Content Warning: Outlast 2 is graphic, as are some of the images in this article. Please enjoy.
Red Barrels’ Outlast franchise is simple: you wander down gloomy corridors, record eerie events on your camera, and avoid aggressive creeps. At the series’ center lies the Murkoff Corporation, a tech conglomerate whose cruel experiments drive their victims to insanity. Outlast 1 and its Whistleblower expansion funnel players through Murkoff’s claustrophobic Mount Massive Asylum facility, while Outlast 2 instead strands them in a hidden Arizonan settlement dubbed Temple Gate.
Image: Red Barrels. Marta, one of the threats you’ll “run, hide, or die” from in Outlast 2
I’ve covered Mount Massive extensively over the past eight years, and it was draining! Naturally, Outlast 2 has been on my radar. Mustering the courage to tackle it took time, though. Outlast 1 is popular, but its sequel is typically held in lower esteem—which was off-putting, as I don’t adore the original. However, I’m a reporter, and a darn good one! We’re gonna follow this lead wherever it takes us…
Marta’s History
After crashing in the middle of nowhere, photojournalist Blake Langermann begins searching for Lynn, his investigative partner and wife. It doesn’t take long for him to meet Marta, the right-hand woman of “Reverended” Sullivan Knoth. Initially Blake’s most ardent antagonist, Marta only prowls Temple Gate’s town area, so she stops harassing him once he leaves. When the Langermanns return during the game’s climax, the religious zealot makes one final, dramatic attempt on their lives—and loses hers for the trouble.
Image: Source Gaming. Most of Temple Gate’s inhabitants are members of Knoth’s cult, the Testament of the New Ezekiel. Outlast 2 is inspired by the 1978 Jonestown mass murder / suicide.
Collectible in-game documents delve into the dame’s backstory. Marta has known Knoth since childhood, they’re “intimate,” and she relies on his guidance, honors he abuses. Initially apprehensive about killing people, Knoth convinced his puppet that her beheadings are noble—sparing “criminals” who could potentially spawn the Antichrist would be an even greater affront to God!
Before Outlast 2 hit, Red Barrels positioned Marta as its flagship fiend through a demo, which ends with her skewering Blake. Scrapped voice work reveals that, at some point during development, Marta was meant to butt heads with Val, the leader of the Testament’s equally evil enemies. Seemingly, Marta was supposed to share a scene with Knoth, too. Concept art also suggests her frightening figure was locked down fairly early; no heavy makeovers needed!
Image: Red Barrels. We witness Marta performing her civic duty in Issue 5 of Outlast: The Murkoff Account, a six-issue comic that bridges the gap between Outlast 1 and 2. Finally, she cameos as an icon in The Outlast Trials, a prequel.
So, what’re my thoughts on Marta?
I have complicated feelings towards Outlast 1. Now, I harbor affection for it; I embarrassingly only played a handful of horror games by 2018, so grinding through Red Barrels’ breakout hit was initially exhilarating. Outlast’s best chapter, environments, music, and even the mystery surrounding its enigmatic specter sufficiently held my attention. Before reaching the finale, however, its formulaic gameplay grew tiring. Once you realize the limitations in your pursuers’ AI, tension dissipates instantly. Exasperating that is how, at least on the standard difficulty, they struggle to keep up with you during chases! Level design is rarely inventive; you trek through linear hallways or fetch proverbial keys in small, enclosed maps until the credits roll.
Outlast’s subpar enemy variety lets it down further. Mostly, you’re hounded by “Variants,” Mount Massive’s nameless inmates, and the game’s mascot, Chris Walker. On paper, he’s compelling and arguably ranks among Outlast’s morally purest characters! Okay, he’s decapitating people indiscriminately, but it’s to prevent Murkoff’s nanomachine monster from escaping. But Chris keeps chasing you again, and again, and again. Your mouth will be agape upon seeing him as early as Chapter 2—not because he’s terrifying or tragic, but because of how rote his routine’s become. Such predictability is a death sentence for horror media.
Image: Source Gaming. Breaking Outlast’s glass ceiling—alongside the bones of her victims—Marta is its first female barbarian. Incidentally, her name means “the lady.”
Outlast’s follow-ups tried to address those shortcomings. Outlast 2 concerns a faraway land and new cast, which is great! But that makes it even more dispiriting that Temple Gate’s denizens are as braindead as the Variants. And, honestly, when I play Outlast 2, one nagging thought refuses to leave my mind: how is it substantially worse than Outlast 1? Every idea that powers the original—the first-person perspective, mechanics, reliance on jump scares—persists into the second unscathed. Elements are tweaked, sure. Blake lacks the stamina of his predecessors, adding a little tension during chases. Innovations like the camera’s sound detecting feature and the ability to slide are welcome, albeit underutilized. Outlast 2 is still just more Outlast, though; a fresh coat of paint does little to hide old bloodstains.
Nevertheless, someone’s gotta fill Chris’s army boots—enter Marta, who toys with but ultimately fails to improve on his template. Both pests debut early in their respective outings, though Marta’s took me aback. Shortly after entering Temple Gate, you’ll find her on patrol, mumbling to herself. Given how dark it is, you won’t get a good look at Marta unless she catches you. It’s even possible to miss her! While it is good that Marta’s introduction doesn’t ape Chris’s “famous” jump scare, this made for a strangely subdued, unimpressive debut.
Image: Source Gaming. Unlike Chris, Marta wields a weapon, a large axe that complements her figure. You’re gonna see a close-up of it at least once!
To Red Barrels’ credit, Outlast 2 takes time to sell “Knoth’s eye” as a threat. Villagers nakedly fear Marta. Collectible documents discuss how buff she is. When hiding in the basement of our only ally, we can just barely see her impale him. We happen to witness her drag a corpse later on; the gal’s busy. Escaping a rabid mob inadvertently leaves Blake in a worse position: he’s stumbled onto Marta’s turf! “Don’t worry about the outsider,” they summarize. Reliable reaper Marta will take care of him!
Grim reapers spring to mind when looking at the thin Marta. She’s deathly pale, giving her an otherworldly aura, a quality her terrible posture accentuates. This black-haired beast’s worn black dress suits her swimmingly. Oh, and she’s “real tall;” even through the overwhelming darkness, she’s usually fairly visible, towering over everything. Same for her weapon of choice, that handmade pickaxe; it makes the fanatic’s silhouette loom ever larger! Honestly, Marta’s almost grayscale palette is perhaps a bit too drab (a criticism I’d level at most of Temple Gate, in fairness), as it’s only broken by a few faded bloodstains and her weapon’s orange glow. The latter’s essential, though; it imbues Marta with flair—or, rather, flare—and makes her easier to spot from a distance. In short, this barefoot barn-dweller looks lovely.
Image: Source Gaming. Marta can keep pace with Blake—who, again, is lacking in stamina. He’s in actual danger if she’s tailing him!
Marta’s voice work is also serviceable. Catherine Kidd and Tamara Brown undergird her crude, raspy snarls with a primal energy; it’s easy to parse that Marta can’t be reasoned with. While it gets kinda grating hearing her pray incessantly, it makes sense she’d do so. Besides, like how Mr. Walker had his rattling chains, something needs to alert us when she’s lurking nearby, right? Probably the nun’s strongest asset is her chase theme, which channels religious choirs. Red Barrels worked hard on Marta.
Unfortunately, the enforcer’s encores let that down. Early on, Blake finds himself in a barn only to see Marta peering at him through a door, one I’m not convinced she couldn’t smash through. She then promises God she’ll deliver Blake to Him before receding, leaving him shaken and me apathetic. Most of Marta’s subsequent encounters dutifully follow the Outlast playbook: she appears, you run around until you lose her, and then chip away at whatever task needs completing so you can leave the current area; rinse and repeat. Activating the generator in Chapter 1 spawns Marta, who… simply walks towards Blake on a straight path; just sprint around her. Unless Blake gets stuck on the scenery (a real possibility if you’re out of batteries to power his camera’s night vision, admittedly), she poses virtually no threat.
Image: Source Gaming. Murkoff’s experiments cause phantom pregnancies in some women, though not Marta. Incidentally, she chops off Blake’s manhood in one of his death animations.
Even stumbling into her home underwhelms! Yes, the bloodstains and corpses add to the ambiance. Ditto for the countless flies, whose loud buzzing cleverly renders the camera’s sound detection unreliable. Nevertheless, “Marta’s Piece” is too straightforward to pose any problems. Losing the lady is easily accomplished by squeezing through a hole in the fence, a maneuver that also comically bewildered Chris. Oh, sure, she’ll dramatically reappear when you can finally access the exit, but then you’re basically home free unless you deliberately dally.
Marta’s knack for blocking Blake’s escape at conveniently inopportune moments fuels her strongest, and most annoying, showing. Upon reaching a new part of the village, you’ll inevitably notice a cart sitting under a spotlight, one that needs to be pushed towards a gate so you can hop over. Problem is, Marta dramatically emerges as you approach. Since this area’s well-lit, she’ll likely spot Blake, but you can dive under a hole in the nearby fence to evade her (on replays, I did this instinctively before she had time to notice me). Or sprint around town; she may lose sight of you, especially if you manage to duck in some grass. Notably, Marta can break through that fence, and may cheaply move in position to do so right when you push the cart far enough. It’s… predictable, exhausting.
Image: Source Gaming. Marta tries to comfort her prey by saying “God loves you.” Although she’s indisputably a villain, Marta is still a victim herself and has retained a sliver of her conscious, sympathetic attributes shared with Mr. Walker.
If Marta was tailing you at the end there, she’ll snatch Blake when he grabs the gate only for him to retaliate by kicking her in the face. And that’s potentially the second time that happens; he automatically does so when fleeing her farm! Giving Outlast leads an occasional victory is important, a necessary reprieve from the games’ omnipresent oppressiveness. Having two ending cutscenes for this sequence is also a nice touch. But the Gate guardian’s presence should inspire dread, something Blake’s strikes undermine. Meanwhile, Outlast 1 unwaveringly paints Chris as invulnerable, a virtue that elevates its climax. One strength to John Carpenter’s 1978 classic Halloween, my favorite film, is that you never know when or how the similarly sturdy Michael Myers will appear. He may crash a scene without warning or lurk in the background for a spell, sizing up his next victim; it’s tense, gripping. Marta feels completely toothless in comparison.
Like Chris, her backstory is relegated to the background, a courtesy to players who simply want to dash through Outlast 2. While I prefer Chris’s—horror media is rife with evil cults—Marta’s is absolutely fine. It certainly informs her character: she speaks in Bible verses and holds no real opinions or goals of her own. While that makes her rather one-note, it works; Knoth effectively owns Temple Gate’s denizens (paintings of him adorn their homes, and they speak of his will incessantly). Even the hag’s lack of a surname reads like an extension of that; where Mr. Walker once had a life, Knoth’s eye is merely an extension of him.
Image: Source Gaming. Most of Outlast’s jump scares are tacky, though Marta’s are never as egregious as Chris’s worst. At one point, you leave him behind in an unlit courtyard, and then a few minutes later he just… suddenly teleports in front of you for a cheap spook.
Again, though, she’s boring. If not for Chris, I’m confident I’d have forgotten about Marta midway through Outlast 2! Since Mr. Walker suffered a gruesome death after seemingly cornering his nemesis, I figured the same fate awaited an Outlast 2 rogue. Calling Marta “Chris 2.0” is unfair to both, but nobody else in Temple Gate rivals his notoriety; the little person / giant duo was a weak one-chapter wonder and Val’s story had concluded by this point. Lighting striking the lanky lady was a dramatic surprise, though! Let’s call it divine intervention, because that’s a faster, funnier explanation than explaining the hallucinatory experiments Blake and the townies were subjected to.
Reflecting upon Outlast 2, it would’ve behoved it if the axe-wielding weirdo got to harass Blake at least once during his riverside or mine excursions. Most enemies in the latter simply chase you; it’s too formulaic. Using the somewhat more methodical Marta to break them up would’ve been welcome. Plus, again, she’s Knoth’s right-hand; limiting her to the game’s first and final acts undermines that. Game development is hard, I know; hindsight is 50/50, and things regularly get reworked or cut mid-development. I still wonder how, exactly, the Val / Marta duel would’ve played out; it could’ve provided a satisfying explanation for why the latter skips most of Outlast 2. Oh well. At least Marta never grows as stale as the unshakeable Chris. That’s a feather in her cap.
Image: Source Gaming. Technical mishaps can defang Marta even further.
Despite how this article reads, I don’t dislike Outlast 2; there are worse ways to kill time. Still, it dutifully upholds every quality I dislike about the series. Whatever potential Marta had is squandered as a result, leaving her a drab husk that blurs into Temple Gate’s glum scenery. And that stings in a horror game with such a lacking rogues’ gallery! Where earlier Outlasts successfully mustered one entertaining evildoer each, nobody here approaches those highs. Maybe that was unavoidable and speaks to the lesson we should take from Outlast 2: slavishly following something can be dangerous, whether it’s a quack priest or stale gameplay template.
Congratulations, Marta! You never gave up the hunt.
Image: Source Gaming. Outlast gestures at the threat of religious fanaticism. Anyhoo, I’ve heard positive things about The Outlast Trials, and I hope the inevitable Outlast 3 learns from the series’ stalkers and spawns a consistently strong, memorable one.
Thanks to Hamada for helping with edits.
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