Red Barrels’ Outlast made waves when it launched back in 2013, capitalising on the craze in the horror genre that had weapons taken away from players, in turn forcing them into handling conflicts in other ways. The developers’ second outing in the series, Outlast 2, is a much more refined approach to tackling survival horror, and its Switch conversion is an excellent one. It’s still as scary as ever — easily being one of the scariest games I’ve played in recent memory — and runs very well on the portable console.
Taking place in the Arizona desert, Outlast 2 pits you as journalist Blake Langermann. Alongside wife Lynn, both of you are heading out to Arizona in order to report on and explore the disappearance of a pregnant woman known as Jane Doe. It doesn’t take long for the chopper you’re in to go down and for both of you to become separated, and from there it becomes a quest for you to find your wife and figure out what the heck has happened to Jane Doe. All is not well in the Arizona desert, though, as it quickly becomes apparent that the place is inhabited by crazed cultists who have been converted into believing that the end is nigh.