Outlast 2 is oft-considered the survival horror series third installment, counting the DLC story expansion Outlast: Whistleblower. This is essentially an official classification because of the Outlast: Trinity collection that includes all three games. Counting each of these games, the Outlast saved its most jaw-dropping scene for last.
Each Outlast game has what can be called a “helpless scene,” a part where each game’s protagonist is rendered helpless and at the whim of a particular antagonist. In each of these helpless scenes, our hero is made to suffer some form of torture before escaping at the last moment. While this may be somewhat of a formula, it’s an effective one, and Outlast 2’s helpless scene may very well be the best in the series.
[Spoiler Alert: The rest of this article contains spoilers for the Outlast series.]
The original Outlast had the now-infamous scene with the good Doctor Richard Trager. After escaping up a dumbwaiter, Dr. Trager overpowers Miles Upshur and ties Miles to a wheelchair before escorting him into a dank bathroom where Dr. Trager removes two of Miles’ fingers with large rusty shears. After Trager leaves briefly, you’re able to break free from the straps and escape
In Outlast: Whistleblower, the stakes are upped even further, with antagonist Eddie Gluskin. Gluskin is also known as The Groom, for his desire to mutilate the genitalia of protagonist Waylon Park and turn Park into his bride. While running from The Groom, you are pursued back into a room where your only option is to hide in a locker. Does The Groom simply find you and kill you, prompting a reload? No. In fact, he sees you, jams the locker shut, and then drags the locker, with you still inside it.
In the first Outlast, it was Dr. Trager cutting your fingers off, and it only got scarier from there.
After this, he gives you a dose of knockout gas, and you awake on a woodworking table (buzz saw and all) with The Groom explaining how he’s going to make you into a beautiful bride. After another one of The Groom’s subjects attacks him, you’re able to shake the table until it breaks, and you escape.
But, Outlast 2 outdid each of these. After escaping Marta, protagonist Blake Langermann is then pursued by tormenting duo Nic and Laird, Laird being a small, child-like person who sits atop an unbelievably gigantic man named Nic. They believe you to be the “Scalled Christ,” and they need to insure you are reborn.
Walk through a cave, think you’re safe, only to be grabbed by Nic and Laird’s cronies. After Laird rambles for a while about gospels and forgiveness, he says “First we gotta get him on that cross.” Wait, what? Yeah. In Outlast 2, you get crucified, in first-person. You get to watch them hammer in the nails one at a time, and then you get strung up.
This segment actually contains a little bonus helpless scene as well. Shortly after this, they leave and you struggle your way down, find bandages for your hand wounds, and slide down a hill directly into a razor-wire fence. As you struggle, you’re confronted once again by Nic and Laird. This time, they bury you alive.
While this may sound contrived thus far, it’s actually part of a sick ritual they have going on. Believing you to be the scalled Christ, they needed to crucify you, bury you, and once you’re reborn, they plan to eat you, which they’ve prophesized will heal their ailments. Yeah, it’s even more terrifying once you make sense of it.
When people say Outlast 2 “raised the stakes,” this is the sort of thing they’re talking about. To a certain extent, it follows the formula of the previous games very closely, but increases the shock and awe, especially in its helpless scenes.
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