Outlast Notes

I choose to start a new game on normal.

A text screen tells us that the game is adult. It then goes on to give some background. We play a journalist called Miles Upshur, we are investigating stories about an asylum called Mount Massive. The player is reminded that their character is not a fighter and the only way to stay alive is to hide or run.
The game starts in a car, driving on a remote country road. We can look around in first person perspective, though not move the cars steering. We reach the gates of Mount Massive Asylum quickly. As the car stops we reach for a file. The email that brought Miles here tells us that Murkoff Systems are doing experiments at Mount Massive. The experiments involve dream therapy. The tipper tell us that people are being hurt and he is breaking NDA agreements to tell us this. Miles picks up his camcorder. We see that it has zoom and night vision properties. Miles gets out of the car. He can crouch and jump. Pressing R1 brings up the camcorder. I open a gate and get into the grounds. A note is taken in my reporters log. It talks of Murkoff being held up as a charity, thought it is known to be a front for shady dealings. I can run with L1

As I enter the gardens a figure can be seen at the window, then it moves off. The front door is locked and there are three military type jeeps parked outside it. There are gates to the right of the asylum, though all are locked. A gate to the left has been prized up at the bottom, I can crouch and pass through it. There is another locked door, however, a scaffold can be climbed leading to a window that is open. Inside it goes dark as we enter. I have to use the camera's night vision by pressing R3. The first room is furnished but seems devoid of anything useful. I move out into a corridor and find another large living room type area. There are pictures of a priest, that have been scored as if by claws. The door has been knocked off it's hinges. A television comes alive with static as I get close to it. I move back out into the corridor and have to squeeze through a gap. There are bloody handprints on the wall. I enter some offices and find a battery and a document. The document walks of project Walrider. A patient called Billy is described as having lucid dreams. It seems that Billy is being given drugs that are changing his blood chemistry and sleep cycle. He seems to also be able to see other peoples dreams as he has found out his mother is trying to carry out a lawsuit against Murkoff.

A door in the corridor shuts as we approach and won't open for us. In a break room it looks like someone has been eating bowel. Blood trails lead to a vent in the ceiling. I climb into the vent and move on. Looking down through a grill in the vent a man can be seen closing the door to another room. I come out into a larger area, with yellow glass partition walls. I can see someone moving in the distance, they leave the area. I can see a larger room through the glass and someone has been writing in blood. I open a door to a library and a dead body falls from above. The room is dark and I need to use the night vision. The bodies are missing their heads. There are a few. I move through some shelves and come to a man impaled on a spike. He is surrounded by severed heads and body parts litter the floor around him. He tells us that we can't fight them and have to run, he tells us to get out before dying. I move on back out into the corridor. I explore a toilet and find a battery. Then move into another gap I have to squeeze through. As I do a large ugly guy grabs me and hurls me through a window down into the large room below. Half knocked out we see a man in monk like robes examine our camera. He talks of a disciple. We pass out and wake again with no sign of the monk.

I am now down in the lower area, which is a large reception hall. There  are bodies all over the place and the blood writing says "proclaim the gospel". In the rooms off the hall are toilets and empty rooms. There are also rooms filled with computer stations. I find another document talking about the drug therapy, which they seem to be calling Morphogenic engine. A man named walker has been self mutilating in order to see like a lizard called Tuatara. I move through into a corridor and see a man sitting in a wheelchair, he looks emaciated and mutated. He does not seem to notice or care about us. I move past him and find more men sitting in a common room watching a static filled television. They are mutilated and have skin eruptions. I crouch under some planks barricading a door and move into a room where I find a dead body with a security keycard. I leave the way I came, the wheelchair guy grabs at me and gibbers as I pass. I move back out into the reception area. I am informed that i can look behind while running. Suggesting that I might have need of such a facility soon. I come to a choice, there is a stair heading down or a corridor. There is also a lift, pressing the call button appears to drop some poor soul to his death down the shaft. I am meant to be heading for the security room, and a sign says that it is along the corridor. I go that way. A figure can be seen moving at the end of the corridor. In a toilet a dead body has "witness" written in blood above him. I find the security office. Inside blood writing says "They lie." I can hide inside a locker here. At a computer in the office I am given the chance to unlock the main doors. I use the computer and a progress bar shows that the system is rebooting. On the monitor I see the monk walk up to a lever and pull it. The power goes out. I am left in the security office, I can see the monster coming. I hide, it comes in and looks around for me and then leaves the office. A document in the next room talks about profit from the morphogenic engine treatment. The generator that the monk shut off is in the basement and the only option seems to be to backtrack and go down the stairs this time.

I go down and enter a more industrial part of the asylum. I am blocked by a padlocked gate, through there is a broken down section of wall I can squeeze through. A document here talks of Mk Ultra and the CIA doing hypnosis experiments. I move on and find a machine room. A panel tells me that I need to turn on two gas pumps and the main breaker to restart the generator. I explore and find a switch that turns on pumps. As I head for the door an inmate with a baseball bat walks in. I hide behind the door and he does not seem to see me in the dark. I leave the room before he sees me. I go to the next switch and press it.
I now find that the enemy wanders around and will attack me on sight. I have to avoid him and hide in cabinets and under beds to evade him and find my way through the small corridors to the next switch. This is the one we saw the monk pulling from the security office. I then have to evade the attacker and get back up the stairs to the security office. Which once you get out of the lower floor goes without hitch. In the office I have visions of the monk simply pulling the same switch again. I can't imagine trying this for a second time will go well. It doesn't as soon as I touch the keyboard the monk grabs Miles from behind and injects him with a comedy syringe. He shows us a video of the soldiers being attacked by an invisible force which is tearing them apart. Miles passed out.

We awake in a padded cell filled with bloody graffiti. A note talks of Father Martin, presumably the mad monk. There is mention of a Dr. Wernicke who died ten years ago. The cell is opened by an inmate. I come out into a cell block of padded cells. There are inmates wandering but none harm me. Two talk about wanting to kill me, but have been warned off by father Martin. One single cell has a hole in the back wall on the lower floor. I can squeeze through into a pipe filled area and climb up into the corridor above. This is still in the prison like section of the asylum. I move into the same area i was in before, just on the other side of the fences. I move into a room that looks like some kind of gas decontamination room, then up a flight of stairs. Words written in blood on the walls tell me to jump down a hole nearby. I find an elevator that looks shiny and modern compared to everything else so far. The door panel says that it is inactive. I have to find a way to activate it obviously. An inmate locked in a tiny cell tells me that they weren't experiments, they were rituals. I find my way to a security office, there is another attacking enemy to avoid and lose by hiding. I manage to activate the button in the security room, it is an airlock, not an elevator. I go back to it and pass through. There is more cell block on the other side of it. I come to a gate where the two bruisers are waiting with machetes. At a broken window I am told to go through and hang. I can shimmy from side to side hanging by my hands. I then climb in another window on the other side of the gate. The twins have gone. I come to a door that needs a keycard. I pass through a broken airlock, there is a corridor with a view into another cell area, with much more aggressive looking occupants. I find the keycard and go back to the door that needs it. I am given a new objective, to exit through the showers. I move through the balcony area above the showers with no hindrance and come out into a corridor that lets me into a security room. There is another switch. I press it and the large monster comes into the airlock. It begins to smash it's way through the glass to get to me. I turn to run and a grate falls open in the ceiling. This is obviously they way to go. I climb in and go through the grate which leads me to come out into a corridor. I run along it and the monster is chasing me. I pass the broken airlock and it explodes, knocking Miles out of a window into a new area below. He lands on a pile of corpses, which gives him a relatively soft landing. The monster comes down looking for us, there is a bed to hide under. I must now find my way out avoiding being seen by the monster. I avoid it an manage to sneak through and crouch into a new area. I can now enter the lower shower area. There are many inmates in here and some are unfriendly. I climb a bed up to the next level. An inmate attacks as I walk by, but another grabs him and knocks him off the balcony. I find a document in a cell that talks about Wernicke, a mathematician who worked with Alan Turing. He was German so was on opposite sides during the war. He retired to work with the Murkoff corporation. He died at 90 years old. I move on, walking along a ledge a prisoner grabs me and nearly knocks me off but not quite. I crouch under a gap between two cells and then go down a hole. A note from Miles tells us that the big monster is called Walker. He thinks the Walker might be trying to fix the problem rather than being it. I move into the showers proper and find a hole in the ground to go into. This leads to pipe filled areas and then into large sewers.

I am given a new objective of finding a way out of the sewers. I climb through a smaller pipe and a new section is loaded. I see a ghostly floating apparition pass by. I follow it through a gap and find a pipe that is flooded, I need to drain the water to get through. Our old friend walker is back to avoid. The first valve is to the right down a corridor. The second valve is down the left corridor, though harder to reach. There is a squeeze gap that I don't think Walker can manage to get through. I turn the valve and must now get back to the ladder. I climb down into smaller darker pipes and move through until I come to another ladder. I see a man with a torch in the distance here, I am fairly sure it is father Martin. I come to a door marked admin block. I find an inmate who talks sense for once. He asks what kind of experiments a dead doctor would perform on the living. I climb down another ladder and come into more sewer, signs point to male and female wards. There haven't been any female inmates so far that I could tell. Looks like that is about to change. Maybe not, as the way to the female ward is blocked. I head back around towards the male ward. I move through a large area of sewer until i come to a massive empty room. Walker is in here with us. You can see his eyes glowing. I find a grate near the middle and climb up and jump onto a ladder to get out. I move through some narrow corridors an aggressive inmate will only attack if you go too close here. I avoid him and pass down into more sewers. we are still heading for signs that say male ward.

A load signifies a new area. The male ward at last? I find more cells and evidence of torture. A new mechanic is introduced here, the ability to shift crate like metal object by pushing them. I come to a door that is being thumped from the other side. The only way forward is to push aside the barricade. This doesn't seem like a good idea. I do it anyway. It seems the only way to progress. There is nothing on the other side apart from more corridors and rooms. I move into an area with hospital like curtains. I find a document from someone called Trager, who seems to be posing as a doctor and doing a very bad job of it. He talks about project Walrider costing too much and cutting eighty personnel. I think he actually means killing the eighty not sacking them. there is a locked door at the end of the ward. I climb into a vent to bypass it. In the locked room is a man tied to a chair. As I approach him he starts screaming and then two crazed inmates with machetes that banging the locked door down. I must run for it and bar the door with a crate. Then open another crate blocked door and run down another corridor and do the same. This leads to a morgue where I jump out of a hole in the wall. I then run headlong down some corridors and through some rooms with crazies chasing. I reach a dumb waiter and a voice tells me to get in. I do and am brought up out of the way of the crazies.

Into the hands of a very odd looking person with a monocle and mummified skin. He knocks us out and ties us to a chair. He takes us in the chair through the area that appears to be in his control. He shows us an open balcony to the outside world as a tease. I think this is doctor Trager. He takes his time choosing instruments, then cuts off two of our fingers. I have to wiggle the left stick and escape. Miles vomits, though oddly he makes no attempt to stop the bleeding. I am now free to walk around this new area. I find a man on a bed bound and tortured. He tell us that this is Trager. Trager is like Walker, simply a monster that needs to be avoided. I find an elevator, though it needs a keycard to make it move. Looks Like I need that card to escape. I explore this area and find many ward filled with trussed up and cut up inmates. A document found in a toilet shows me that the man who likely contacted us was called Annapurna. I find the elevator key in an office. As I find it Trager attacks, busting down the office door. I run from him and manage to find the elevator. It moves down slowly. He appears trying to get in to us on the next floor. I struggle with him and he is crushed by the lift. I climb out the top of the lift and then make my way downstairs trough the door he unlocked to get to the floor below. I meet father martin on the other side a glass partition. He tell us that we are close now. I am not sure who is worse, Martin or Trager, at least  one is dead now. I make my way forward, finding a room that is filled with burning furniture. A man sits waiting to burn to death in here. I am tasked with turning on the sprinkler system. I find a switch, but there is no water, I need to find more switches first. Walker is back, he seems attached to father Martin. I find the two valves, as usual in two different directions and then go back to the sprinkler button and turn it on. This causes the sprinklers to activate. I am then told to go and find Father Martin. I make my way back to the cafeteria and pass through it, the fires are out now. In the kitchen the man i saved knocks me over and runs away. I move on, a load signifies a new level.

I find myself at the open balcony area Trager showed me earlier. I find a document talking about MKultra again, talking about sleep induction and hypnosis. I head for the exit. The exit leads onto a garden area, which is in total darkness. At one end are two padlocked gates and a sign written in blood which asks how alive I am. A good question. There have been enough references to suggest that this is all a dream or a hallucination. I find a locked gate and start looking for a key. I find it in a small shed. A ghostly figure is floating around, it isn't killing us, so that's good, I hope. I open the locked door and them move on, finding a ladder that leads onto a rooftop. I then have some platforming to do. Making my way from roof to ledge and then onto more roofs. I them make my way through some fairly empty areas and a load begins. Only it doesn't stop the loading animation and I have to close and restart. I have to move on doing more wandering in the pitch black and climbing on roofs and ledges. Then meet Walker again, I avoid him by ducking down a small hole in masonry. I am now in the female ward. I have to climb in through a window. Inside I see father Martin up on a high ledge in a part of the ward that looks totally ruined. All the balconies and ways up have collapses. I must find a way up to Martin. Progress is made though dark and empty corridors. A washing machine is filled with something nasty. A document tells us that the Walrider is a demon that attacks people as they sleep. I come to an elevator, there are stairs up and down alongside it. I am trying to get up to Martin, so obviously the stairs going up are broken. I go down instead. I am now wandering around aimlessly in the dark. I eventually realize that I must jump a piece of broken stairs behind the elevator to progress. On this floor I find that a key is stuck in the laundry chute. I need to get it moving and must find three fuses to do this. I was expecting walker to appear, but there are some inmates with knives who are to be avoided here. A quick exploration of the area provides two fuses. I have to barricade the door with a metal crate against an inmate at the second fuse. He leaves after bashing the door for a while. Near the laundry chute there is a hole to climb through, this leads to the final fuse beside an inmate who has been crucified and inverted. Back at the chute I place all the fuses. The inmate with a pipe here is a bit of a menace, he is rather too handy at finding you. For the first time in the game I really want to kill the annoying idiot. I can now open the laundry chute. It vanishes downwards with the key. I go back downstairs to the laundry room and get the key. Back upstairs I can open the door. At the top of the stairs a sign says to follow the blood. I come to a room where the floor collapses. I have to climb back out using beds in the room below. I find a room where files have been removed. I go to a door and as I open it the two bruisers with machetes emerge. They don't attack and simply leave. I move on and find a very broken down room. i have to platform my way across. As I do a piece of floor breaks and I lose my camcorder. I can now not see in the dark at all. I have to go down into this new area and find the camcorder. It isn't all that far away I get there without incident. When I collect the camcorder it's screen is cracked, making the view even more difficult. To add insult to injury I am now attacked by three weapon wielding inmates. I run back up to the third floor. Now the way back is harder because the floor I jumped to earlier has now collapsed. I jump the longer gap and am told to find Father Martin. I move through this new area into the administration block.

Guess who is back to annoy me again, Walker. I am back essentially where I started. I am chased by Walker in corridor with a few rooms, there is nowhere to go until I spy an open vent. I push a body out of the way at the end of the vent and appear in the area where we first met Walker. I enter the area above the elevator and an inmate speaks to me through the gate. I am barred entry by a locked gate again. I need to find a key. I go looking for the key and move through a new area, a recreation like room for the staff and then come to a theatre like area. An interview with Wernicke talks of the morphogenic engine and only subjects who has seen trauma being able to produce good results. I move on and come to the projection room. An inmate bars the door on me. I have to find another way around, climbing on ledges and jumping onto a balcony. Inside the projection room is the key. I come back into the cinema and a door is opened by the bruiser twins. I avoid them, though I don't think they are actually going to kill me unless I provoke them. This new way is a shortcut back to the locked door at the lifts. I open it and go up. I come to a sign for Murkoff. Inside the door is a kitchen like area. I move through and find a large cafeteria. I explore and find another recreation room. I move through a gap in a broken wall and into a corridor of the admin block. In the rooms here the inmates are all kneeling and praying. I find there is no way forward. I explore all the rooms here and find one with an open window. I climb out one window, edge along the ledge and in through another window. Signs here say that God hates sickness and money. I enter the chapel, flanked by the two bruisers. Father Martin has crucified himself. He then is set alight. He told us something before he died, though the audio on the PS4 and my television is screwy and the music here so loud that I couldn't make out what he said. I go back out and have to get to the elevator. Apparently the front door is open and the elevator will take me right to it. I move onwards and am attacked by walker again. Making finding the way back to the elevator hard work. I manage it, finding that I had to climb a vent in the cafeteria takes work when Walker is right behind you. I move through the kitchen area and find the lift. I enter it and use the key.

Unsurprisingly this is another trap. I use the key and the lift takes me way down into the basement of the asylum, past the teasing glimpse of the front door. This new area is industrial, and soon give way to what looks like ice caves. I move along a corridor and come to the reception area where I saw the special forces being torn apart by the invisible force earlier. There are lots of bodies. I move on and find modern labs. It looks like some of the bodies have exploded rather than been murdered. I come to a corridor where a window shows what looks like a loading bay and an exit. I move towards it and find the Walrider spirit. It attacks and kills me. Wasn't what I was expecting. I run from it next time and open a door to find walker. He gets about. The Walrider attacks Walker and kills him, it vanishes. I move back and a new door has opened. I enter an office like area and find Wernicke, not dead. He tells us that the Walrider is actually Billy, using some kind of nano-technology. Billy is actually on life support. The morphogenic engine allows this astral projection to happen. He tells us to kill Billy so that we can disable the Walrider and be allowed to leave. I move on and find the Morphogenic engine. A large sphere with smaller spheres around it's base. Inside one of the smaller spheres is Billy, in a life support system. I must turn it off. I have to disable some failsafe systems before I can simply turn it off. I move to the fluid reservoir room and turn a valve. I then have to turn off the power. This is a journey in the other direction from the main lab. I am chased by Billy on the way. I pull the power and then have to get back to the main lab and switch off the life support. I do this and am thrown about by Walrider until Billy dies and the spirit fades away. I now have to get out. Miles is limping badly which really makes progress slow. I come to a door and come face to face with Wernicke and some soldiers. They shoot me. The credits roll. A voice tells me that I have become the host. I can hear screaming. Does this imply that our spirit is now free like Billy's was and we are killing the soldiers and Wernicke?

Around 10 hours to complete the game.

40% of trophies for one play through, only missing insane mode and the full document and notes trophies.