"Run, hide or die" is how this jagged survival horror summarises the options during the exploration of an apparently abandoned asylum – a succinct precis of everything it's possible to do in Outlast. It's scary, then, which seems to be the major purpose, but functionally so – there are rough edges and predictable moments as Outlast mixes a foundation of unremarkable genre convention with a handful of very effective ideas that sustain tension through a suitably punchy five or so hours.
On the generic side, there's the asylum – filled with the remnants of some experimental folly – and the patrolling bogeymen who lurk within. Maintaining a sense of urgency to the fear is enforced through the investigating protagonist being armed only with a camcorder and low-quality night-vision lens, forced to peer hard into the darkness at the very things he – and we – would rather avoid. As a result, Outlast conjures a thick atmosphere of jump scares and fragility that only really lets up when the core mechanics become familiar.
