Quite literally Cock & Ball Torture: The Game. I'm rating this slightly low just because it's very short and there are a couple of sequences that were just annoyingly tricky - in the late game, you're afflicted with a massive limp that leaves you with virtually no room for error in chases. Still, the handful of new villains were particularly memorable, and it's cool how this acts simultaneously as a prologue to Outlast's main story and, following a lengthy time skip, an epilogue, although it would have been nicer to spend a bit more time exploring both the chaos of the initial 'outbreak' and the grisly 'cleanup' afterwards.

An imperfect experience, but when Outlast works, it works very well. The tension of trying to sneak past ranting lunatics in near-total darkness is never less than nerve-shredding, and on the topic of ranting, the dialogue is often a highlight, with a lot of very funny dark humour aided by some fantastic voice acting. I see a lot of complaints about the 'puerile' shock value, but I think the sheer amount of gratuitous gore and polygonal penises on display is so over-the-top that it just adds to the charming schlock & silliness of the game. However, beyond the suspenseful enemy encounters, the missions & story structure are very samey - your time is mainly spent on 'find 3 fuses/valves/pumps' fetch quests, or tracking down the irritating religious nut 'Father' Martin because he said he had something important to show you before he buggered off to 10 rooms away. And the cluttered & labyrinthine environments are often the biggest barrier to progress, especially when you have to engage with some slightly clunky first-person parkouring. The writing outside of the inmate dialogue isn't up to much - the story has a few fun ideas but largely feels like a Resident Evil pastiche, and when he's not jotting down cringey quips in his journal, the protagonist is just a mute personality vacuum. And there's the same problem I had with Resident Evils 7 & 8, where the best baddies get the least screentime! The most memorable encounters are with the drily sarcastic Twins, and Rick Trager, an executive turned self-styled surgeon who retains the glib faux-friendliness and financial obsessions of his former self. But you only get about 10 minutes each with those guys, whereas you're almost constantly under attack by the imposing but otherwise dull lunk Chris Walker, and the pseudo-supernatural final boss doesn't really live up to the constant hype they're given. Nevertheless, the game doesn't outstay its welcome, and it packs more than enough thrills into its rather short duration to make it a pretty fun, if slightly shallow, ride.