Outlast Timeline - The Complete Story So Far

Follow me on Twitter! https://twitter.com/SuggestiveGames

Next month, The Outlast Trials enters closed beta, and we'll see a new chapter in the history of the Outlast survival horror series. To mark the occasion, join me in revisiting the entire story as it stands so far in this highly suggested episode of What You Need to Know! 

Support me on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/suggestivegaming
Become a Channel Member! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdNSCQOvY6CNtMEB_Gan_IQ/join

Chat with us on Discord:
https://discord.gg/bv8Ney3

Video Chapters 
(Years shown under titles are the years the title was released. The timeline at the bottom of the screen indicates when the events take place in the games' universe)
00:00 - Intro
00:47 - Outlast: The Murkoff Account (Issue 1)
01:50 - Outlast
02:03 - Outlast: The Murkoff Account (Issue 2)
04:04 - Outlast 2
04:34 - Outlast: Whistleblower
05:24 - Outlast
06:24 - Outlast: Whistleblower
06:38 - Outlast
06:58 - Outlast: Whistleblower
07:10 - Outlast
07:32 - Outlast: Whistleblower
07:58 - Outlast
08:17 - Outlast: Whistleblower
08:50 - Outlast
09:09 - Outlast: Whistleblower
09:36 - Outlast
10:09 - Outlast: Whistleblower
10:30 - Outlast
12:01 - Outlast: Whistleblower
12:59 - Outlast: The Murkoff Account (Issue 3)
13:38 - Outlast: The Murkoff Account (Issue 4)
14:21 - Outlast: The Murkoff Account (Issue 5)
16:16 - Outlast 2
24:47 - Outlast: The Murkoff Account (Epilogue)
26:01 - Outro

Transcript

With “The Outlast Trials” right around
the corner, I, Suggestive Gaming, thought

it would be a great time to take a look at
the story of this survival horror series so

far.

As you may or may not know, the events of
the Outlast series are a bit…

all over the place timewise.

I’m going to try to hit things chronologically,
but as I often do for this series, I may touch

on certain events out of order to better lay
out the storyline.

Also note that these games deal with some
topics that are extremely unfriendly for this

platform.

As such, I’m going to considerably clean
things up and gloss over some of the more

graphic and disturbing subject matter to focus
on the events of the plot as opposed to the

subtextual themes and messages.

Now, without further ado, this is What You
Need to Know about Outlast.

The events of our story begin in 2008, when
two Insurance Mitigation Officers working

for the “Murkoff Corporation”, Paul Marion
and Pauline Glick, are paired together to

work as damage control for the company and
its various scientific experiments that have

the potential to go horribly wrong.

Among their first assignments is covering
up a string of grizzly beheadings at the Spindeltop

Psychotherapy Clinic in Hattin, Texas, which
had recently been purchased by Murkoff.

There, Marion and Glick discover the murders
to be conducted by the clinic’s security

guard, Chris Walker.

After covering up the incidents, the pair
hand Walker over to Murkoff.

Murkoff’s Executive Vice President of Global
Development, Jeremy Blaire, then reopens the

Mount Massive Asylum for the Criminally Insane
in Lake County, Colorado, which had previously

been used by the United States for various
secret black projects.

Chris Walker is then taken to Mount Massive
and experimented on as part of “Project

Walrider”.

This project, based on work by Nazi researcher
Dr. Rudolph Wernicke, aims to allow humans

to communicate with the “Walrider”, a
swarm of nanoscopic machines, through lucid

dreaming.

Murkoff then develops a process called the
“Morphogenic Engine” to unlock this potential.

Through these experiments, conducted deep
below the asylum grounds, Chris Walker is

transformed into a disfigured, monster-like
creature, which become to be called “Variants”

by Murkoff employees.

Around this same time, a woman named Tiffany
Hope turns her son, Billy, over to Murkoff

to be part of the Morphogenic Engine program,
receiving a large sum of money in return.

Soon, female employees at Mount Massive Asylum
begin to experience psychosomatic pregnancies

due to the experiments below the facility.

This leads to Murkoff laying off all female
workers and contractors at the asylum.

In 2012, an employee at Mount Massive Asylum
submits an anonymous complaint to the human

resources department about the lack of safety
protocols at the facility, leading Marion

and Glick to investigate in order to prevent
any OSHA interference or litigation.

The pair meet with Mount Massive’s head
of Business Development, Dr. Richard Trager,

to try to get a lead on who submitted the
complaint.

Pauline tries to get more information out
of Trager by going to his home for a date,

but the doctor instead tries to drug her drink,
forcing her to turn the tables.

She then learns that Trager had impregnated
a fellow Murkoff employee before threatening

her job if she refused to terminate the pregnancy.

This led to her submitting the complaint,
hoping to have Trager transferred or fired.

Trager then attacks the woman, stabbing her
in the abdomen with a pair of scissors.

In the wake of this attack, it’s learned
that the woman’s pregnancy was also psychosomatic,

and Trager is sent below the asylum to be
a test subject for the Morphogenic Engine

program.

Over the next year, Murkoff begins to experiment
on the use of microwave broadcasts to modify

brain function, using a Christian cult called
the “Testament of the New Ezekiel”, led

by a man named Sullivan Knoth, who live on
a commune in Arizona called “Temple Gate”

as unknowing test subjects.

This causes the group to fracture when one
follower, named “Val” splinters off into

a new group which becomes referred to as the
“Heretics”.

Additionally, other members of the group are
mutated from multiple extreme STI’s into

monster-like creatures known as the “Scalled”
who get exiled to the surrounding woods.

In September of 2013, a software engineer
consultant named Waylon Park working for Murkoff

at Mount Massive grows concerned with their
actions, leading to him secretly writing an

anonymous email to freelance journalist Miles
Upshur imploring him to expose them to the

public.

After sending the email, Waylon is brought
to a massive machine under Mount Massive used

as part of the Morphogenic Engine where he
sees a test subject, Eddie Gluskin, who begs

him for help.

Waylon is then instructed to help stabilize
the system as Eddie is brought in.

As Waylon returns to his laptop, he finds
Jeremy Blaire waiting for him, who reveals

that Murkoff was aware of the email he sent.

Waylon is then taken captive by Murkoff security,
and processed as another Morphogenic Engine

test subject himself.

During his captivity, Billy Hope is put into
the machine, and becomes the first test subject

to successfully control the Walrider, using
it to slaughter the Murkoff staff and security.

The Walrider also kills many of the patients
at Mount Massive Asylum, while leaving the

rest to roam free.

All the while, Billy’s body remains asleep
in a pod connected to the giant machine controlling

the Morphogenic Engine.

Miles Upshur then arrives at Mount Massive
Asylum after receiving the email from the

whistleblower whose identity he’s unaware
of.

Armed with nothing but his night-vision equipped
camcorder, Miles exits his Jeep, leaving it

at the entrance gate, before sneaking into
the asylum.

Inside, Miles witnesses the result of Murkoff’s
experiments on the patients, leaving them

physically and mentally deformed.

Soon, he comes face-to-face with the monster
that was once Chris Walker, who throws Miles

off of a balcony, knocking him unconscious.

Meanwhile, the chaos in the facility allows
Waylon to escape his restraints and find a

camera of his own.

Waylon then attempts to escape the underground
lab, and on the way, he is forced to run from

the attacking Walrider.

When Miles regains consciousness, he’s met
by a patient believing himself to be a priest,

named "Father" Martin Archimbaud.

Martin believes Miles to have a calling from
God, and implores him to act carefully so

as to carry it out.

After Martin leaves, Miles continues to explore
the asylum.

While trying to escape, Waylon overhears two
guards talking about a shortwave radio, and

he attempts to find it to call for help, noticing
the exit doors are locked down on his way.

Miles then finds his way into the security
office to unlock the front entrance doors.

As he attempts to, however, Father Martin
stops him, injecting him with a sedative to

prevent him from leaving.

As Miles slowly passes out, he witnesses a
camera feed of armed tactical officers entering

the lab, where they are swiftly killed by
the Walrider.

Meanwhile, Waylon continues his search for
the radio, but his progress is soon hindered

by a patient named Frank Manera, who gives
chase wielding a circular saw.

While Waylon is able to avoid him temporarily,
the crazed patient captures Waylon and places

him in a cremation furnace.

Luckily, Waylon is able to destroy the brick
wall at the back of the furnace, allowing

him to narrowly escape before the furnace
fully ignites.

Elsewhere, Miles awakens from the sedative
to find himself in a padded cell.

After another patient unlocks the cell and
allows him to escape into the surrounding

cell block, Miles spots two inmates known
as the “Twins” behind a locked gate, who

express their desire to kill and eat him,
despite Martin asking them not to.

Meanwhile, Waylon finally locates the radio
and makes a call to emergency services.

Before he can speak, though, Jeremy Blaire
arrives and rips the transceiver from his

hands before destroying the radio with a nightstick.

He then attempts to choke Waylon with the
stick, but before he can, he’s forced to

run as Chris Walker arrives.

Waylon is then forced to escape from Walker,
finding Father Martin writing a message in

blood on the wall afterward.

Waylon then makes his way towards the administration
block to find a way to escape.

Sometime later, Miles escapes the prison block
and finds the message Father Martin was writing

on the wall, which leads him to an entrance
to the sewer system.

Afterwards, Miles is cornered by the Twins,
but outsmarts them to escape.

He soon comes across another familiar face,
Chris Walker, who he runs from and soon evades.

Waylon then comes across a patient named Dennis,
who plans to turn him over to Eddie Gluskin

(who he refers to as the “Groom”).

Waylon runs from Dennis, but finds himself
directly in the Groom’s path.

Gluskin, seemingly infatuated with Waylon,
then relentlessly chases the man, eventually

cornering and capturing him.

Gluskin then takes Waylon to a giant table
saw before knocking him out with some kind

of gas.

Later, Miles finds himself being chased by
a group of patients.

He then finds a dumbwaiter which he climbs
into to escape, but upon reaching its destination,

he’s surprised to find another patient,
the former head of Business Development, Dr.

Richard Trager, waiting for him.

Trager straps Miles to a wheelchair and carts
him off to a room with his tools.

Trager then takes a giant pair of shears and
cuts off two of Miles’s fingers before walking

off.

Miles then fights through his pain and struggles
to get free of the wheelchair.

When Waylon awakens, he finds himself strapped
to the table saw with the Groom about to use

it to mutilate him.

Another patient then attacks the Groom, giving
Waylon an opening to escape.

After a long chase, Waylon is able to defeat
Eddie Gluskin in his gymnasium of hanging

bodies, impaling the Groom in on one of his
own metal spikes.

Meanwhile, Miles deals with his own chase
with Trager.

He is eventually able to reach an elevator
to escape, but as it descends, Trager attacks.

Miles is able to push Trager into the elevator’s
entrance and activate it, crushing and finally

killing the demented doctor.

Miles then finds Father Martin once again,
who leads him to the asylum’s chapel.

There, Father Martin leaves Miles a key to
a nearby elevator, and is hung upon a cross.

The cross is then lit aflame, and Miles takes
his leave to find the elevator.

Miles takes the elevator down below the asylum
and is surprised to find the lab.

There, Chris Walker attacks him once again,
but the Walrider arrives and finally kills

the monstrous man.

Afterwards, Miles finds the office of Dr.
Wernicke, who tells him about the Walrider

project before tasking Miles with killing
Billy Hope to stop it.

Miles then finds Billy’s body, and the machine
keeping it alive, which he turns off.

As Billy dies, the Walrider attacks Miles,
before inhabiting his body and possessing

him.

Miles crawls his way to the lab’s exit,
where he is met by Wernicke and a group of

tactical officers.

The officers then open fire on Miles and he
falls, but a shocked Wernicke realizes that

Miles has become the Walrider’s new host.

Afterwards, only the sounds of screams are
heard as the Walrider kills its attackers.

Meanwhile, Waylon is able to find his way
to the asylum’s entrance to finally escape

his nightmare.

There, he’s met by Jeremy Blaire once again,
heavily wounded but with enough strength to

attack him.

Before Blaire can kill Waylon, however, the
Walrider arrives and decimates him, leaving

a rattled Waylon to finally leave Mount Massive
Asylum.

As Waylon gets into the Jeep Miles left at
the entrance gate, he spots Miles Upshur’s

body, now controlled by the Walrider, outside
the asylum.

He takes one final recording of it before
speeding off to safety.

Sometime later, Waylon meets with a former
Murkoff employee named Simon Peacock, who

now seeks to expose the company.

Waylon and Peacock compile the video evidence
from Mount Massive, and knowing the risks

involved with going after Murkoff, Waylon
uploads it to the internet before going into

deep hiding with his family.

After Waylon’s video is made public, Murkoff
immediately put Paul Marion and Pauline Glick

on damage control.

After Paul creates a narrative painting Waylon
as a crazy conspiracy theorist to discredit

Waylon, the pair trace Miles Upshur’s bank
activity to Billy Hope’s mother’s location.

There, they find that the Walrider had inhabited
Billy’s body and returned to his home.

Pauline enacts an elaborate plan and lures
the Walrider into a trap before destroying

it.

Paul then notices the swarm of mist-like nanites
infect a colony of ants, leading him to believe

that their plan to destroy the Walrider was
unsuccessful.

Paul and Pauline then go to Miles Upshur’s
home to investigate, finding it infested with

ants.

They’re forced to kill them with fire before
running out of the house.

Afterwards, Paul spots a man following them
and chases him, learning that the man is none

other than Simon Peacock.

Peacock gives Paul a set of coordinates related
to Murkoff before Pauline arrives.

She then shoots at Peacock, revealing that
his body is rotten like a corpse due to Murkoff’s

experiments on him while he was employed.

Peacock then escapes, leaving Paul and Pauline
to take care of Miles’s house.

Paul wants to investigate the coordinates
received from Peacock, but Pauline dissuades

him from doing so.

Sometime later, Simon Peacock leaves Paul
a note at his residence, again listing the

coordinates and stating that Paul’s daughter,
undergoing treatment by Murkoff for a chronic

blood disorder, is somehow connected to what
lies there.

Paul’s curiosity gets the best of him, and
he travels in secret to the destination of

the coordinates: Temple Gate in Arizona.

As he approaches, a bright light flashes from
Murkoff’s microwave relay, causing him to

faint and vividly dream of the day his wife
died.

He’s later awoken when a man escaping from
Temple Gate with a pregnant woman steals his

gun from him, forcing Paul to fight him off,
eventually killing him in the scuffle.

As the woman runs off, Paul passes out from
injuries sustained in the fight, and he’s

later discovered by a passing family who take
him to a nearby hospital.

Pauline meets Paul in the hospital, and after
a bit of chastising for his going behind her

back, she reveals that the pregnant woman
he saw is also in the same hospital.

The woman, designated “Jane Doe”, showed
up to the hospital unconscious, but was able

to deliver a healthy baby boy.

Furthermore, CT scans show her brain activity
to be identical to those exposed to the Morphogenic

Engine.

When the woman finally awakens, Pauline secretly
strangles her before leaving with Paul.

When Paul returns home, he’s shocked to
find his daughter missing, with only a message

on his wall in her wake, stating “You work
for us now,” written in her blood.

Below the message on the floor, Paul finds
one of her severed fingers.

Pauline returns to the spot Paul killed the
man with the pregnant woman, but finds no

sign of the body.

As it turns out, it was returned to Temple
Gate by a high-ranking member of the Testament

of the New Ezekiel named Marta.

Two weeks after the death of “Jane Doe”,
husband and wife journalist team Blake and

Lynn Langermann learn of the story and decide
to investigate her origins to hopefully uncover

the truth behind her suspicious passing.

While traveling to Temple Gate, another flash
of light occurs and their helicopter’s engine

malfunctions, causing the aircraft to crash
land.

The landing knocks Blake out, and he dreams
of his past at the St. Sybil Catholic grade

school where he follows a priest before seeing
his old, late friend, Jessica Gray.

She is then enveloped by a rushing wave of
blood, waking Blake up.

Blake grabs his camera and searches for his
two companions.

He soon finds that Lynn is missing, but the
helicopter’s pilot met a far more gruesome

fate, as he was murdered, mutilated, and strung
up to a tree.

Blake spots a nearby town and investigates
it to find it mostly empty, littered with

corpses, including those of children.

Blake then comes across Marta, avoiding her
as she mutters her teachings.

Blake soon finds a church, where he hears
Lynn being accosted by Sullivan Knoth, who

believes her to be carrying the anti-Christ.

Lynn escapes her captors and Blake meets up
with her.

The pair run away from the town, hearing Knoth
over a loudspeaker proclaiming that his followers

must kill Lynn and the father of her child,
Blake, before the anti-Christ can be born.

This comes as a surprise to Blake, who asks
Lynn if she’s even pregnant, while she doesn’t

want to speak about the matter.

The pair are then ambushed by a pair of cultists
who attempt to capture them.

Luckily, another group of heretics, led by
Val, arrive and kill the cultist attackers.

Val and the heretics then take Lynn, who is
referred to as “mother”, as they leave

Blake behind.

Blake attempts to follow Val, but he is stoon
stopped by another flash of light, sending

him back to his dream of St. Sybil.

After snapping out of it again, Blake is found
by a man named Ethan.

Ethan reveals that he was cast out from the
cult after Knoth impregnated his daughter,

Anna Jay, and he refused to kill the child,
which Knoth claimed was the anti-Christ.

His daughter, as it turns out, was the Jane
Doe Blake was trying to investigate.

Blake then spares the man the grief and lies
to Ethan, claiming that his daughter is safe.

Ethan then takes Blake into his home and lets
him rest under his floorboards.

After another dream about Jessica, Blake is
awakened to find Ethan being questioned by

Marta.

Despite her threatening him with her pickaxe,
Ethan refuses to give her any information

about Blake’s whereabouts, leading the crazed
woman to murder him.

After she leaves, Blake continues his search
for Lynn.

After another hallucination of his childhood,
Blake recalls that Jessica had died by hanging

in an apparent suicide.

Blake continues through Temple Gate and finds
another church, where a man is strung up to

wheel with his eyes gouged out and “Judas”
carved into his chest.

This man, Josiah, asks Blake to kill him before
Knoth returns with his wife, Mary, so-as to

prevent her torture.

Blake then hears Knoth approaching and hides
in the nearby confessional, where he watches

the cult leader and his men tie Mary down
to a torture rack.

They proceed to stretch the woman until Josiah
finally tells Knoth where Val has taken Lynn:

the mines up the mountain.

Knoth then has Josiah killed, before Mary
is stretched to death as well.

After Knoth and his men leave, Blake follows
to hopefully reach the mines before they do.

After avoiding Marta, Blake finds himself
in another hallucination.

After snapping out of it, Blake comes across
the Scalled, and two of them, named Laird

and Nick, find and capture him.

Laird then forces Blake to swallow some of
his blood to prove that he is their “messiah”.

After passing the test, Laird takes Blake’s
camera (believing it to be his “gospel”)

before Nick nails him to a cross to be “reborn”.

When Laird and Nick leave him to die, Blake
is able to rip his hands from the crucifix,

crawling to bandages nearby to tend to his
wounds.

Afterwards, he sneaks past Laird and Nick,
finding his camera before another hallucination

takes him.

Once out of it, Blake runs from the pair of
Scalled pursuing him, but is soon caught by

them once again.

This time, they bury him alive, but he is
luckily able to claw his way out.

While continuing on, Blake is again stopped
by Laird and Nick, but the Scalled then turn

on the pair, killing them and allowing Blake
to continue.

After another hallucination, Blake reaches
a lake, where he spots a man walking into

to drown himself.

Despite the evil feeling he gets from the
waters, Blake uses a nearby raft to begin

crossing it towards the mines.

Blake’s hesitation proves to be warranted,
as the white light begins to flash, killing

the fish in the lake.

A massive wave then sweeps up the raft, knocking
Blake into the water.

After frantically swimming back to the raft,
Blake is able to reach the entrance to the

mines.

After yet another hallucination of the school,
Blake descends into the mines, where he is

captured by Val.

After a cave-in distracts Val, Blake is able
to escape and evade the heretics momentarily

before they ambush and drug him.

Blake is then brought to Lynn, who is strung
up and now very visibly pregnant.

Val then pins Blake down, before he is sent
into another hallucination.

In this one, Blake remembers Jessica pinning
him down in the school’s pantry in a similar,

but much more playful manner.

The pair go to leave the school, but are stopped
by the priest Blake had been seeing in his

hallucinations: Father Loutermilch.

Loutermilch scolds them for what he believes
was a nefarious encounter between the two

before sending Blake home.

Jessica tries to plead with Blade to stay
with her, but he listens to the priest and

walks towards the exit of the school.

On his way out, however, he hears Jessica
scream and he turns around.

Blake rushes back, finding Loutermilch chasing
the frightened girl.

After entering a stairwell, Blake is shocked
to see Jessica lying dead on the stairs with

Loutermilch above her, seemingly revealing
the truth behind her death.

Blake then snaps out of his hallucination
to find the cultists attacking the heretics.

Blake takes advantage of the distraction and
rushes to Lynn.

He finds her and helps carry her away from
the mines, but their progress is halted by

Marta.

As she winds back to kill them, however, a
storm rolls in and the winds carry a metal

cross from the church, which impales and instantly
kills her.

Blake and Lynn then continue as the storm
gets worse and the sun turns a bright, blood

red.

As the pair reach the church where Josiah
and Mary where killed, Lynn goes into labor

and is forced to lay on the torture rack to
give birth.

After Blake helps deliver their baby (who
strangely doesn’t cast a shadow), Lynn looks

at him and merely says, “there’s nothing
there,” before dying.

Blake passes out with the baby in his hands,
dreaming of his final moments with Jessica

once again.

When he awakens, he finds Knoth before him,
wielding a knife.

Knoth laments Blake allowing the baby to be
born.

Knoth claims that after the birth, God has
been “silent”.

He had tried to kill all of his followers
to prove his faith, but Knoth still hasn’t

heard any messages from “God”.

Hoping to find his answers in the afterlife,
Knoth then turns the blade on himself, slitting

his own throat, and dying where he sits.

Blake then leaves the church with the baby,
walking towards the glowing red sun.

As he continues walking, the sun grows, and
a bright light envelops everything around

him.

He then hallucinates once again, reliving
the memory of meeting with Jessica in the

pantry.

When he finds her, she’s either a ghastly
image of her dead self with the rope marks

around her neck, or unharmed.

Jessica then kneels down and leads a prayer,
with Blake joining her, however he remembers

her.

It is then revealed that the final blast of
light was caused by the Walrider, still inhabiting

the ants, who destroyed Murkoff’s microwave
transmission tower.

Afterwards, Pauline Glick arrives to clean
up the Temple Gate situation, finding only

one survivor: Blake, although he’s left
in a catatonic state.

Elsewhere, Paul Marion is held captive by
Peacock, who claims that the two have to find

the Walrider.

Peacock reveals that he was Murkoff’s “rough
draft”, and that the Temple Gate experiments

were a way to test religion as an effective
means to deliver the Morphogenic Engine Process.

As they found out, the test was a massive
success.

At some yet-unknown point in the future, Paul
Marion arrives at an FBI Field Office.

Severely wounded and still bleeding, Marion
is arrested by the agents there, before he’s

taken to a hospital where his wounds are treated.

There, he admits to all of the crimes he helped
commit for Murkoff, telling the FBI the entire

story of how he got to where he is now.

Elsewhere, Pauline Glick is interviewed by
her employers at Murkoff, and she does the

same.

And this brings us to the final known events
of the Outlast timeline.

While this year’s installment, “The Outlast
Trials” will take us back to Murkoff’s

experiments during the Cold War, hopefully
one day we’ll learn the fates of the characters

we’ve met so far.

Hey everybody, thanks for watching!

Just a quick note that this series requires
a lot of time, energy, and effort; and it’s

a lot of work for a single person to create
with no team.

As such, if you enjoy my content and would
like to help support me like the beautiful

people on screen now, I do have a Patreon
or a channel membership option right on here

where you can pledge just $5 to get early
access as well as special credit on each video.

Otherwise, just make sure you like this video,
and of course subscribe with notifications

on to see my new videos as soon as they come
out.

Also make sure you leave a response on my
pinned comment letting me know what you’d

like to see me cover next.

I wasn’t even going to cover Outlast, but
the overwhelming amount of suggestions I’ve

gotten for it over the past few weeks inspired
me to get cracking and get this video out.

So special thanks goes to all those folks
too.

You can also follow me on Twitter to catch
updates and chat with me, or join the Discord

to hang out with the SG community.

Links to those are in the description, and
I’ll see you all in the next one!

(that’s what YouTubers say)