Red Barrels is currently working on the next installment in the frighteningly disturbing Outlast series. As one of the scariest video games ever created, the original 2013 release set the bar high for the horror genre, giving players one of the most terrifying experiences in recent gaming history. Much of the terror comes from the visuals, with its night vision camera mode, blood-splattered hallways, and oppressive darkness, but a new video shows what the game would possibly have looked like if it was released on the original PlayStation with much blockier graphics.
In the YouTube video, the mod team Rustic Games BR has shown a small section of the first Outlast game in a more pixilated format. The brief clip has the player moving slowly around a number of rooms, viewing everything through its famous camera lens. It captures the retro-look of an old horror game, taking the opening moments of the story and seeing whether or not it could retain any of its originally intended terror. The result is surprisingly affective.
Even in this era of modern graphical fidelity, with an industry keen to move forward with technology, there is space in the gaming sphere for all manner of pixilated and pixel art video games, and this includes horror. Even with the visuals turned back a couple of decades, this PS1-style version of Outlast still manages to be somewhat creepy, especially towards the end of the video in which the player can see one of the violent antagonists before the clip fades to black.
This is also not the first time the team has created something like this. Rustic Games is known for reimagining modern releases as retro titles. Just recently, the modders released a video showing what Dead Space would look like as a demade PS1 game, which incorporates tank controls and fixed camera angles more suited for early Resident Evil entries. Unfortunately, as with other projects, this Outlast demake is most likely just a visual demonstration, and it's unlikely that the team will release a public version of it.
With Outlast Trials due to be released this year, fans of the series will have another chance to get the pants scared off them. While the pixilated video of the original game is an interesting experiment in turning horror into something retro, it doesn't hold a candle to the original. Although the new game is said to focus more on multiplayer, it's still possible for it to become just as terrifying as the previous games.
Outlast Trials is still in development, and set for release in 2022.