Whereas the original game featured an investigative journalist exploring an insane asylum full of violent lunatics, Outlast 2 looks as though it will deal more with religious themes. This is evident by the brief teaser trailer, which shows a cross on fire, with a preacher heard rambling in the background. The camera then pulls back and rotates, revealing that the cross was actually upside down the entire time.

While inverted crosses aren’t actually a sinister symbol, many associate it with Satanism and the occult, and deem it as anti-Christian nonetheless. Indeed, there are countless horror movies that utilize the inverted cross to great effect, as does the Outlast 2 teaser trailer.

Watch the teaser trailer for Outlast 2 right here:

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It’s obvious from the trailer that Outlast 2 is going to have a religious bent to it, possibly dealing with cults, exorcism, or even demons. Indeed, the end of the trailer reveals a series of glowing eyes hiding in the bushes beyond the cross, none of which seem to belong to humans, so demons seem especially likely.

The description of the game from Red Barrels offers further insight on the game’s religious themes:

Beyond a clear focus on deriving horror from religion, there’s only one more concrete detail we can ascertain from the teaser, and that is the video camera gimmick is returning. In the original Outlast, players utilized a video camera throughout much of the game, often relying on the camera’s night vision functionality to see in the game’s darker areas. This gave the game a similar vibe to the “found footage” horror genre typically seen in movies. At the end of the trailer, night vision is switched on, and that’s when the creepy glowing eyes are revealed.

We also know what platforms the game will be available on, thanks to Red Barrels’ website. As with the original Outlast, Outlast 2 is coming to PC, PS4, and Xbox One, though we are unsure if the game will have any timed console-exclusivity on PS4 as the original did. As some may recall, the first game took quite awhile to release on Xbox One, only finally coming to the system as a part of the ID@Xbox program.

In any case, religious themes like this are usually avoided in video games, so we’re excited that Red Barrels is willing to explore them with Outlast 2. For horror enthusiasts, the wait to next fall will be a long one, but hopefully the talented developers at Red Barrels take their time and deliver a quality experience that builds on what made the first game so great to begin with, and earned it a spot on our Top 10 Indie Games of 2013 list.

Outlast 2 is coming in fall of 2016, for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

Source: Red Barrels