While I play I usually write down notes about what I think of the game. For Outlast my notes turned into a diary. Here it is.

-Before I started to play Outlast I watched IGN’s “How Scary is Outlast”, video. And now I’m pretty nervous about playing this game. I played the Resident Evil 7 Beginning Hour teaser and that was pretty scary. What is this going to be like?

-I’m playing this as it should be, in the dark with head phones on. I’ve decided that to be brave enough to conquer this game I’m going to need to be drinking beer the whole time!

-The game beings with “Outlast contains intense violence, gore, graphic sexual content, and strong language.” Shit! What have I got myself into?

-The opening sequence is a drive up to the asylum and it’s already terrifying. Who would continue driving up there? Turn around man! At least don’t go at night.

-My wife is having the time of her life trying to scare me as I play this.

-That stupid T.V turning on already made me jump and that was nothing! Drink more. Beer will protect me.

-Could have mentioned using the camera with no night vision doesn’t use battery.

-The door to the toilets suddenly slammed shut. After a minute of breathing I decided to suck it up and try to enter. Can’t enter that door.

-That fucking library! Beer, so much beer is needed!!!

-AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-Can nobody hang up their fucking phone?

-I have the key card for security control. I’m on my way to safety… right?

-What do you mean restart the generator? Fuck the generator! Why do the psychopaths need power? Just crawl your ass out the front door.

-Why are generators always in the basement? Why not in a well lit room?

-Seriously how long is this game? I hope it ends soon. My nerves are going to be shot.

-The generator is on and my heart won’t stop beating. I might just die playing this game.

-Fuck this music and sound design!

-There’s been a lot of deep exhaling from me and now I’m really fighting the urge to find out how far through the game I am.

-I don’t give a fuck about finding all the notes!

-Fucking RUN!!!!

-Second night of playing. Got pretty drunk last night while I was playing this. This time I’ve started with a jagerbomb to get me to bravery fast!

-One negative thing I’ve found is that you can load up batteries when you don’t need to and you just lose them.

-So I was going to write I was feeling more courageous playing this time. Then the stupid big guy in the sewers saw me and found me hiding and I had to run my titties off to get away. Freaking out the whole time! How does this game do it?

-I got killed a couple of times because I can’t find my way out of the room. That’s fine, but it would be nice if I didn’t need to complete the objective again!

-Finished the sewers and into the male ward. I’m starting to get use to the game and some of the jump scares I’m actually now ready for.

-Third night playing and since tonight’s Sunday playing with no alcohol in my system. This could be bad.

-Chase scene was intense, but I got through it okay.

-Ahh fuck. I don’t need a doctor. I’m healthy. Please, look after your other patients. Those look dangerous put them DOWN!

-That doctors lucky I can’t kill people in this game or he’d be so dead.

-Okay these chase sequences are still really intense.

-I’m kind of finding it hard to find where to go sometimes.

-My wife walked behind me and bumped into a chair almost gave me a heart attack

-Fourth night playing. Didn’t get too far last night. I only give outlast about 30 minutes a night so I don’t freak out before I go to sleep. And I probably spend 20 minutes of that just hiding!

-It seems sometimes the guy stays in the room forever. Making me hide for a long time, but I finally figured out where to go.

-Oh my GOD. YES!!! The doctor got his. If I could piss on him I would.

-Kind of sick of the turn on two valves then hit a button objectives. I just end up running around dying just to find where the two objectives are then do a proper play through after. It takes away from the whole atmosphere of the game. And the big guy just stalks the same hallways which are the very ones I need to go down. Never really giving me a chance to sneak past. Seriously, this time I just got him to chase me and I ran around the room in a big circle then took off to where I needed to go.

-After all that I got outside. Ahh escape must only be around the corner.

-My laptop had to go in for repairs so I stopped playing for three weeks. I’m nervous about getting back into it. This game is suppose to be 5 hours long. I feel like I’ve already put that in.

-I forgot the stupid controls to run and turn around! And why’s it so dark outside?

-Now there are ghosts?

-A sign asks how alive am I now? Pretty alive. Nerves are running through me again. This stupid game will it ever be over?

-My character just made a note. I think it is, “Coming here was a great idea. Especially at night time and not telling anybody that I was on my way here. My decision making skills are unparalleled”. -A lunatic asked how do I know I’m not a patient? He makes a strong point for both the character being stupid enough to come here and me stupid enough to play this game.

-The courtyard cost me a lot of batteries. But I’m finally inside again away from that stupid beast. I hope he gets his.

-That’s it for tonight again. I got through another section and now I’m in the female ward. I will be trying to complete this area tomorrow.

-Back again. A cold Guinness by my side to help me get through the female dorms. Even the lightning is making me jump.

-Can Father Martin just help me? I really don’t like jumping through all these hoops. You know what instead of me seeing all the fucked up shit how about you send me a message on Facebook. No, no. Don’t send me a friend request. I’ll send you one.

-Why are all the stairs going up fucking broken! I don’t want to go through the dark hallway.

-Now the fuses are gone. Does anything in this fucking place work? And this priest doesn’t seem overly too concerned about my well being.

-I found the three fuses, but because I couldn’t find my way back and got killed I have to do it all again. I think the game should save when you find the fuse. Repeating takes away from a game like this. The scares are now annoyances and it’s just running and hiding.

-I just did it again and yeah it pissed me off. Sure, it’s a little scary with the guy chasing me but he’s just stalking the areas I need to go and I have to run around and get lost to get away from him. For the last fuse he jumped through the window that I have to exit by. Making me run all the way back and barricade the room and wait for him to leave. It’s even worse when I have the three fuses and just don’t want to die and have to repeat everything again.

-That alone took me close to 45 minutes to do.

-Trying to finish the ward just need to follow the blood. How hard can that be?

-Oh fucking brilliant I fell through the floor.

-Just saw my friend again. How nice that they remembered me. But thanks to my brilliant hide under a bed skill I got away from them. I am so smart. SMRT.

-I just dropped my mother fucking camera! Take back that smart statement.

-I’m out of the female dorm finally, but the big guy is walking around again. The way he’s always where I’m going. I think he loves me. Maybe he’s never been loved before and if I show him a bit of attention he’ll let me be.

-I got through all of the next part relatively easily. There are very few jump scares now. It’s kind of boring trying to find where to go and sometimes it can just be easier to read a walkthrough or watch YouTube to help find the stupid vent I have to crawl through.

-I’m finishing this game now on a Sunday afternoon. And even in the day time I’m still getting that rush when the big guy chases me

-I’m in the lab and it’s pretty easy to see that they had a bad day here.

-I’m almost there. I can see outside and sunshine. Escape. Fresh air. Life!

-… I don’t know if I should thank the ghost or be terrified. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, right?

-Okay, one last mission and I should be on my merry way.

-That’s the ending? After all my hard work. The terror. I don’t know if it was worth it.

My overall thoughts on the game mechanics are noted below.

-The notes are good for completionists, but a game like this a large number of gamers aren’t going to try and get all of them.

-The check point system seems okay. For the most part when I’ve died I’ve not had to go too far to get back to where I was. But the multiple fuse mission did take a few repeats.

-I have to admit that stopping to write these notes and I was also sending messages to my friends took me out of the games atmosphere for a few seconds and let me calm down. But honestly I needed those few seconds!

-This is a game you play one time to get scared shitless and maybe enjoy and then never play again. Except invite friends over and watch them play and laugh.

-Have read that the DLC is even scarier. How the fuck will I make it through that?

-While Outlast is a great horror game that will scare most people. It’ss also puts some people off playing. This is a bit of dilemma for horror game developers. Make your game incredibly scary and scare the living daylights out of the player, but have a number of players too scared to play reducing your profits. Or make the game less scary annoying horror game fans, but increasing the number of people that buy the game.

-And finally I’m relieved to say the DLC didn’t come with the game I bought so I’m off the hook for needing to play it.