Red Barrels launches Outlast horror comic series

Red Barrels' scare fest Outlast 2 may stand as an indirect follow-up to its forerunner—it’s set in the same universe, but breaks from the first’s show-stealing Mount Massive Asylum setting and follows a different cast of characters—but a new five-issue comic book series aims to bridge the narrative gap between the first and second outing, the developer has announced.

Following the exploits of the unscrupulous Murkoff Corporation, issue one focuses on how Chris “Strongfat” Walker wound up with superhuman strength and a disliking for pretty much everyone and everything that crosses his path. 

Walker, you may recall, is the recurring brute that stalks Miles Upshur in Outlast (and Waylan Park to a lesser extent in its Whistleblower DLC) but, besides scant info gleaned from the odd document scattered here and there within the hospital, the player is offered little explanation as to how he became this way. 

This is where the comic comes in, and how all of this ties to Outlast 2’s narrative will undoubtedly become clear as the comic series unfolds. Outlast 2, by the way, promises things like walking over charred baby pits and crotch-stabbing. Do read on at your peril.         

“The first Outlast, the way we saw it, was that it was going to take your physical integrity,” Red Barrels' Phillipe Morin told Tyler in the following video interview. “In this one we want to take your mental integrity as well.”  

Outlast 2 is due to launch later this year, however issue one of The Murkoff Account can be read for free here.