Miles Is Completely Outmatched

In most survival, horror games your main character eventually gets a weapon. Whether that weapon be a gun, a knife, a crowbar if your main character doesn’t like using guns. Regardless of the weapon, you usually get something that gives you at least a fighting chance. In outlast, however, miles doesn’t get any of that. The only thing that he does get is the only thing he brought into the asylum with him his camera. And seeing the people he discovers are still in the asylum unlike what he initially thought I bet he’s wishing he brought more than just that camera. See the thing is even after he realizes that there are people in the asylum he knows that he is severely outmatched. He knows that he obviously isn’t a Leon Kennedy., Chris Redfield,  or Piers Nivans. All trained people who can probably survive even in the situation Miles was and even with just the camera. Miles however it’s just a journalist and not one with enough foresight, unfortunately to be prepared for everything see Leon probably would’ve walked in there with a handgun, a combat knife, or some other weapon that I could actually fight back against anything because to him if there’s nothing in there great but why walk in empty-handed?   

Use What You Actually Have

Enough dissing Miles my point is Miles is a journalist. His only weapon is a camera. There is no way for him to escape out of the asylum and go back the way he came once he discovered that there are people there, and he has no real way to fight back against those chasing him. However, Miles is not completely helpless because that camera isn’t completely useless. It can see in the dark, which allows him to find things around the asylum like he’s documents and other things that he needs to make progress and to try and actually escape the asylum. Now let’s connect this to real life because truthfully this actually relates to how we deal with situations in real life when we feel like we don’t have the right tools. 

Stop Looking Only at What You Don’t Have

Now imagine this for a moment you have a presentation coming up, but the laptop that you need to connect to the screen isn’t available. And while your first instinct might be to panic and say well, I can’t do it now so then I would say wait a moment. Let’s assess our situation first 

is the software compatible with your phone? 

Can you borrow someone else’s laptop? 

Can you login to your account from another device? 

Can you change how you’re presenting? 

Can you find another way to get the information across?    

What I’m trying to say is sometimes you may feel like you don’t have the right tools but you should keep going anyways. The point isn’t that every problem has a solution the point is sometimes yes you genuinely don’t have the resource resources you feel like you need. But when you’re under pressure and feeling panic, it’s a lot easier to look at what you don’t have instead of what you do have and how you can use that to your advantage.

Sometimes Moving Forward Means Hiding

This is something I genuinely feel Miles differently. He is terrified absolutely he is dealing with people who are a lot stronger than him and he knows it. He knows she can’t just walk right out to them and fight them. For him, his options are quite literally to run hide or die. But I want you to notice something how none of those options actually involve defeating the enemy sometimes moving forward doesn’t actually mean that you need to confront and defeat the enemy, you are afraid of. Sometimes moving forward can be as simple as running from it hiding until it’s safe and figuring out where you need to go next. The thing is an outlast when Miles hides inside of a locker he doesn’t hide there with the intention of staying there forever although that would sound like an appealing option he doesn’t do that. He hides in the locker wait for the threat to pass, and then after it does, he gets out and moves towards his next objective. Of course he might get hurt. He might be scared out of his mind and he absolutely might have to hide again, but still, he keeps moving one step at a time. 

And through surviving as miles, you will come to realize that maybe he doesn’t need conventional weapons sure those weapons would make it easier, but it’s not something that he needs and there is no point in crying over what you don’t have, but you know that you probably will not be able to get it. “ there’s no use crying over spilt milk.” 

Therefore instead of looking at what he doesn’t have, let’s look at some of the things that he does have he has his camera, his stamina and his ability to think and as you’ll realize throughout outlast, those things are somehow all he needs to keep moving. 

Exhaust Your Options Before You Give Up

I think that’s genuinely something that we forget will be deal with problems. We don’t have our ideal solution so instead of looking at what’s around us and what we do have we just quit. Because we don’t have the ideal solution we assume that we don’t have a solution at all, however that simply is not the truth. Just because you don’t have what you feel is your ideal circumstances that is not a reason for you to quit or give up just because of that. Just like Miles did pick up your camera sneak around enemies use someone else’s laptop. Ask someone else for help change your approach completely. Those are all things that you can do to sneak around the doctor and advance forward. Because at the end of the day, regardless of if you have your ideal circumstances figuring out how to use what you have is still you moving towards the same objective you’re just using a different method and if you get there the same way why does it matter if you have to take a little detour? So when you feel like your situation is completely helpless please take a moment to look at what you actually have available. Maybe it’s not ideal. Maybe it’s not what you planned for. Maybe it’s not at all what you want, but before you decide that you can’t move forward exhaust all of your options because sometimes the problem isn’t what you have is that you simply haven’t figured out how to use what you do have yet.