that players will debate the truth of whatever happens after Outlast 2's release. Yes, they wrote it with definitive explanations in mind, but they're delivering the story in a way that sparks debate even among those who are creating it. The game makers at Red Barrels disagree about the overall meaning, Morin said. He smiled and nodded.īut does it have a point, an definitive meaning? Yes, he told me, but it's as hard to see as the horizon on an Arizona night. You don't put monsters in a Catholic grade school or hang a girl from the hallway rafters or make an inverted, burning Christian cross part of your game's logo if you're not trying to be provocative, I said. I spoke with developer Red Barrels co-founder Philippe Morin after I played through the demo, and I asked him about its provocative symbolism. My introduction to Outlast 2 was indirect, deliberate in its symbolism and opaque in its delivery. What that all adds up to beyond the sense that something is warped and wrong, I don't know. But above all other things and like its predecessor, Outlast 2 is about surviving while terrified. It's also about staying alive, because this farm from hell isn't deserted. It's almost certainly about uncovering the mystery of the misery in the Arizona desert. On the surface, Outlast 2 is about finding your wife. Sometimes, Lynn screams in terror off-screen. Sometimes, out of the corner of your eye, you think you see something. Sometimes, you find something interesting. Beyond that is a farm to investigate in a frantic search for Lynn. You find your camcorder and glasses and run to a shack in the distance. You wake up alone, on a night lit only by the moon. You begin aboard a helicopter that crashes in the Arizona desert. I haven't a clue what the game is about, beyond the setup: You play as Blake Langerman, a cameraman who, along with your wife, Lynn, are investigating the murder of a pregnant woman. I played about 20 minutes of Outlast 2 standing alone in a dark, lightproof booth at PAX East 2016. A few minutes later, as I wandered the halls of a Catholic grade school beneath it, I realized I'd drastically underestimated the game's oddity. I thought Outlast 2 was weird as I peered through a camcorder, using its night vision feature to investigate a creepy shack on the outskirts of a farm in the middle of a desert.

Outlast 2 demo walkthrough