History VideoGame / Outlast

** [[spoiler:Soon after, Jeremy Blaire has stabbed you in the back - literally - and is about to kill you, mere ''feet'' away from the exit to the asylum. [[WhamShot Enter the Walrider.]]]]

* ''VideoGame/TheOutlastTrials'' (TBA) - A co-op multiplayer game set in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar.

* {{Yandere}}: '''Eddie fucking Gluskin''', aka "the Groom". He's psychopathic killer who believes Waylon is his wife to be and future mother of his children, at least after he hacks off Waylon's genitals. Most of the time he engages in sweet talk, but when Waylon is able to escape his true psychotic nature reveals itself.

* {{Leitmotif}}: A faint yet ominous horn plays whenever Chris Walker is nearby, and is usually heard before you know he's around. A more frantic theme plays when he chases after Miles.

* NonActionGuy: Miles can't fight off enemies; the most he can muster is an aggressive push, which, due to a patch that removes all of the quick time events, he can't even do in the current game. He can run quite quickly though, and the night vision on his camera lets him have an advantage over all of the inmates he faces.
** [[spoiler:Miles' inability to fight back is actually explained by a document found later in the game, explaining that even in subjects who are not capable of becoming hosts for the walrider, exposure to the morphogenic engine causes a surge in human growth hormone as well as other hormones; every psycho you encounter is effectively on a heavy steroid cycle, and so far from normal mental processes that they are probably using a LOT more than the normal 50% of their muscle strength that a human is normally capable of employing.]]

-->'''Dr. Wernicke''': Gott in Himmel...[[spoiler:You have become the host]]. ''(cue SoundOnlyDeath)''

* BigDamnHeroes: Gluskin has you tied down and is moments away from dragging your groin into a buzzsaw, but a random patient appears from out of nowhere and tackles him, giving you enough time to break out of the rig he has you tied to and escape.

* FanDisservice: Anyone into men can normally find a man in a tux appealing... but not when said man is covered in scars and blood coupled with that nasty habit of executing a GroinAttack while shouting misogynistic slurs at his (male) victims.

* ''VideoGame/TheOutlastTrials'' (2022) - A co-op multiplayer game set in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar.

* ''The Outlast Trials'' (2022) - A co-op multiplayer game set in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar.

* ''Webcomic/OutlastTheMurkoffAccount'' (2016) - An comic book series expanding on the games' universe.

* ''VideoGame/TheOutlastTrials'' (2021) - A co-op multiplayer game set in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar.

Independent journalist Miles Upshur breaks into [[BedlamHouse Mount Massive Asylum for the Criminally Insane]], which had been recently reopened by the transnational Murkoff Corporation, after receiving information from an inside source. Expecting a controversial scoop, Miles soon finds himself inside a horrible nightmare he could never imagine.

''Outlast'' is a SurvivalHorror game released for UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} on September 4, 2013 with a version for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 released on February 5, 2014, and an UsefulNotes/XboxOne version released on June 26, 2014. You control a NonActionGuy with no combat options aside the ability to {{parkour}} his way over obstacles, hide in lockers and under beds, and cut off pursuers amongst the decrepit hallways of the facility. As an added mechanic, Miles has a camcorder with a NightVisionGoggles mode, which is useful in the asylum's many pitch-black sections but requires batteries to operate.

* NakedNutter: Several demonstrably-insane patients go about their day in various states of undress: Chris Walker is a Walking Shirtless Scene, a few NPCs are missing shirts or trousers, quirky psychopath "Dr" Rick Trager dresses only in an apron, cannibal Frank Manera is permanently stripped down to his undies, and the cold-hearted Twins casually wander around wearing nothing whatsoever.

* AnachronismStew: Miles' notes mention Mount Massive Asylum was built in the 1950s and closed in the 70s, yet it doesn't look like anything from the 50s. It's closer to a 19th century Kirkbridge Plan asylum.

* AloneWithThePsycho: There's multiple times in the game where you end up alone and trapped with a hostile inmate. [[spoiler:[[{{Fingore}} You won’t be walking away from one of them in one piece]]]].

* FanDisservice: Anyone into men can normally find a man in a tux appealing… but not when said man is covered in scars and blood coupled with that nasty habit of executing a GroinAttack while shouting misogynistic slurs at his (male) victims.

** [[ThoseTwoBadGuys The Twins]], the infamous machete-wielding naked men you run into who long to kill you slowly and eat your organs.

** There's also [[ThoseTwoBadGuys the Twins]] Miles encounters in the asylum ward, both of whom nonchalantly talk about how they'd love to kill and eat Miles's organs while he's standing right in front of them.

** ThoseTwoBadGuys are carrying machetes and will not hesitate to stab Miles in the gut/back with them, which will kill him instantly.

* ReligionOfEvil: Implied. It seems that the pastor and a few of the inmates refer to the Walrider like it's a god. Namely the second coming of Christ, since the pastor quotes from Literature/TheBible. A good portion of the inmate population listens to the Pastor. Even the ThoseTwoBadGuys acknowledge that the Father said Upshur was not to be killed. Granted, they don't obey that command for long but do give Upshur a "head start".

* ThoseTwoBadGuys: The pair of naked, machete-wielding inmates with the strangely calm, erudite personalities come across as this.

* BedlamHouse: Mount Massive Asylum is not a place of healing. It turns out that this is entirely intentional, even critical to the plot: [[spoiler:The Morphogenic Engine only kicks in when used on subjects who have experienced/are experiencing extreme emotions only found in horrible living conditions (which is why its first successful use was in the heart of Nazi Germany. Wernicke says it's a way to force the human body to assemble molecules on demand -- human-created nanotechnology. Either that or the patients are right and the Walrider is MadeOfEvil and only manifests in extremely evil conditions. The two theories are not mutually exclusive.]] Additionally, the Morphogenic Engine seems to run on ''memes" as much as anything. Patients yell cryptic stuff that is surprisingly accurate, like [[spoiler:how "THIS is the experiment!" or "What kind of experiment would the dead perform on the living? I'll give you a hint: it's happening right now!" By continuing to do horrible things to each other, and to their former captors, the patients are "spreading" the experiment around. That's why you meet several executives who are just as crazy and mutated as the patients, including Trager and one of his victims. Kind of makes Martin's goal of wanting you to spread the truth all the more sinister, huh?]]

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Miles manages to kill the Walrider's host, and starts to make his way out of the base before being stopped by a squad of soldiers, who shoot him. As the game cuts to black, it's revealed that the Walrider has possessed Miles, who then murders the squad and is implied to begin TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.]] Fortunately, the [=DLC=] slightly expands on this.
* TheDreaded: The mysterious Walrider, who is talked about throughout the game, is described as this or worshipped.

* ElaborateUndergroundBase: What lies beneath the Asylum.

* ExtremelyShortTimespan: The entire game takes place over a single night - the [=DLC=] expands on this and reveals that it occur over ''a period of less than twelve hours.'' If you look at the clock in the room where you obtain the ''Variant Postmortem'' document, you can see it is 03:53am. The clock in the very first room you arrive in says 8:55pm. By the time you [[spoiler:die]], it's presumably just gone four am. You're only in the Asylum, as Miles at least, ''for just over eight hours!''

* ''VideoGame/OutlastII''(April, 2017) - A sequel, this time set in [[HillbillyHorrors an Arizona cult town]] rather than the asylum.

''Webcomic/OutlastTheMurkoffAccount'', an comic book series expanding on the games' universe, was created in 2016.

The ''VideoGame/OutlastII'' sequel was released in April 2017, this time set in [[HillbillyHorrors an Arizona cult town]] rather than the asylum.

A co-op multiplayer game set in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar called ''VideoGame/TheOutlastTrials'' is set for 2021.

* AlasPoorVillain: Surprisingly, Miles's reaction to [[spoiler:Chris Walker's]] death is this to some degree. It may have helped that [[spoiler:Chris was a war veteran with PTSD and Miles's assumption was that, based on Chris' own ramblings, Chris was trying to contain the horrors of the facility, albeit in his own, insane way.]]

* MonsterSobStory: Gluskin is a horrible killer even before the Engine, but his backstory of [[spoiler:pedophilia, physical, and sexual abuse]] is pitiable.