Outlast

Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.

Overwhelmingly PositiveOverwhelmingly Positive · 97%2013

The verdict

A landmark defenseless-horror game with oppressive atmosphere, night-vision camera tension and strong DLC. Skip it if repetitive fetch-quest stealth and jumpscares bore you.

Great for

Horror fans who enjoy helpless, atmospheric run-and-hide scares, best played at night with headphones

Main risk

Repetitive find-the-key-and-hide loop and jumpscares may feel dated and not scary

What players love

Terrifying, oppressive atmosphere

Mentioned in ~1 in 5 positive reviews

“The atmosphere is oppressive from the moment you enter the asylum, and it only gets more intense as the game progresses.”
Steam review · 2.5 h played ↗

“The atmosphere is suffocating—the night-vision camera mechanics, eerie sound design, and constant dread create a feeling of total helplessness.”
Steam review · 9.6 h played ↗

“The game is really scary, pressuring your psyche by keeping you in constant fear, waiting for something sudden.”
Steam review · translated · 29 h played ↗

Intriguing story told through documents

Mentioned in ~1 in 5 positive reviews

“the level of story telling through not only the story you play but also notes and other clues throughout the asylum creates such a rich lore”
Steam review · 21.2 h played ↗

“The story itself is very well developed, especially if you collect the documents and notes in the game.”
Steam review · translated · 8.9 h played ↗

Excellent sound design and visuals that hold up

Mentioned in ~1 in 7 positive reviews

“The visuals are great too, and the game does not make itself feel like it is over a decade old now.”
Steam review · 6.8 h played ↗

“I especially want to single out the monster design and the sound.”
Steam review · translated · 8.1 h played ↗

Helpless run-and-hide gameplay

Mentioned in ~1 in 8 positive reviews

“Being completely defenseless makes every chase feel much more intense, and the darkness combined with the limited batteries for your camera adds another layer of tension.”
Steam review · 6.2 h played ↗

“I think the emphasis on chase scenes was what made Outlast so scary to play. It really feels like they're right behind you every single chase.”
Steam review · 16.4 h played ↗

Night-vision camera and battery mechanic

Mentioned in ~1 in 10 positive reviews

“The night vision camera is a brilliant mechanic. Every battery matters”
Steam review · 2.5 h played ↗

“The camera is your only 'gun', and when the battery dies, fear becomes almost physical.”
Steam review · translated · 17.9 h played ↗

Great Whistleblower DLC

Mentioned in ~1 in 11 positive reviews

“The base game's story is great, but paired with the Whistleblower DLC, it becomes a complete masterpiece.”
Steam review · 9.6 h played ↗

“the DLC clears everything up and gives our protagonists a great and Epic ending”
Steam review · 8.9 h played ↗

What players complain about

Not scary / overhyped

Mentioned in ~1 in 3 negative reviews

“I expected this game to be insanely scary since that is what everyone says but I've honestly been more scared playing roblox games.”
Steam review · 3.8 h played ↗

“If you suddenly want horror, you won't find it here in 2026; the game is just stuffy, not scary.”
Steam review · translated · 257.3 h played ↗

“This game is WAY too overrated and is nowhere near the best horror games of all time.”
Steam review · 3.5 h played ↗

Repetitive fetch-quest gameplay loop

Mentioned in ~1 in 4 negative reviews

“"Find a key to find a valve and shove them both up your arse" is the gameplay loop in a nutshell.”
Steam review · 4.3 h played ↗

“Almost every location follows the template 'find three valves/fuses while a scripted degenerate roams around'.”
Steam review · translated · 36 h played ↗

“The loop is always the same: an enemy spots you, you run, hide under a bed or in a locker, wait, and repeat.”
Steam review · 5.3 h played ↗

Stealth and enemy AI frustrating

Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews

“shoutout to having played through the early generator stealth sequence 10 times without having beaten it”
Steam review · 1.9 h played ↗

“It's easier to just rush the monsters and look for the exit than to sit for half an hour waiting for the NPC to leave.”
Steam review · translated · 6.2 h played ↗

Cheap, overused jumpscares

Mentioned in ~1 in 8 negative reviews

“this game relies entirely on jumpscares and they are way too frequent for any buildup of actual dread”
Steam review · 2.9 h played ↗

“This game is deadass just cheap jumpscare after cheap jumpscare.”
Steam review · 1.3 h played ↗

Too dark and battery drain annoying

Mentioned in ~1 in 14 negative reviews

“everything is just way too dark. Even with night vision enabled you can barely see anything.”
Steam review · 9.2 h played ↗

“batteries running out in no time but you can have only two?”
Steam review · 0.8 h played ↗

Crashes and poor compatibility with modern PCs

Mentioned in ~1 in 15 negative reviews

“blackscreen when alt-tabing, forcing whole PC restart to get rid of”
Steam review · 2.2 h played ↗

“it kept crashing seconds after startup. Spent 3-4 hours just trying to get to play the game”
Steam review · 0.2 h played ↗

System requirements

From the Steam store page

Steam Deck: Playable

Minimum

OSWindows XP / Vista / 7 / 8 - 64 bits *

Processor2.2 GHz Dual Core CPU

Memory2 GB RAM

Graphics512 MB NVIDIA GeForce 9800GTX / ATI Radeon HD 3xxx series

Storage5 GB available space

Recommended

OSWindows Vista / 7 / 8 - 64 bits

Processor2.8 GHz Quad Core CPU

Memory3 GB RAM

Graphics1GB NVIDIA GTX 460 / ATI Radeon HD 6850 or better

Storage5 GB available space

OSWindows XP / Vista / 7 / 8 - 64 bits *

Processor2.2 GHz Dual Core CPU

Memory2 GB RAM

Graphics512 MB NVIDIA GeForce 9800GTX / ATI Radeon HD 3xxx series

Storage5 GB available space

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