The first project from new indie studio Red Barrels looks very promising, and very scary.
The new Montreal-based indie studio Red Barrels was formed by industry veterans Phillipe Morin, David Chateauneuf and Hugo Dallaire, who between them have high-level credits on Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, Assassin’s Creed, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Splinter Cell: Conviction and Army of Two. But their debut title will be a slightly smaller-scale project: a first-person horror game entitled Outlast.
Outlast is set in Mount Massive, an abandoned, dilapidated insane asylum that’s recently been reopened by the multinational Murkoff Corporation. Acting on a tip that all is not as it appears, journalist Miles Upshur breaks in but quickly realizes that might not have been a great idea, as he’s trapped inside with something “that walks a terrifying line between science and religion, nature and something else entirely.” His only way out is through, to the “terrible truth at the heart of Mount Massive.”
I can’t help but wonder if the whole indie first-person horror thing is at risk of becoming a little overdone. Outlast sounds more than a little Amnesia-like, after all, and the “haunted Asylum” thing is just about pure cliche. But Morin suggested that the enemies in Outlast will be far more intelligent and dogged in their pursuit of players than Alexander’s sad, horrific creations, and there’s no denying that this trailer looks good. It looks really good.
I suppose there’s room in my life for another game like this. I just wish I could figure out why I keep inflicting them upon myself. Outlast is currently slated for a PC-only digital release sometime in 2013. To find out more, check out redbarrelsgames.com.
