Recent reviews by YouveGotRyan

Fights were not tested enough before release. Certain moves from certain encounters feel "unfair". Hit boxes are unpredictable, the lock-on camera is unreliable and sometimes outright worthless.

Some of the ashes of war were completely broken upon release. They've since been nerfed a bit but some are still insanely busted. I would hate to be someone who doesn't own the DLC but appreciates PVP and encounter some of these... feels like pay to win.

This is all a shame because the game is a feast for the eyes and ears. I just wish they had played their own game a bit more before launch. If you love the lore and the environments that fromsoft creates you'll like this but if you like well-designed bosses you probably won't appreciate this too much right now.

One of the greatest games ever made.

Great game, 10/10, needs more players

Will not be supporting this developer any longer, and neither should you.

I had high hopes for this game. Those hopes were dashed when I found out that this game is but a shadow of it's predecessor. To top it all off I couldn't even complete the game due to a bug that made it impossible to trigger a cutscene, even after restarting the whole chapter and running back.

Gonna break down why but the tl;dr is save your money if you liked the first outlast.

Okay, now the breakdown.

Terrible AI:

This was the first thing I noticed. The first corn field area I got to I tried to sneak through via crouching. That didn't work as I went just too plain slow and the AI always seemed to know exactly where I was. They would walk from across the cornfield directly to where I was even if I was being completely still and crouching.

I tested this clairvoyancy further by jumping into the trough of water in the middle of the cornfield under that little roof. There's a mechanic in this game that lets you hide under waist high water by crouching and holding your breath. I kid you not, ten seconds later one of the rednecks decides (through pure coincidence I'm sure) to jump into the water as well! And heres the real kicker, he didn't jump into the water cause he knew I was there. He jumped into the water cause the clairvoyant AI director told him that'd be a good place to search at that moment.

I learned it was almost always better to just run through everything rather than even attempt sneaking. Really takes you out of the whole horror experience.

Hard to explain so hopefully these clips will do it justice:
https://clips.twitch.tv/SpikyTolerantCodBabyRage
https://clips.twitch.tv/SweetEndearingDelicataBIRB

Poor level layout and contrived progression:

I also spent a long time just trying to figure out exactly where I was supposed to go in that cornfield, and that wasn't the only time I sat there frustrated thinking "Where the hell am I supposed to go?". The outlast format just doesn't do well with 'open environments' IMO. Most of the times I was super confused as to what I had to do to progress was due to the extremely contrived nature of the task needed to do so.

Great example of this is the area where you have to push a cart to get over this gate while avoiding a religious psycho lady. They give you one instance of having to push a cart to progress about 2 minutes before that and I'm sure it's never used again in the game. NO ONE's first thought is "Gotta get over this gate while pyscho lady is chasing me, better try to slowly push this cart!" I spent 15 minutes running around and hiding from her so I could get a little reprieve and try to figure out what to do, but the clairvoyant AI came back and she found me no matter where I hid. Until... I ran in the most obvious circle around some houses and figured out how to push the cart. Then she miraculously lost track of me.

EVERYTHING feels like that. Like it's all a scripted/on rails experience. A ride at Disneyland. God forbid you try hiding when you should be running, running when you should be hiding or doing ANYTHING but exactly what the game devs want you to do at that exact moment.

Uninteresting notes and story:

In games like this, I'm a note reader. I love getting as much backstory as possible. But when all your notes are basically scripture (which reads like legal jargon, which NO ONE WANTS TO READ) it makes the learning the backstory just become a chore. Nothing felt interesting or original about any aspects of the story, which might have changed had I actually been able to complete the game.

The only saving grace to the game are the visuals and atmosphere. Yes, it's breathtaking. But unfortunately, it looks like thats where all their budget went. Again, save your money.