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Outlast relocates parkour to the asylum, to terrifying effect

outlast-trailer

It’s been six years since the BioShock trailer that blew minds and drilled hands, and still nobody mimics its central conceit: first-person, no jump cuts – just world-building, heavy breathing and an awful series of events. Nobody but Outlast developers Red Barrels.

Ugh. That last jump scare was a bastard, wasn’t it? So: Outlast. That’s an order from the looks of things, and we’ll need to pull off tricks learned in both Amnesia and Mirror’s Edge to survive.

Or will we? I’m going to don my horn-rimmed sceptacles for a second and point out that this is proof-of-concept stuff, not in-game footage. It’s choreographed to take us through the game’s key elements and, brave though they are, scary questions pop up as frequently as the inmates.

Questions like: will those claustrophobic, vertical environments be something we explore or something we are funnelled through? Do the inmates roam, or are they sprung?

Red Barrels’ previous includes Splinter Cell, Prince of Persia, Assassin’s Creed and Uncharted – games which between them have been responsible for both turning players loose in open worlds and firing them down barely-interactive chutes.

To which side of the spectrum is Outlast likely to lean? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Thanks, RPS.