Outlast, my first impressions

Yesterday I began playing a new horror title known as Outlast brought to us by the talented team at Red Barrels, for those of you who haven't heard of  them, the team consists of designers whose previous works include Assassins Creed, Splinter Cell and the Prince of Persia series. On top of this Outlast is one of the first Unreal Engine 4 games, it looks great, texture resolution, lighting and particle effects all look gorgeous. If this sort of quality can be achieved with relatively new software I have high hopes from what we can expect games later down the line when the software can be used to it's maximum potential.

Immediately Outlast triggers memories of playing Amnesia: The Dark Descent, from the use of dynamic lighting, chilling audio cues and your complete weakness as a player, Outlast clearly takes inspiration from Amnesia and other older horror classics like the Silent Hill series, and rather than simply trying to emulate those titles it takes the genre in a direction of it's own which feels new and interesting.

If you haven't played Amnesia and you are a fan of horror go
pick it up on steam before the sequel is released on Sept 10th.

I have only played around one hour of the game so far, and I have heard if you are fairly quick at beating it the game will last around four hours; so this post is in no means a review.
From what I have gathered so far you play a reporter sent to investigate a series of strange events at an Asylum, this approach allows the game to introduce the video camera mechanic without it feeling ham-fisted.
Basically you use the video camera to document your finding, akin to the mementos in Amnesia, except unlike Daniel your character will not document his thoughts unless you have the camera out at the time. This I really enjoy about Outlast as I find myself  sweeping every inch of the beautifully detailed asylum looking for clues, reminds me of playing Metroid Prime and scanning absolutely every item.

In addition to this the camera also has a infra-red mode meaning in Outlast there are no torches or lanterns, just your trusty camera, such a simple change makes a huge difference to the atmosphere of the entire game, the eerie green hue an hum of the camera replace the flicker and crack of a flame perfectly, as this would have felt rather out of place in Outlast; and don't even get me started on how the game makes you feel when your trapped in a dark room and your cameras batteries begin to beep and die out.

I'm going to finish up this post with a video link to the game trailer for you guys. I will be posting my full review of Outlast once I have completed the entire game. Enjoy.