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Games Like Outlast: Horror Where You Can Only Hide and Run

Outlast takes away your weapons and leaves you with a camcorder, a locker to hide in and your legs. The games below share that helplessness: you survive by hiding, sneaking and running from things you cannot beat, and several come from the studios that shaped the formula.

The games

  1. Outlast 2 art: a figure in the dark grass holds a long pickaxe, a lit shack and another figure in a green haze behind PsychologicalOutlast 2Outlast's own sequel: a camera with night vision, no weapons and a cult hunting you through the Arizona desert.
  2. Amnesia: The Dark Descent art: a pale green stone hall in Brennenburg Castle with a carved fountain at its centre PsychologicalAmnesia: The Dark DescentThe game Outlast learned from: no weapons, a lantern, a sanity meter and monsters you can only hide from.
  3. Alien: Isolation key art: Amanda Ripley's face inside a space helmet lit green against black SurvivalAlien: IsolationOne alien you cannot kill hunts you through a space station and checks the lockers you hide in.
  4. The Outlast Trials art: test subjects with night-vision goggles strapped to their faces, one reaching upward and screaming, in a sickly green tint SurvivalThe Outlast TrialsThe same studio and the same Murkoff experiments, played alone or with up to three friends.
  5. Amnesia: The Bunker art: a soldier's hands, one holding a revolver, as a pale clawed creature reaches out of a dark tunnel SurvivalAmnesia: The BunkerA creature hunts you by sound through a World War I bunker while you keep the lights on.
  6. Penumbra: Overture key art: a man with a red backpack stands alone between snow-covered rooftops, facing a white Greenland snowstorm SurvivalPenumbra: OvertureFrictional's earlier game, before Amnesia: an abandoned mine in Greenland where you hide from what lives in the tunnels.
  7. Penumbra: Black Plague screenshot: a flooded, arched brick tunnel lit green, a doorway glowing at the far end PsychologicalPenumbra: Black PlagueFrictional's second Penumbra: no weapons at all, hiding from infected staff in a research complex under the Greenland ice.
  8. Home Sweet Home screenshot: the dim interior of an old wooden Thai house, with shuttered windows, framed pictures, a chest of drawers and litter on the plank floor Hide, sneak and Home Sweet HomeUnarmed hiding in lockers and under furniture from a vengeful spirit, drawn from Thai folklore.
  9. SOMA key art: a battered diving-suit robot with glowing lights beside a woman's face pressed to a wet glass window PsychologicalSOMAFrictional Games again: no weapons on a failing undersea station, with a story that turns the horror inward.
  10. Maid of Sker key art: a frightened woman covers her mouth beside an iron gate where a man runs into the dark gardens SurvivalMaid of SkerBlind cultists hunt a Welsh hotel by sound, and holding your breath is how you hide.
  11. Remothered: Tormented Fathers key art: Rosemary holding a light, the old Dr. Felton and a red-robed figure in a dark, overgrown room SurvivalRemothered: Tormented FathersHide from a sickle-wielding old man in the mansion where a girl went missing.
  12. Stay Out of the House key art: the Butcher, in a burlap sack mask and plaid shirt, raises a bloody cleaver against a dark sky with lightning Multiple endingsStay Out of the HouseKidnapped by a cannibal butcher: hide, sneak through vents and pick locks to escape his house within three days.
  13. Visage art: a veiled ghostly figure seen through a rain-spattered window in the dark PsychologicalVisageSlow first-person dread in a house haunted by the families who died there, with only light to protect you.
  14. Resident Evil 7 Biohazard key art: a sepia, ink-stained collage of a woman's face, the dark house and dead trees above it SurvivalResident Evil 7 BiohazardFirst-person horror where a family that will not die stalks you through a rotting farmhouse.
  15. The Mortuary Assistant key art: a close-up of a pale, rotting face with a bloody open mouth in a dark room PsychologicalThe Mortuary AssistantNight shift horror alone in a mortuary, finding a demon while doubting your own eyes.
  16. Infliction key art: a man's silhouette in a brightly lit doorway at the end of a dark hall, with a bloodied hand holding a knife in the foreground PsychologicalInflictionA ghost hunts you through a family home; you hide, or stun it for a moment with a camera flash.
  17. Westworld Awakening key art: silhouettes of a cowboy pulling a woman by the hand as they run through a red-lit desert by a cactus Puzzle horrorWestworld AwakeningVR hide-and-seek with a serial killer host in a sinister facility, with no way to fight back.
  18. The Designer's Curse key art: a pale figure with a stitched, bloodied torso standing in a brick corridor beside the title Puzzle horrorThe Designer's CurseA free Amnesia-style game: puzzles in a dark manor and creatures you can only avoid.
  19. Still Wakes the Deep key art: the silhouette of a man filled with the image of an oil rig, glowing over a dark sea SurvivalStill Wakes the DeepNo weapon on a storm-wrecked 1975 oil rig: hide, sneak and climb past a crew turned into fleshy hunters.
  20. Amnesia: Rebirth key art: Tasi holds up a lit match, a pale clawed creature lurking in the dark beside her PsychologicalAmnesia: RebirthFrictional's desert sequel: hide from ghouls with a few matches while your fear grows in the dark.
  21. Monstrum key art: a hulking orange-lit monster with a glowing face fills a dark ship corridor SurvivalMonstrumA monster you cannot fight stalks a randomly built cargo ship, and one catch ends the run.
  22. White Day screenshot: a student pressed against a wall in a dark corridor as the janitor approaches with a flashlight and a baton SurvivalWhite Day: A Labyrinth Named SchoolLocked in your school at night, hiding from a baton-wielding janitor whose keys you hear coming.
  23. A pale, long-limbed ghost in a white dress stands in a dark storeroom beside a lit lantern SurvivalThe Bridge Curse 2: The ExtricationA film club shooting at night in a haunted university, hunted by ghosts that follow sound.

Outlast 2 is the obvious next step: the same camera and night vision, the same lack of weapons, and a cult hunting you through the Arizona desert. If you want to see where Frictional's hide-and-run formula began, Penumbra: Overture sends you down an abandoned Greenland mine to hide from the creatures in its tunnels, and Penumbra: Black Plague takes even your crude tools away, leaving you unarmed in a research complex full of the infected.

The closest match is The Outlast Trials, from the same studio and set in the same Murkoff experiments, though it is built to be played with up to three friends. If you want more Outlast on your own, start with Amnesia: The Dark Descent: it is the game Outlast learned from, slower and darker, with a lantern instead of night vision and a sanity meter that punishes you for staying in the dark too long.

Frictional Games, the studio behind Amnesia, also made SOMA and Amnesia: The Bunker. SOMA keeps the no-weapons rule but moves to a research station on the sea floor, and its creatures matter less than its unsettling story. The Bunker is the most like a chase game of the three: one creature hunts you by sound through a World War I bunker while you keep a generator running. The Designer's Curse is a free game in Amnesia's mould, with puzzles in a dark manor and creatures you cannot fight.

Alien: Isolation is the best pick if Outlast's chases were your favourite part. A single alien that cannot be killed roams a whole space station, learns where you like to hide and checks the lockers, and saving costs you seconds you may not have.

Home Sweet Home and Infliction keep the lockers and the helplessness but swap Murkoff's madmen for ghosts: a vengeful spirit from Thai folklore in one, a malevolent presence in a family home in the other, which you can only stun with a camera flash.

Maid of Sker and Remothered: Tormented Fathers keep the hiding but give it a stalker you learn to read. In Maid of Sker, blind cultists hunt a Welsh hotel by sound, so you hold your breath as they pass; in Remothered, an old man with a sickle hunts you room by room through his house while you hide and distract him with thrown objects. Westworld Awakening does it in VR: you are a host hiding from Hank, a serial killer host, in the labs beneath the park, with nothing to fight him with.

If you want the hiding without the supernatural, Stay Out of the House locks you in a cannibal butcher's house for three days: you sneak, hide in vents and pick locks to get out, in a grainy VHS style.

For slower, more psychological dread, Visage puts you alone in a house where families died, with light as your only defence, and The Mortuary Assistant has you embalm bodies at night while a demon plays with your perception. Resident Evil 7 Biohazard is the furthest from Outlast's rules, since you do get weapons, but its first hours of hiding from Jack Baker in a rotting farmhouse are some of the closest thing to Outlast in a big-budget game.

Five more keep you just as helpless. Still Wakes the Deep strands you without a weapon on a 1975 oil rig in a storm, hiding from a crew that something from under the sea has remade. Amnesia: Rebirth is Frictional's desert sequel, with a handful of matches against ghouls in caves and ruins. Monstrum puts one unkillable monster on a cargo ship whose corridors are built anew each run. White Day locks you in your school at night with a janitor who patrols with a baton, and The Bridge Curse 2: The Extrication is closest to Outlast's camcorder: a film club shooting a horror movie in a haunted university, hunted by ghosts that follow every sound.

If you only try one, play Amnesia: The Dark Descent for the roots of the formula, or Alien: Isolation for one hunter that never stops looking for you.

Questions

What is the closest game to Outlast?

The Outlast Trials, from the same studio and set in the same Murkoff experiments; for a single-player game, Amnesia: The Dark Descent or Alien: Isolation.

Are there games like Outlast I can play with friends?

Yes. The Outlast Trials is designed for up to four players and keeps the hide-and-run play.

Are there games like Outlast with no combat at all?

Amnesia: The Dark Descent, SOMA and Visage give you no weapons; Alien: Isolation gives you tools that can only drive the alien off for a moment.

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