Sun Yixie took his time, closed the door slowly behind him, readied his camcorder, and pulled the gas pump.
The engines around him rumbled to life, the sounds surely transmitting across the area. He quickly maneuvered to a corner and waited.
10 seconds passed, then 20, then 30. But nothing happened, which was odd, to say the least.
"Bro, what are you waiting for? Listen, now's the time to get outta here man. Leave before the monster shows up and eats your face," Brother Lemon had now settled comfortably into his position as a backseater.
"Hang on, hang on, I'm panicking… My hands are shaking a bit, let me calm down," Sun Yixie stuttered as he started moving the character around the room, looking for items and stalling.
There was nothing to be found, so he prepared to open the door.
Meanwhile, blissfully oblivious to the internal turmoil, Brother Lemon continued padding his resume as a backseater.
"C'mon bro, just open the door. Look, the monster is clearly able to break down doors, right? So if it's right outside, it would have just broken down the door already.
Game devs like efficiency, they wouldn't go out of their way to program a different behavior in a monster just to fuck with people."
Emboldened by those words, Sun Yixie decisively swung open the door.
The monster was standing right there.
The following screech, and subsequent flailing, emitted by Sun Yixie would go on to become a beloved meme on the channel, long after the craze of 'Outlast' would pass.
Fortunately, his mental collapse was only temporary, as the lunatic monster soon made its move, swinging the wicked looking weapon in its hand at the head of the protagonist.
The screen shook with impact and the character let out a gasp of pain.
"I'm alive! I'm still alive!"
Sun Yixie pulled back his chair and began his desperate attempt to get away from the monster and find a way out.
The music in the background had changed from the slow, eerie buildup to a sharp and frantic orchestral tone. The shrill strings seemed to resonate with his rapid heartbeat, amplifying the intensity of the moment.
This, combined with the green glow of the camcorder's night vision mode, created a scene out of a nightmare.
"Fuck! Fuck, where do I go?!"
"Give me a gun! Please just let me find a gun! I'll fucking fight you!"
Sun Yixie's back was drenched with cold sweat. In his panic, he ran aimlessly through the dark, taking turns and jumping over obstacles in an attempt to stave off the monster that hunted him.
His normally half-closed eyes were wide open. His hands were jittery and shaking even as he piloted the character around. And as he felt a line of sweat run down his forehead, wild thoughts came to his mind.
This game was simply terrifying. The story, the setting, the music, the atmosphere — how could a video game push him so far? How could a video game be so scary? Did the government actually approve of this? Is this some kind of psyop?
The footsteps of the monster were unrelenting, following him across the darkness wherever he turned.
His instincts told him to run, nothing else mattered.
But then, just as he turned another corner, the sudden sound of static broke the rhythm of the chase. Something new was flashing red at the corner of the screen.
The battery icon. Shit.
The green glow of the camcorder flickered, then vanished, plunging the screen into absolute darkness. SHIT.
He had been using the camcorder the entire time, not noticing the battery running low. Now, it was drained.
"Damn it! Damn it! What's the button? What's the button to reload??!"
Sun Yixie was in such a state that he even forgot the basic key bindings.
In the pitch black basement, he had lost his sense of direction, and the sounds of inhuman utterings were drawing ever closer.
Until finally *Click* Success.
A wave of green lit up the pitch darkness, allowing the use of vision once more. But as he turned to gauge the distance between himself and the monster, he let out a mighty shriek that jolted his friend in his seat.
The monster was right in his face now, it had run up so close to him that he could imagine the odious breath of the thing.
It had looked disturbing enough before, but now, with its face twisted up in a manic rage and bathed in the eerie light of the camcorder, new levels of terror were unlocked in the psyche of Sun Yixie that day.
His soul, forever scarred.
"Away! Away!"
At this point, he didn't even know he was screaming anymore. He simply turned and ran.
By chance, he came across a door. He didn't hesitate, anything that came in the way of him and that thing was a blessing.
Inside the room lay the final gas pump, but something else caught his attention. There were two metal cabinets right next to it.
Like a thirsty wanderer finding an oasis in the desert, Sun Yixie was overjoyed that he had found his salvation.
He dashed forward, hit the interaction button, and was now sitting comfortably inside one of the cabinets. Peering out from the steel slits gave him a much needed sense of security.
Moments later, the expected sounds of steel striking wood was heard as the monster bashed its way through the flimsy door and entered the room.
As before, it meandered aimlessly around, as if wondering where its prey had gone. It slammed open the cabinet next to Sun Yixie and found it empty, then left the room as it calmed down from its agitated state.
Letting out the breath he didn't know he was holding, Sun Yixie slumped down in his seat and clutched at his chest.
He looked towards the clock in his gaming studio and mulled it over, before saving the game and quitting out.
"Okay guys… That's enough for today… That's enough for today…"
As he sat upright, all the strength seemed to leave his body, he felt utterly drained, as though years had been stolen from his natural lifespan.
"I'm sorry, I can't do this anymore… Not right now…"
He rubbed his hands on his face, stewing in the feeling of exhaustion. It wasn't even an excuse, he genuinely felt like he might collapse or black out if he attempted to power through any further.
To be honest, he didn't consider himself a particularly brave specimen to begin with. And in that same vein, the game itself wasn't all that different from other horror games. The biggest difference seemed to be the pacing and presentation.
Other games in the genre seemed to follow a rigid structure, giving players an initial scare, then entering a long period of downtime.
But this 'Outlast' was different. The entire "feel" of the game was incredible, immersive, and just spot on in a way that was out of this world.
And with the unique mechanic of the night vision camcorder, the game felt like a non-stop thriller adventure.
The constant darkness and poor visibility was the element that contributed most to the unsettling atmosphere. And the limited battery life of the camcorder gave players a constant nagging sense of unease, forcing them to thoroughly explore in search of batteries to avoid going blind.
The persistent psychological pressure made the game more engaging, while invoking a sense of paranoia in the players.
These elements, combined with the fantastically gruesome encounter designs and well-timed scares, elevated 'Outlast' into a genuinely terrifying game.
For Sun Yixie, the thought of having to come back and finish the game at some point left only a single feeling in the back of his head.
Despair.
And he wasn't alone.