Outlast 2 was really disappointing to me. All the things that made Outlast so great, most of that is gone, and was replaced with over-used chase moments.
Outlast 2's story is about a wife (Lynn) and husband (Blake) that are in a helicopter, doing News about a pregnant woman that mysteriously died. But when they were doing their thing, the engine went out, and they crashed. Lynn and Blake survived, but Lynn got kidnapped. Your job is to find Lynn, and get out of the hell they're in.
I really wish I can say more about the story, but then it just becomes confusing and cliched later on. In order to understand the story, you need to read all the notes in the game, and you need to record all the things you can record. It's a really confusing choice, because Outlast 1 was easy to understand what was happening with the asylum if you pick up 3-4 documents. Having to get all the notes and recording just to understand the story is just tedious and not fun.
The gameplay itself does have SOME upgrades, but it has a lot of downgrades as well. You now have an inventory system. If you press Tab, you can look at your recordings, how many batteries you have, and how many bandages you have. You can now locate sound from the left and right, even though I didn't really use it at all. The enemy A.I. is improved, but it's not much better. If you get hit, you can heal up with the bandages if you stand still. Those are the only things I can think of right now.
You all remember the thing that made the game so amazing? The stealth mechanic? Sadly, stealth in Outlast 2 is now useless, because the enemies can spot you just like that. Because of that, it's now a "Running Simulator." What makes this even worse is that it's trial-and-error. Since the game is very linear, there is only one way to make progress, which means if you take the wrong way, you're dead.
Speaking about trial-and-error, the level design is terrible. Half of the time I didn't even know where I needed to go, which got me killed a lot. I go to this house, door's jammed, dies. Tries again. Goes to this house, door's jammed, dies again. Tries again. Goes to this house, realized there is a crawling space I need to go through, and finally makes progress. So many times it's hard to figure out where to go, which makes the game more frustrating than scary.
Heck, the game isn't even scary at all. It's mostly shock horror that throws gore, disturbing scenes, and jumpscares at you. In Outlast 1, it was scary because your enemy was always in the area, checking the area you are in. If you're spotted, it's terrifying to run away, because there wasn't a lot of room to get away. The jumpscares were clever, and well done. In Outlast 2, however, you're going to think: "Another chase moment, okay then." The chase moments happen so much it just gets old and boring, and since it's trial-and-error, you will get frustrated so much more than just being scared.
The biggest positives to the game are the graphics, controls, and sound. The graphics are very detailed and gives a creepy atmosphere at times. The controls are easy to learn and use. The soundtrack is great, and the voiceacting is well cased and quite emotional at times.
Over and all, the game was very disappointing to me. If it has a lot more stealth, less chase moments, and had an easy to follow story, I would give this an 8/10. But I have to give this a 5/10. It's not terrible, but it's not good either.
Thanks for reading my review! Hoped it helped!