Outlast 2 is one of my most anticipated horror games of 2017, ever since the fantastic success, but I have to admit a slight sense of disappointment when I found out that they were exploring other areas outside of Mount Massive Asylum.
I can certainly understand the need for a change of scenery, after a full game and a story DLC pack (Outlast: Whistleblower) covered about every inch of this building, but I couldn't help but think the transition to different area would make the first game feel useless. Developer Red Barrels did say that Outlast 2 takes place in the same universe, but it could have easily been an unrelated anthology-style entry that just feels like Outlast without having any substantive connection to it.
Those concerns were assuaged today, when Red Barrels released the fourth entry in their Murkoff Account comic series that was released to bridge the gap between the two games. After a disloyal employee of the evil Murkoff coordination is given some coordinates, the fourth issue ends showing where those coordinates lead:
Of course, the wooden upside-down cross is easily recognizable from any of the Outlast 2 advertisements thus far, but even more telling is the man and pregnant woman approaching it. The demo of Outlast 2 (no longer playable on Steam or the PS Store, unfortunately) described the plot as an investigative journalist "following the trail of clues that started with the seemingly impossible murder of the pregnant woman known only as Jane Doe."
So, the pregnant woman in the comic book panel is the woman who sparks the plot of Outlast 2, but, more importantly, the area in which the game takes place, the secluded village of crazy people, is "where the real sickness spreads." This means that Outlast 2 is taking you directly to the source of everything crazy that happened at Mount Massive Asylum, with yet another journalist stumbling upon what will be one of the biggest stories ever.
If he can get out alive, of course.
