I believe it's the first time I'm leaving a negative review, and I think it's for a good reason.
I remember playing Outlast quite a few years back and having fond memories of it, but this... ain't it. In short, everyone in the game is simply retarded, the main character keeps hallucinating all the time, the story doesn't make much sense, there's few good gameplay elements, and all of it is somewhat saved by some good horror elements here and there (especially for a game from 2017).
So, you're starting the game as some wimp who'd get scared after seeing a rat, cannot sprint to save his life (ESPECIALLY when enemies are after him), cannot jump over basic items, always chooses to go towards enemies for some reason (rather than trying to avoid them)... And in all this time, he cannot equip a weapon to defend himself.
In almost every area there are places to hide, but you'll almost never use them, for there's no need or you'll get randomly found anyway. And in the few instances where hiding makes sense, you have no idea whether you're still in danger or not. Some of it seems scripted that you cannot hide.
I'd say my biggest problem with the game is that it's trying to merge 2 separate stories (being trapped around some cult village and some hallucinations about school) into one and it just falls flat (or I'm too stupid to understand it). If they just stuck to one story, maybe it would've felt better, but having your gameplay interrupted by random hallucinations (that take up like half the game time) about some stuff from school and imaginary monsters (and getting killed by said monsters) while you're attempting to escape... It's just disorienting and tiring.
Another serious issue is just how dull the gameplay is. For the most time, you're just running into enemies, and away from them. And the worst part is, almost always, you have no clue where you have to go... you're just stuck in some village. And every time you think (or KNOW) where you should be headed, it's almost always wrong. What you need to do instead is find some small gap, or tiny window which you wouldn't be able to reach normally (because the character couldn't jump over a rock), and proceed that way. Finding this stuff takes more time than it should.
Aside from that, there is an eerie feeling when playing, and there are some good horror scenes (some of the ones in school were more interesting), but it just gets drowned by all the other issues.
All in all, extremely disappoining (for Outlast standarts). Trying to finish the game was more of a chore, rather than something you want to do.
