They failed here, miserably

[Wobb the Great and Terrible!!!!!]

This game has so much potential. And after trying it time and time again, I still just can't help but think it just does not even come close to living up to that potential.
A great story, great atmosphere and fantastic immersion does not make up for ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ gameplay mechanics that just force trial and error.

Time and again I have no choice but to be chased (no stealth, just chase, absolutely no chance to stealth), sprint away and have absolutely no idea where I am supposed to go to be safe. The camera shakes too much to be able to see where you're going properly, and the game shows nothing.

Doorways with lights above them usually are gameplay direction that there is an open door and escape there. So why do I constantly get chased to these doors only to die when I find them "jammed"?

This latest ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ scene has me ready to uninstall the game (again). I get chased UNDER THE FLOOR, which is supposed to be one of the safe places in the game you can hide. When I come out, instead of being clear with just the guy behind me, I have a full open space with people literally at every side.
Every direction I have tried (all of them at this point) has gotten me insta-killed, despite having full health and a ridiculous "shake mouse" icon appearing on-screen making it seem I still have a chance.

Red barrels; don't stray too far from what succeeded in the original next time. Because this is a big fat boob of a game.

[Megafont]

I've only been playing for about two hours and I can very much agree with you on the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ trial and error mechanics in this game. It kills the horror aspect of the game and replaces it with annoyance at the ineptitude of the devs who clearly did not playtest this. It's pitifully bad level design.

I greatly liked the first game, so I got the second one on sale earlier this year. I just finally got around to playing it, but this gameplay is a turd compared to the original (and not even a polished turd)... It started off on the right foot, but then the gameplay goes to hell once you get a ways into the village. There was plenty of tension, but then the game shat all over itself when the broken trial and error gameplay started. At that point the game feels cheap and annoying rather than scary. It built up the atmosphere and tension pretty well, but then completely killed it with this atrocious, unfair gameplay. Brilliant design...

Like you said, there is a lot of potential here, but the game suddenly decided to flush it down the toilet for some inexpicable reason...

Immersion and tension are key here. Its more important in horror games than other genres, because as soon as you break that, its no longer a horror game. Outlast 2 goes against its own strengths and the strengths of the genre by breaking that immersion badly with that poorly designed gameplay. :(

[Wobb the Great and Terrible!!!!!]

It feels more like something along the lines of super meat boy or hotline miami. Something where the point isn't to work out your path and make it through without dying. The point feels more like you have to die, over and over again, until you manage to work out the optimal path through the area.

I can only assume that since they added a fairly decent chase mechanic to the first game, that nobody hardly used because they stealthed their way through without being spotted too much, that the devs decided to force people to use the chase gameplay by giving them no other option.
In just two hours or so of gameplay I imagine I have only progressed about an hour and a half into the story, maybe less. And that half hour has just been spent repeating the same few area's over and over until I finally spot the right path, take each twist and turn just right through the area, and find a hiding spot at the right time in order to take cover.
The hiding also doesn't work as fluidly as it did in the previous game, especially going under beds and such.

And I also absolutely adored the first game. Until I got really into alien isolation, outlast was my absolute favourite horror stealth game of all time.

[Prett]

At least we agree that the story, atmosphere etc. are awesome.

I believe the part you're stuck on is the chase scene in the area with the well? After crawling out from under the house, there's an open door with a bright light in front of you.
Some general rules of thumb to follow with the Outlast games is that during a chase scene:
-Follow the most obvious light sources
-Follow the blood
-Don't run towards the enemies
-If a door is completely closed, it's more than likely not the correct way to go
-Make sure you look up and down for places to crawl/climb

Honestly, I think you must be doing something wrong if you have to literally try every single twist and turn. Then again, I've never been able to relate to these complaints, so my opinion is probably worthless anyway.

[Wobb the Great and Terrible!!!!!]

Trust me, I followed the most obvious light source. In fact, I have done this in every chase I have been forced into so far.

They had great levels in the first game, that felt intuitive. Very rarely did I end up running the wrong way, or into a door that was jammed.

The problem here is that most doors have lights over them, even if they are jammed. While this might not be a huge problem in the real world, in a videogame it's a huge problem.
Because the main light source (the one I followed) was the source pointing to where you heard your wifes voice coming from. This gives you two strong reasons that you want to go that way. That way being..... the well itself.
Since most of the lights you see are over the way, your immediate instinct is to veer slightly right. You only need to turn very slightly to the right and you will miss the lighted door over to the left where you actually need to go.
In the end, I just climbed out of the thing and stood there getting a really good look around while I was killed (for what was likely the fourth or fifth time in that same spot).

Then immediately after I escape, I find another stupid area, where I'm in this house, some guy keeps coming up the stairs with a torch (flashlight to the yanks reading this) and looking for me. I make it into a room that has a wardrobe that I can move in front of the door. So, instinct kicks in, "if you can bar the door for good, it must be the way out". Nope. End up stuck in there with the guy outside knowing where I am.

The pathing, pacing and level design in this game is truly awful. And it is a massive shame because it looks like they have done a truly spectacular job of making a terrifying and atmospheric world, that is as immersive as games can get.

[Hursti]

this is literally the first game (and the dlc), but more of the same. i find it funny that some people claim that outlast 1 and whistleblower wasnt basically just chase with just a few stealth sections, just like outlast 2.

i remember raging hard on whistleblower running from the cannibal guy and there's literally few dark small rooms with 1 part on the ceiling you can climb into. same with the groom chase parts, literally same thing as outlast 2. outlast 1 walrider parts etc. but nooo, some demented people insist that they were something else. they werent.

outlast 1 and 2 are the same, 2 has just more of everything (on top of being the better game).

[Megafont]

I just played the first game, and the Whislteblower DLC again. They are not the same. Hiding is a bit wonkier in Outlast 2. You can't run away as easily as in Outlast 1, because enemies keep up with you more in this game, and that makes running into a building and ducking under a bed not work in some cases, because you end up dead more easily this time.

Escaping and hiding is harder in Outlast 2 than in the original because of bad level/game design. The first game didn't feel so cheap, and certainly not in the early game. Seeing your enemy was not as much of an issue in the first game, either. In Outlast 2, you can't see well because you're usually hiding in grass and crap. I've had a guy walk up on me out of no where in the grass because I couldn't see him and wasn't alerted by the microphone. Furthermore, the microphone's usefulness goes down when there are multiple enemies nearby. It's a pain just trying to figure out if its safe to come out of hiding and try to move forward or not. Even then, you usually die anyway because you ultimately get screwed from not knowing where to go (something that was overall pretty rare in the first game).

The walrider chases in Outlast 1 were not annoying like Outlast 2. He generally never took more than 1-3 tries to escape. The groom guy was more annoying than the wallrider, too. There was some bad level design there, actually. In the area where you got the key, in that one small room if you went out one way, he suddenly teleported outside that door. if you turn around and go back through the small room, he'd teleport into that corridor. That was bad design, because I could literally see him suddenly pop into existance. You're supposed to not let players see that kind of stuff. So the first game isn't perfect either, but it's an awesome game.

Outlast 1's level design felt more intuitive. Outlast 2 feels like a mess once you get to where you have to start dealing with a bunch of guys walking around. Outlast 1 rarely ever left you feeling like you got screwed by the level itself, but Outlast 2 is a different matter. The first game never destroyed its own atmosphere and tension with needlessly repetitive gameplay mechanics and annoyance either, because you usually never needed to retry a given part very many times to clear it. Outlast 2 on the other hand, does, and makes merely progressing in the game quickly become a chore. It also has a significant difficulty spike when you're barely very far into the game, because of that poorly designed gameplay that starts a ways into the village, which is another reason its bad design.

So yea, that gameplay is very much inferior to the original game. :( Stealth is far less effective this time, because its far more likely for things to go wrong than in the original game. You didn't constantly get screwed over in Outlast 1.

[Wobb the Great and Terrible!!!!!]

Originally posted by Megafont:

I just played the first game, and the Whislteblower DLC again. They are not the same. Hiding is a bit wonkier in Outlast 2. You can't run away as easily as in Outlast 1, because enemies keep up with you more in this game, and that makes running into a building and ducking under a bed not work in some cases, because you end up dead more easily this time.

Escaping and hiding is harder in Outlast 2 than in the original because of bad level/game design. The first game didn't feel so cheap, and certainly not in the early game. Seeing your enemy was not as much of an issue in the first game, either. In Outlast 2, you can't see well because you're usually hiding in grass and crap. I've had a guy walk up on me out of no where in the grass because I couldn't see him and wasn't alerted by the microphone. Furthermore, the microphone's usefulness goes down when there are multiple enemies nearby. It's a pain just trying to figure out if its safe to come out of hiding and try to move forward or not. Even then, you usually die anyway because you ultimately get screwed from not knowing where to go (something that was overall pretty rare in the first game).

The walrider chases in Outlast 1 were not annoying like Outlast 2. He generally never took more than 1-3 tries to escape. The groom guy was more annoying than the wallrider, too. There was some bad level design there, actually. In the area where you got the key, in that one small room if you went out one way, he suddenly teleported outside that door. if you turn around and go back through the small room, he'd teleport into that corridor. That was bad design, because I could literally see him suddenly pop into existance. You're supposed to not let players see that kind of stuff. So the first game isn't perfect either, but it's an awesome game.

Outlast 1's level design felt more intuitive. Outlast 2 feels like a mess once you get to where you have to start dealing with a bunch of guys walking around. Outlast 1 rarely ever left you feeling like you got screwed by the level itself, but Outlast 2 is a different matter. The first game never destroyed its own atmosphere and tension with needlessly repetitive gameplay mechanics and annoyance either, because you usually never needed to retry a given part very many times to clear it. Outlast 2 on the other hand, does, and makes merely progressing in the game quickly become a chore. It also has a significant difficulty spike when you're barely very far into the game, because of that poorly designed gameplay that starts a ways into the village, which is another reason its bad design.

So yea, that gameplay is very much inferior to the original game. :( Stealth is far less effective this time, because its far more likely for things to go wrong than in the original game. You didn't constantly get screwed over in Outlast 1.

This is pretty much exactly right.
I never ever felt cheated in outlast 1, that I can remember. I beat that game three times, and I never felt like I died because the game is just being stupid, or because I am being chased and don't know where to go.

I just did something in this game that I couldn't believe. All I had to do was push a cart up to a fence and climb over. Every single time I started doing it, the tall witch woman smashed through a fence next to me and I had to run right back to the start of that area. And I mean every single time. I would leave her at the start of the area, after leading her there. I would check with the microphone to make sure she is still down there. I start pushing the cart and then I hear the horrible dramatic music, hear her scream, look to my right and she is there, impossibly standing just a few feet from me, where she absolutely could not have been.
I bet it took me a good twenty minutes to push a cart ten feet. In the end I just did it, and got the last little bit with her just about to kill me.
This is not good game design. It's horrible game design. It doesn't build tension and scares. It builds annoyance and tedium.

[Megafont]

I restarted in Story Mode difficulty and it plays much better. I was in normal mode before. I can't imagine the two harder modes above normal mode.

[Hursti]

Originally posted by Megafont:

wall of text

i think you're 100% wrong. as i said, outlast 2 is exactly the same as the first one, just bigger and better. MORE OF THE SAME. what did you expect? less running, less hiding, less enemies, smaller maps? some people..........

oh and btw, if it took you more than 3 tries (atleats on normal, i did my first playthrough on nightmare and still got past every part in less than 3 deaths) you really suck at these games. that, and you CAN go stealthy on the parts its intended, and CAN hide after being spotted. just not if they see you going to the hiding place, again, just like in outlast 1.

and the "i never felt cheated on outlast 1", suuuure. there's PLENTY of chase parts with dead ends if you run into you're screwed, exactly like in outlast 2. but somehow you keep ignoring that fact.

[Hursti]

Originally posted by Megafont:

I restarted in Story Mode difficulty and it plays much better. I was in normal mode before. I can't imagine the two harder modes above normal mode.

explains alot, you just are not that good at gaming in general i'd assume.

[Wobb the Great and Terrible!!!!!]

Originally posted by Hursti:

Originally posted by Megafont:

I restarted in Story Mode difficulty and it plays much better. I was in normal mode before. I can't imagine the two harder modes above normal mode.

explains alot, you just are not that good at gaming in general i'd assume.

If we're going to go down that route, I'd assume you just are not that good at life.
This game is vastly different from the first one. Sure, at first glance it looks the same, but the mechanics of it, the intricacies of the gameplay and especially pathfinding and chasing scenes (being forced to run, rather than rely on skill and guile to sneak past undetected like you could in the first game), are incredibly different.
The game looks, sounds and feels wonderful. One of the most atmospheric horror games I have ever played. But that doesn't mean I have to just heap praise on it when the basic gameplay mechanics are just not well thought out how they were in the first game.

[VeritasNumquamPerit]

A failure of a game. I'm going to finish it, but I am having nowhere near the fun i had with the first one. It's a shame as you said because from a technical viewpoint, it's great. Especially the sound effects

[Megafont]

I agree. The game started out so right, and then went so wrong in the gameplay department. :(

There has to be some major difference between the games. It makes no sense to say I was fine at Outlast 1, but that I suck at Outlast 2 if they are the same game. Apparently my abilities left me in the space of about one day if that's true. :O

[Prett]

Guys. You realise that if you're not enjoying a game, you can literally just stop playing it, right?
Just go watch a playthrough of it on Youtube or something if you're still that interested.

[JocularJosh]

Originally posted by Prett:

Guys. You realise that if you're not enjoying a game, you can literally just stop playing it, right?
Just go watch a playthrough of it on Youtube or something if you're still that interested.

They already have the game, they paid for it and can't get it back so they should at least finish it.