In somewhat similar ways, the original Outlast also attempted to revolt audiences, but with different tactics. Through this, Outlast 2 attempts to shock and disgust its audience using meaningless violence, as although the violence is overt, Knoth's reasons behind the slaughtering of children is paper thin at best. The theme of violence against children is abundant in Outlast 2, with shrines and graves littered with torn apart dolls being found around Temple Gate, as well as documents being found revealing the murderous ways of the town prophet, Sullivan Knoth.

The Saw franchise lived on this shock factor for seven installments, generally releasing around Halloween every year in an attempt to disgust audiences around the globe. Each successive film ramped up the gore and sadomasochism, with victims being forced to cut off their own hands and gouge out their own eyes, among other terrible trials. It brings to mind many of the later Saw films, which became progressively worse as they went along. There's quite a lot of this in Outlast 2. Neither of these events are frightening to the player, and are instead used by Outlast 2 to purely provoke disgust. All this climaxes with Lynn dying during a particularly bloody childbirth, and Knoth slitting his own throat, having conceded that he is too late to stop the birth. This is all to make the man reveal the location of Lynn, so that the cult leader Sullivan Knoth can put an end to the 'antichrist she carries in her womb' before it can be birthed.

It carries themes of violence and self-harm throughout: When Blake and Lynn Langermann's helicopter first crashes on the outskirts of Temple Gate in Arizona, Lynn is kidnapped by the deranged inhabitants, who proclaim that she is due to give birth to the antichrist, and therefore the child must be killed.įairly early on, Blake witnesses the torture of both a man and wife, as the latter is stretched out on a rack till the point of her skin splitting. Rather, Outlast 2 takes the very worst of these films, foregoing proper scares for relentless nastiness, making for a game that's horrific rather than entertaining. This article contains spoilers for Outlast 2. That tradition continues with Outlast 2, which launched late last week, though Red Barrels' survival horror game lacks much of what made those movies so memorable. Films like Saw brought with them a wave of extreme blood and guts imagery, which was designed to disgust as much as frighten.

Gore had a bit of a moment back in the mid-2000s.

Outlast 2 game