Miles Upshur
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Miles Upshur is an up-and-coming investigative journalist who functions as the unseen protagonist for Outlast. After receiving a tip concerning the mistreatment of patients, he arrives at Mount Massive Asylum to investigate, unaware of the hell he is about to walk into. He is voiced by Shawn Baichoo.
Story[]
Outlast[]
After receiving an anonymous email from Waylon Park, Miles arrives at Mount Massive Asylum to investigate alleged mistreatment of the patients there. Here, he discovers dead bodies, mutilated corpses, and dying patients. He soon encounters Chris Walker who throws him through a window.
After waking up, Miles meets Father Martin Archimbaud, who calls him an apostle to the events at the Asylum. Miles investigates, but faces obstruction from Archimbaud, and encounters Chris Walker once more. Miles tries to negate Archimbauld's intervention by returning power to the security control room, but is overpowered by Archimbaud and sedated.
After waking up in a prison cell and leaving, Miles encounters The Twins, who discuss wanting to mutilate him, deciding to wait for Father Martin to give them the ok. Miles drains the shower room and enters the sewer, and is chased below by patients. He now meets Dr. Richard Trager who takes him captive and tortures him. Trager is then crushed by an elevator as Miles escapes.
After meeting back up with Father Martin, Miles encounters the The Walrider as he moves through the courtyard. After collecting three fuses to unlock the upper floor stairwells, he temporarily loses his camera. Once he returns to the administrative block, he witnesses the crucifixion of Father Martin. Miles enters the underground lab and is harassed by the Walrider, who then murders Chris Walker as he attempts to attack Miles. Miles meets Dr. Rudolf Wernicke who explains the events in motion, and tells Miles he must kill Billy Hope to stop it.
Miles kills Billy, but is attacked by the Walrider who is now without a host. Miles becomes the new host, and attacks soldiers and Dr. Wernicke at the exit of the asylum.
Outlast: Whistleblower[]
Miles is seen at the end of the DLC as Waylon Park sees the now-possessed Miles killing the soldiers. And then saves Park from Jeremy. He leaves without evidence to take down the Murkoff Corporation.
Background[]
Miles is a journalist by trade - in Whisteblower documents, it's suggested that Miles once worked for a large journalism outfit, but was fired for material produced regarding the Afghanistan War. Miles became a freelance investigative journalist, likely due to his disillusion with the established media. Though it's not stated as such, it is suggested and implied that Miles has come to the asylum because of rumors surrounding it, hoping to establish himself as a freelance investigator; this has certain parallels to other investigative journalists who rose to fame due to their investigation of asylums and mental institutions (for example, Geraldo Rivera).
Physical Characteristics[]
Miles is young - in this mid 20's, at the latest - and seems surprisingly fit. Running is his main skill in Outlast, and he is able to outrun most enemies on running power alone. Even with this, he is not strong enough to face off against the Variants in the asylum, and especially has problems dealing with Chris Walker. His shadow implies he has messy hair, and various sources of in-game reflections and a brief body shot on the camera show that he has a brown jacket layered over a white dress shirt, which is tucked into blue jeans, strapped with a black belt. After his first encounter with Richard Trager, his left ring finger and right index finger are cut off. At the end of Outlast, his body is wrapped in darkness as he is possessed by the Walrider.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Miles name is a nested reference. It means "soldier" in Latin, representing his struggle, and it's a play on "miles upshore without a ladder", showing he is in too deep.
- Miles drives a 1987 Jeep Wrangler YJ in red.
- In the original Outlast, Miles does not have a head - his character model ends in a bloody stump, and this model is used for when his head is ripped off by Walker or decapitated by Trager. There is a head model for these situations, though it's not joined to the body model. In the Whistleblower DLC, the head and body were combined and enveloped in black to show the Walrider swarm possessing Upshur.
- Miles is voiced by the same voice actor responsible for Waylon Park and Blake Langermann.
- In the beta version of Outlast, Miles views Waylon's email via his email account, milesupshur@gmail.com. This was changed into a hard copy for release.
- Miles was meant to be one of two protagonists, with the other being an unplayable female character. She was cut, as they felt that any help given to Miles would take away from the feelings of extreme isolation and fear.
- Originally, developers planned on having Miles be sexually assaulted during Outlast, but cut the content as it was deemed "too excessive" and would have garnered too much controversy.