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EXCLUSIVE: Red Barrels Confirms ‘Outlast 2’!

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I’ve known for awhile now that Outlast developer Red Barrels had begun working on a mystery horror game, seemingly immediately after wrapping up Outlast: Whistleblower. I didn’t know what it was until today, but that didn’t make the wait to share this exciting bit of news with all of you any less excruciating.

Outlast is one of my new favorite horror games, and at some point in the future it will get a sequel. We won’t know much about it until development is a little further along, so until then we’ll have to make due with the few precious details Red Barrels co-founder Philippe Morin was able to share with me for this exclusive reveal.

BD: Between the release of Outlast and its Whistleblower expansion, it’s been an exciting year for Red Barrels. You’ve left an indelible mark on the horror genre and made an impressive debut for such a new studio. What did it feel like being able to wrap up the story of Mount Massive Asylum?

We always intended to do a DLC for Outlast. It made sense production-wise to do it, because the programmers would be busy working on the PS4 and XB1 ports, so we couldn’t jump on a new project right away. Right from the start, we had a few ideas of what the DLC could be, but it was only a few weeks after shipping the game on PC that we decided exactly what we were going to do.

We took some time to gather all the feedback we could find and decided that the DLC needed to start before the events of Outlast, but end after them. For Outlast, we always wanted a dramatic ending, but we wanted something different for Whistleblower. Although both games have a different protagonists, we approached it as if it was one journey, because after all, it’s more about the player.

Some of us spent 3 years inside that Asylum. We started working on our trailer to help us find the money back in February 2011 and we shipped the game on XB1 back in June 2014, so the ending of Whistleblower meant a lot to us and we wanted players to share those emotions.

BD: Did anyone on the team need therapy (or at the very least, a well-deserved vacation) after it released?

Making the game was our therapy! We had fun coming up with ideas and situations we knew could be disgusting, scary or provocative. We’re in the business to deliver emotions and we like the idea of going places where others don’t go. That’s part of the advantages of being a small independent studio, we don’t have to worry about diluting the experience to please a wider audience.

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BD: Outlast spread like wildfire online. Its gorgeous visuals, jump scares and streamlined mechanics made it the perfect kind of game to play through on video sites like YouTube. Was designing a horror game that’s as fun to play as it is to watch others play it a goal early on, or was it a happy accident?

I have to be honest and say it was a happy accident.

When we started production, we were not really familiar with the whole YouTubers phenomenon. But we quickly realized the opportunity it represented and we decided to take full advantage of it. Our budget was tight and we didn’t have a lot of money for marketing. So, YouTubers were a great help and we thank them. So far, Outlast has been downloaded by more than 3 million people across all platforms and YouTubers have played a big part in its success.

And, it was also a way for us to get useful feedback because we could see when and how people reacted to the events in the game.

BD: I’m sure the Murkoff Corporation has plenty evil left in them to warrant a sequel; are you interested in returning to the series down the road, or is its fate undecided?

We based Murkoff on some of the big corporations founded in the late 19th century or early 20th century. A lot of these companies made their money drilling for oil and then eventually became so powerful they could expend their activities to a lot of other areas, including scientific or medical research. These corporations have become so powerful, that it’s unthinkable to get rid of them these days. Governments come and go, but these entities are like immortals.

BD: I could happily chat about Outlast all day, but the world wants to know: what’s next for Red Barrels? What can you tell us about your next game?

It’s important for us to be passionate about whatever we’re working on, because we believe it’s the only way to achieve quality.

After shipping the XB1 version of Outlast, we took some time to analyze our situation and we quickly realized we had at least another horror game in us.

So, yes, we are working on Outlast 2.

The game will be a survival horror experience and it will take place in the same universe as Outlast, but it will have different characters and a different setting. We might go back to Mount Massive Asylum one day, but for now we have new ideas and themes we’d like to explore and we think we’re cooking up something special.

We’re still a small indie studio (12 people), so we’ll need a little bit of time to ship our next game, but hopefully it will be worth it.

BD: Outlast set the bar pretty high for the future of the series; how are you planning on surpassing it?

We really want to keep on improving our craft, but ultimately we’ll approach things the same way we did with the first game, which was to make a game we’re scared to play ourselves and trust our instinct.

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BD: Will Outlast 2 tie into the events at Mount Massive in any way, or is this story going to be totally different?

Part of the fun of playing a horror game is the sense of discovery and progressively understanding “wtf” is going on. So, I’d rather not say too much at this point.

BD: Fair point! One of the things that really stood out to me about Outlast was its simple design. It didn’t waste time burdening players with complex mechanics or controls. Will Outlast 2 play like its predecessor, or are you taking a different approach with the sequel?

Our goal is still to give players first and foremost an emotional ride, so every design decision will be based on how it affects the experience and if it serves it.

BD: Is there a chance we’ll be able to defend ourselves from the monster(s) that hunt us this time, or will the emphasis again be on flight over fight?

Too soon to say. Part of the beauty of game development is its iterative process!

That’s all the details Red Barrels is prepared to divulge to us for now, but it’s enough to get me sufficiently excited for the future of one of the scariest video game series I’ve played in a long time. When they’re ready to give us a release window and/or an idea of which platforms Outlast 2 will come to, you can be sure I’ll share that here.

Huge thanks to Philippe Morin for taking the time to chat with us!

If you missed our review of Outlast: Whistleblower, you can check that out below.

YTSub

Gamer, writer, terrible dancer, longtime toast enthusiast. Legend has it Adam was born with a controller in one hand and the Kraken's left eye in the other. Legends are often wrong.

Editorials

‘Leprechaun Returns’ – The Charm of the Franchise’s Legacy Sequel

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The erratic Leprechaun franchise is not known for sticking with a single concept for too long. The namesake (originally played by Warwick Davis) has gone to L.A., Las Vegas, space, and the ‘hood (not once but twice). And after an eleven-year holiday since the Davis era ended, the character received a drastic makeover in a now-unmentionable reboot. The critical failure of said film would have implied it was time to pack away the green top hat and shillelagh, and say goodbye to the nefarious imp. Instead, the Leprechaun series tried its luck again.

The general consensus for the Leprechaun films was never positive, and the darker yet blander Leprechaun: Origins certainly did not sway opinions. Just because the 2014 installment took itself seriously did not mean viewers would. After all, creator Mark Jones conceived a gruesome horror-comedy back in the early nineties, and that format is what was expected of any future ventures. So as horror legacy sequels (“legacyquels”) became more common in the 2010s, Leprechaun Returns followed suit while also going back to what made the ‘93 film work. This eighth entry echoed Halloween (2018) by ignoring all the previous sequels as well as being a direct continuation of the original. Even ardent fans can surely understand the decision to wipe the slate clean, so to speak.

Leprechaun Returns “continued the [franchise’s] trend of not being consistent by deciding to be consistent.” The retconning of Steven Kostanski and Suzanne Keilly’s film was met with little to no pushback from the fandom, who had already become accustomed to seeing something new and different with every chapter. Only now the “new and different” was familiar. With the severe route of Origins a mere speck in the rearview mirror, director Kotanski implemented a “back to basics” approach that garnered better reception than Zach Lipovsky’s own undertaking. The one-two punch of preposterous humor and grisly horror was in full force again.

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Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

With Warwick Davis sitting this film out — his own choice — there was the foremost challenge of finding his replacement. Returns found Davis’ successor in Linden Porco, who admirably filled those blood-stained, buckled shoes. And what would a legacy sequel be without a returning character? Jennifer Aniston obviously did not reprise her final girl role of Tory Redding. So, the film did the next best thing and fetched another of Lubdan’s past victims: Ozzie, the likable oaf played by Mark Holton. Returns also created an extension of Tory’s character by giving her a teenage daughter, Lila (Taylor Spreitler).

It has been twenty-five years since the events of the ‘93 film. The incident is unknown to all but its survivors. Interested in her late mother’s history there in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota, Lila transferred to the local university and pledged a sorority — really the only one on campus — whose few members now reside in Tory Redding’s old home. The farmhouse-turned-sorority-house is still a work in progress; Lila’s fellow Alpha Epsilon sisters were in the midst of renovating the place when a ghost of the past found its way into the present.

The Psycho Goreman and The Void director’s penchant for visceral special effects is noted early on as the Leprechaun tears not only into the modern age, but also through poor Ozzie’s abdomen. The portal from 1993 to 2018 is soaked with blood and guts as the Leprechaun forces his way into the story. Davis’ iconic depiction of the wee antagonist is missed, however, Linden Porco is not simply keeping the seat warm in case his predecessor ever resumes the part. His enthusiastic performance is accentuated by a rotten-looking mug that adds to his innate menace.

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Pictured: Taylor Spreitler, Pepi Sonuga, and Sai Bennett as Lila, Katie and Rose in Leprechaun Returns.

The obligatory fodder is mostly young this time around. Apart from one luckless postman and Ozzie — the premature passing of the latter character removed the chance of caring about anyone in the film — the Leprechaun’s potential prey are all college aged. Lila is this story’s token trauma kid with caregiver baggage; her mother thought “monsters were always trying to get her.” Lila’s habit of mentioning Tory’s mental health problem does not make a good first impression with the resident mean girl and apparent alcoholic of the sorority, Meredith (Emily Reid). Then there are the nicer but no less cursorily written of the Alpha Epsilon gals: eco-conscious and ex-obsessive Katie (Pepi Sonuga), and uptight overachiever Rose (Sai Bennett). Rounding out the main cast are a pair of destined-to-die bros (Oliver Llewellyn Jenkins, Ben McGregor). Lila and her peers range from disposable to plain irritating, so rooting for any one of them is next to impossible. Even so, their overstated personalities make their inevitable fates more satisfying.

Where Returns excels is its death sequences. Unlike Jones’ film, this one is not afraid of killing off members of the main cast. Lila, admittedly, wears too much plot armor, yet with her mother’s spirit looming over her and the whole story — comedian Heather McDonald put her bang-on Aniston impersonation to good use as well as provided a surprisingly emotional moment in the film — her immunity can be overlooked. Still, the other characters’ brutal demises make up for Lila’s imperviousness. The Leprechaun’s killer set-pieces also happen to demonstrate the time period, seeing as he uses solar panels and a drone in several supporting characters’ executions. A premortem selfie and the antagonist’s snarky mention of global warming additionally add to this film’s particular timestamp.

Critics were quick to say Leprechaun Returns did not break new ground. Sure, there is no one jetting off to space, or the wacky notion of Lubdan becoming a record producer. This reset, however, is still quite charming and entertaining despite its lack of risk-taking. And with yet another reboot in the works, who knows where the most wicked Leprechaun ever to exist will end up next.


Horror contemplates in great detail how young people handle inordinate situations and all of life’s unexpected challenges. While the genre forces characters of every age to face their fears, it is especially interested in how youths might fare in life-or-death scenarios.

The column Young Blood is dedicated to horror stories for and about teenagers, as well as other young folks on the brink of terror.

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Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

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