If you love having heart attacks or actually have the mettle to stomach horror/survival video games or simply want a break from the mainstream popular title games of today, then Outlast is definitely a great choice to play. Released on September 4, 2013 for PC and February 4, 2014 for PS4, Outlast is a game appropriately named for the first-person survival/horror genre of video games. Red Barrel, the studio responsible for the horrors of Outlast, created the game with three simple options for playing: run, die, or hide. It's just that simple. Those are your only choices to survive a mountain asylum filled with nightmares that stalk you throughout every blood-stained hallway. However, the scariest thing about Outlast has to be one single feature, a hide button; but I'll get to that in a bit.
Now, the hide button isn't the only option presented to you in your struggle to survive. Sometimes you will have to crawl, jump, vault, run, or squeeze your way to safety from one horror only to find yourself holding your breath to avoid another. Thankfully, besides vaulting low objects, the enemies in Outlast can't perform any of these maneuvers like you can. This gives the player a slight edge...however, be warned, as it is one of few. Combat is not an option in the game, only avoiding. Now you do have a few options when it comes to avoiding your enemies, but you need to be fast! You can hide in a locker or under a bed when cornered in a dead-end room, disappear for a short time into an air duct for safety, or slip through a narrow pass to move on to the next area. However, creating loud noises or attracting enemies will force you to act quick! For instance (and this does not contain major spoilers) at one point in the game, you must turn two valves to restart a generator. These valves are in two separate rooms and cause the generator to let out a noisy screech that, you guessed it, attracts the bad guys. Once you turn on the first valve, one of the enemies will barge into the room shortly after, and without much warning. As you hear him try to bust the door down, you will have to think fast before he charges in and beats you to death with a pipe. Hiding in a locker is your only option before he catches you. However, be cautious, as he will check some of the lockers looking for you, so pray that you choose the right one! Lastly, as a big part of the gameplay, your character, Miles Upshur, does a great job at adding to the tension at the already amazingly tense moments in the game. As you leave or come upon a moment in the game where something may (or may not) happen, the music will start to rise and play the classic "opera violin music" that has become accustomed to horror in movies, games, etc. and then Miles will start breathing heavily, mimicking the timidness experienced by the player at the same time. At first, (and I know from experience) you may not realize it is Miles breathing heavily and believe that something is nearby, stalking you. However, I will admit that this is a nice touch that they added to the game. It really helps develop the feel of what it is your going through in this "abandoned" asylum.
Overall, I say that Outlast is a great game that does an even greater job at scaring the mess out of players. Now, I haven't played many horror games besides this, but I'm sure once you play it for yourself, you'll agree.