#But usually portions in games like this would drag on and be ridiculously difficuly

[fillybuildsahouse]

I am VERY curious about why you think the writing of outlast is subpar (and quite frankly? You’re not alone in thinking it was :/)

THANK YOU I WAS HOPING SOMEONE WOULD ASK-

Okay so I feel like I should preface this by saying: I like Outlast gameplay-wise. I could probably nitpick a few things here and there, but we’re here to nitpick poor story structure not gameplay >:3c 

The most obvious (and frankly the worst most terrible) reason that I despise the story is because the ending (where your character Miles gets possessed/becomes a new demon host or whatever and immediately gets shot) is a HUGE bummer and really makes everything you go through to beat the game feel completely worthless and like you’ve just wasted a whole lot of your time. Putting that aside though, (for now) I’m gonna start with what I felt was the turning point in the writing, which was the single objective: Find Father Martin (or smth like that I don’t remember the wording shh).

By this point there is literally no reason why Miles should trust Martin. Before this point in the game, he see’s you almost unconscious and certainly hurt and just calls you a prophet and leaves you, shoots you up with a syringe of something that makes you pass out, sends crazy goons to ‘look after you’ (goons which defy that order and just end up trying to kill you while naked which is completely unnecessary by the way there is literally no nudity in this game that means anything or has any purpose). Not to mention that every note you find relating to him clearly depicts him as unstable and the leader of a cult. He mentions once or twice that he’s glad your safe and that he doesn’t want you to die but would that be enough for you to disregard all that, and try and find him once you get outside instead of taking your chances with barbed wire?? (Not to mention - and this is a nitpick I know -you find a shed outside with no bolt cutters but certainly tools that looks sharp enough to cut a hole in the fence so???). 

Aside from all that, following Martin eventually leads you to his mock crucifixion thing. This is the point where I realized that the cult storyline doesn’t really have a purpose except to have a reason as to why goons are after you, and I guess to through some admittedly cliche’ ‘spooky religious’ imagery at you (My favorite thing is that this troupe always boils down to ‘What if... Christianity was SCARY and A CULT’). 

What bothers me especially about this ‘following the crazy cult leader for no reason’ bit is that most of my problems with it could be solved with a single note, weather from Miles or a file in the asylum. Just anything that suggests that Martin either knows the only way out, or is the only thing stopping you from leaving, meaning it would be best to go with his plans until you can safely leave. 

It is at this point that I would like to mention that the doctors portion of the game, wherein you get captured and tortured and loose two of your precious fingers, is my favorite part in terms of story because it’s so tight and it makes more sense to me than most of the story and conflicting character motivation in this game. This doctor guy is crazy and he likes to torture people. He doesn’t know you, but he doesn’t really need to know you, and the fact that he speaks like a sane person makes it all the more infuriating that he’s going to do this to you just on a whim. 

When you’re being rolled around strapped to a wheelchair, there’s a bit where you see the open exit. The glowing red exit sign and the dark abyss of the storm outside is so close yet so far that it hurts, and this is made even better by the doctors dialogue, which taunts you with an offer of waiting while you frolic in the crisp outside air for a while. Then he cruelly wheels you (backwards so you can see your exit slipping further and further away as you go) into the elevator to torture you. This part is great! This part of the story is tight and self contained and it doesn’t interfere too much with the rest of the plot once the doctor dies. Also, giving the player a glimpse the exit (not just a way out but an open, earned, and easy-looking way out) and putting it  just out of reach like this is not only a cleverly cruel bit of writing, but it motivates the player moving forward by dangling a silvery thread of hope in front of their face for a brief moment before yanking it away. 

Credit where credit is due, you should never get to the point in a survival-based horror game where you’re saying ‘by this point I would just lay there and die honestly’ and this part prevents that from happening, if only to get you to a bad ending. 

There are other details that I’m not remembering I’m sure, but MOVING ONTO THE ENDING WHICH IS TERRIBLE. I just wish once that the ‘experiment gone horribly wrong in a horror game’ thing didn’t lead to the realization ghosts or whatever are real. I wish the walrider really was just a myth that crazy people saw in their dreams due to the experimentation. Because now not only does it take away a touch of originality (I wanted them so badly to go with the ‘it’s Billy’s suspended consciousness and because he’s now criminally insane it’s killing people and going nuts and making crazy people even crazier) but it validates every crazy rambling lunatic you come across who insists that the walrider is real. I don’t want those guys to be validated even a little bit! I want them to be wrong and crazy! 

As for Miles dying. Obviously it’s disappointing, and a huge bummer, and makes the whole game feel like a serious waste of time rather than a journey or a horrifying but otherwise fun experience, but they really kick you while your down with the realization that killing you doesn’t kill the walrider. The thing that you worked through the whole game to defeat, that posses you and drives people crazy, doesn’t get defeated by the end. Usually in a horror story this would be fine- if it had been written differently, I might even be fine with our character dying as well! But I can’t even comfort myself over the death of all my wasted effort because his death meant nothing in the grand scheme of things! The walrider is still out there being the source of cults and making people violent and crazy!  

Not to mention that while I was playing me and my brother gave Miles a wife character named Nancy because it was comforting at the time, and nOW HE’LL NEVER GET HOME TO SEE HIS BEAUTIFUL AND LOVING WIFE CAUSE HE DIED FOR A BADLY WRITTEN PLOT

GOSH this got long, but those are my thoughts! Fueled by my annoyance of sub par writing and the fact that I only got four hours of sleep last night! Enjoy and lemme know what y’all think or if you found other issues/gems in the writing that I didn’t catch!