Outlast 2 review roundup ahead of big PS4 and Xbox One release date

The Outlast 2 release date is set for tomorrow, April 25, on PS4, Xbox One, Mac and PC.

The first-person survival game will be one of the biggest horror launches in 2017, following Resident Evil 7’s successful release in January.

“Outlast 2 introduces you to Sullivan Knoth and his followers, who left our wicked world behind to give birth to Temple Gate, a town, deep in the wilderness and hidden from civilization,” the official game description reads.

“Knoth and his flock are preparing for the tribulations of the end of times, and you’re right in the thick of it.”

There is currently an Outlast 2 demo that can be found on the PlayStation Store and other platforms that can helps fans make up their minds about the new title.

They can also look at the first Outlast 2 reviews being released this week, giving a flavour of how well the game fulfils the role of ambitious sequel.

Outlast 2 Gamespot Review 7/10: “Outlast 2’s maniacal commitment to its core conceit is simultaneously its greatest strength and its greatest weakness. Like the original–which helped popularise first-person survival horror when it launched in 2013–Outlast 2 casts you as a hapless everyman with zero fighting skills and no tools beyond a camcorder. Your only option when confronted with grotesque, bloodthirsty murderers is to run and hide.

“As a result, every snapping twig, every distant scream, every gruesome corpse grips you with fear even more tightly than it might if you actually had a way to defend yourself. But this also means the core gameplay cannot evolve as you progress–the chase sequences you survive at the start of the game are essentially identical to the situations you encounter near the end.”

Outlast 2 IGN Review 8.3/10: “Not for the faint of heart, Outlast 2’s relentless scares, unforgiving monsters, and provocative meditations on faith are an anxiety-inducing but cathartic horror experience. While it suffers from a couple of pacing problems and some finicky navigation issues, its careful – and sadistic – manipulation of my fight-or-flight reflex had me experiencing an overwhelming sense of dread throughout, which abated only once the credits were rolling. The ending, however, stayed with me for days.”

Outlast 2 PC Gamer Review 85/100: “Long after the final minutes of Outlast 2, I felt queasy, uncertain that what I saw had actually happened. It’s one of the most bizarre ending sequences I’ve witnessed, tapping into a fear I’ve known since my first week at Sunday school. It’s not a fear about being hunted, artistic viscera spills, or neatly arranged corpses on spikes (though there’s plenty of that stuff). It’s fear of the drastic measures people will take to ensure their salvation, the burden of guilt, and whether or not the big guy up top exists and gives a damn.”

Outlast 2 GamesRadar review 2.5/5: “With the grisly heights of Resident Evil 7 to compete with – we’ve seen plenty of squalor and filth already this year – Outlast 2 needed to deliver something fresh, but instead serves up near instantaneous frustration. 

“While the very first sequence builds up sound and atmosphere expertly, as screams float gently on the wind and abandoned farm buildings creak in the night, it unfortunately also includes the first interaction with a recurring foe, Martha. Tall and terrifying, at least when she first looms out of the mist, she’ll slaughter Blake instantly with an enormous glowing pickaxe.”

Outlast 2 Polygon review 7.5/10: “While religion and the corruption thereof is a major theme in Outlast 2, the game doesn’t try to make any sweeping assumptions or accusations. It doesn’t attempt to lecture players on how all religious belief is evil — or, at least, that’s not what I took from the plot. But it does offer up some strong (if sometimes very on the nose) examples of faith being twisted to accomplish evil acts. 

“It’s a message that resonated powerfully with me as a lapsed Christian; whether it would work for a life-long atheist or a devout churchgoer is impossible to answer, and I suspect the answer is likely to be very different from person to person based on their own history.”