Outlast is a classic horror survival game where the players take control of an investigative journalist as he explores a ruined psychiatric hospital. Unfortunately, the hospital isn’t as abandoned as he expected to find it. Instead, it is overrun with patients who are all completely ready to kill him at the earliest opportunity.
Finding it difficult to escape, the player character, Miles Upshur, is drawn into the story of a self-appointed priest who believes Miles to be his apostle. Miles later uncovers an experiment gone wrong which led to the creation of a terrifying, possibly supernatural entity that began the ransacking of the asylum. Of all the fascinating narratives included in Outlast and the later games in the franchise, there is even more intrigue and terror to be found in the lore of the franchise.
6 Miles May Have Survived Outlast’s Ending
Miles Upshur seemed to be murdered by Murkoff employees at the very end of Outlast, after managing to eliminate Billy by turning off the machine. However, that might not have been the case, as suggested by Wernicke realizing that Miles is the new host of the Walrider. While Miles was certainly gunned down, he seems to be either still alive after the Walrider heals him, or in control of it with his consciousness despite his body being dead.
Throughout the comic miniseries “The Murkoff Account” there are suggestions that the Walrider is still active and that Miles is in charge of it. There are also allusions that say Billy might have been healed and brought back, and could still be in charge of a piece of the Walrider as well. While many Outlast lore details have never been confirmed, it seems fairly certain from a variety of evidence that Miles is alive, and the Walrider is still operating in a terrifying manner.
5 The Murkoff Corporation Is Behind Outlast 2
Even fans of the lore in the first Outlast game may struggle to see the connection between it and the second game. Outlast 2 takes place in Arizona, where a pair of journalists that are husband and wife are venturing into the desert to investigate a pregnant woman’s murder. What they find is a horrifying cult led by a preacher who claims that the end of days is nigh.
The reality, explained only through vague pieces of lore and somewhat falling to fan group theories about the second game, is that using radio towers, the evil Murkoff Corporation from Outlast managed to instill people trapped inside a certain area of the desert with their worst fears. This explains much of the confusion throughout the plot of Outlast 2, including why a preacher would turn to such drastic forms of evil and why Blake saw so much of his past childhood trauma in vivid daydreams.
4 The Walrider May Be Knoth’s God
Putting together various quotes by Knoth throughout Outlast 2, there is some substantial evidence pointing towards the Walrider being a major piece of what is going on in Arizona. Knoth insists, both in voice lines and quotes taken from his biblical writings, that the God he believes in is real and has managed many things.
It is suggested that Knoth was at Mount Massive at one point while the Walrider was being created. As an entity that appears to be supernatural in nature to those that don’t know the truth, it would be easy for a religious man like Knoth to take it as a religious figure. The Walrider could be behind the sexual assaults in Outlast 2, as more writings in the lore of the sequel prove that it is capable of and has previously assaulted people in such a manner. The Walrider being involved would help to explain some of the surreal events of Outlast 2.
3 Lynn Was Never Pregnant In Outlast 2
Another point that is explained by Murkoff being behind the events of Outlast 2 is that the game seemingly takes place over the course of less than 24 hours. However, Lynn gets taken away and is impregnated, and manages to give birth before the end of the game. All of this happens so quickly because the radio towers are distorting Blake’s mind to believe Lynn is pregnant.
What is real or actually happened is not fully explained by the lore within or without the games. However, what is known is that Lynn says “There’s nothing there” when Blake shows her the baby near the end of the game. Many think, with support from the comic book miniseries “Outlast: The Murkoff Account,” that the radio towers brought fears like Blake’s to life and made him see her pregnancy, the baby, and many other horrors which weren’t really taking place.
2 The Arizona Project Was Destroyed By Ants
One of the stranger details in the lore of the Outlast franchise is that part of the nanotechnology Walrider escaped at the end of the first game through a colony of ants. These ants were controlled by the Walrider, though it is unknown whether Billy or Miles was in control of them. It seems more likely due to evidence from The Murkoff Account that it was Miles, but much about the lore remains mysterious.
The Arizona Project, after the events of Outlast 2, was destroyed by a colony of ants operating under the control of one of these men. The ants destroy the radio tower which is sending the signal that worked on the minds of Blake, Lynn, and many others throughout the second game.
1 Simon Peacock Is As Bad As Murkoff
Simon Peacock is introduced at the end of Outlast: Whistleblower as a prototype of what Murkoff wanted to accomplish with the Walrider. He has a lot of capability and is able to take a lot of gunfire without a scratch. While he seemed to have died sometime after the information leak following Whistleblower, this is contradicted by the comics.
In The Murkoff Account, it is shown that Peacock is still active and is using methods such as sending a Murkoff employee the finger of his daughter to try and turn their employees against the company. While his methods make him as bad as Murkoff itself, at least he is trying to get rid of them.
The Outlast Trials was released on May 18th, 2023, and is currently available on Windows.