The Outlast Trials Review

Developer Red Barrels’ Outlast franchise is among the most unsettling, sadistic, and immersive in gaming, pitting dramatically disadvantaged protagonists against a torrent of terrifying and murderous monstrosities. In The Outlast Trials, Red Barrels takes the franchise’s core concepts and applies them to a series of experimental trials, which fans can take on in both single and multiplayer. Players are forced to complete a variety of bizarre tasks, before making their escape from each trial. However, they must do so while being mercilessly hunted by a range of terrifying enemies. While The Outlast Trials delivers a delightfully disturbing multiplayer experience, a lack of polish in key areas and a lack of true scares may leave some longtime fans disappointed.

The Outlast Trials opens with players enrolling in a “voluntary” study. However, they soon find themselves being forced at gunpoint into a series of “therapeutic” trials conducted by the Murkoff Corporation, whom players will recognize for their prominent role in the original Outlast title, its DLCs, and The Murkoff Account comic series. The trials see players attempt to earn their freedom by completing the “Core Program”, a list of challenges that test their mind, body, and stomach, as they navigate some of the most disturbing experiences the human mind can muster. As they complete each trial and tribulation, they level up, unlocking new items, equipment, rigs, and perks to take into the next challenging scenario.

The Outlast Trials’ Core Program, essentially the title’s story mode, consists of five core trials and 10 MK-Challeneges, which see fans return to the scene of the trial and complete additional objectives. As they complete the Core program, players can find hidden documents that offer greater insight into the Murkoff Corporation and the lore behind the scenes. However, the title doesn't end there. Freeing a Reagant, or player character, from the Murkoff facility unlocks new gauntlets to face, Program X and Program Ultra. These modes offer especially challenging trials for the title’s most committed fans to complete. While a single reagent is required to access Program X, players will have to free three to face The Outlast Trial’s greatest tests in Program Ultra.

The Outlast Trials offers one other mode for fans to tackle on day one, the Weekly Therapy. This mode sees players complete trials and MK Challenges from the Core Therapy playlist but with unique twists. These twists, called Variators, change the trial in some way, such as forcing players to utilize a pre-determined loadout, greatly empowering all enemies, or adding additional enemies from across the Core Program’s other challenges. Completion of the Weekly Therapy unlocks additional money, XP, items, and perks, making it a great option for those struggling to complete a particular challenge in the main game.

Despite the blood-spattered rooms and grotesque designs that litter The Outlast Trials' testing facilities, the title looks and sounds absolutely beautiful. Sounds are deeply immersive and each trial's central enemies ooze personality thanks to their dialogue, interactions with environmental objects, and disturbing audio cues. Likewise, locations such as the Police Station, Orphange, and Toy Factory steep players in a macabre and sadistic vision of horror delight. The Outlast Trials Early Access period was marked by surprisingly crisp audiovisual design and the full release ups the ante to create a stunning series of environments for players to explore.

Players are offered the chance to take on The Outlast Trials solo, but the game truly thrives in multiplayer. Up to four defenseless players can enter any of the title’s challenges together, and The Outlast Trials offers private, open, and crossplay lobbies for fans to team up. While a single-player run of the title's challenges is possible, each seems tailor-made for a full squad of four. Each trial includes at least two central enemies, including a Prime Asset, or main character, that pursues players at all times. Players must contend with the Prime Asset and a series of grunts while completing each trial. Careful attraction and interference of these enemies can ensure a team's success. However, tasks often appear built for multiple players to focus on at all times.

One of The Outlast Trials' most enjoyable features is its replayability, as randomly generated items, traps, noise makers, and enemy entrances present a unique challenge on each run. Additionally, adding more players changes the core elements of The Outlast Trials' tasks while transforming each location into a free-for-all. With four times as many players accidentally setting off sounds and traps, enemies constantly run between players’ locations. However, a limited number of randomly generated hiding places ensure that the slowest of the group to adapt to the map’s new layout almost always bears the brunt of the punishment.

Unfortunately, The Outlast Trials struggles to provide a balanced experience in the middle ground, transforming trials with two or three players into an increased, if not crushing, challenge. In solo, players can respawn several times using syringes, to offset the multiplayer design of the title’s challenges. However, adding a second player completely strips this away, leaving teams of two or more players to find randomly generated syringes around the map on each attempt. Teams of two can therefore struggle to even start some trials, as ever-changing enemies, such as those who jump out of hiding places and attack the player, can appear long before a syringe is located.

Duo runs can be ruined by the smallest of mistakes, making communication with one's partner essential in navigating even the earliest of The Outlast Trials' challenges. However, some elements hold unique power over teams of two or three players. One such element is The Impostor enemy type, which adds a particularly brutal challenge to two-player runs. The Impostor mimics a player, often indicated by the slightest variation in appearance or username. While this is a fun and funny way to get attacked in teams of four, the complete and utter codependence in duos makes the presence, and subsequent attacks, of The Impostor an utterly cruel threat to any duos run. At the time of review, matchmaking and crossplay were inactive, so it is possible that balancing could be patched before The Outlast Trials' full release launches on March 5, 2024.

The Outlast Trials offers plenty of customization options to assist players in overcoming its various trials. While the title offers no weaponry to players, leveling up unlocks unique abilities and equipment that can significantly boost players' chances of survival. One such unlockable, The Outlast Trials' Rigs, are special items that provide unique abilities, such as throwable bombs that stun enemies, a cloud that heals teammates, or the ability to temporarily see enemies through walls. There are also passive abilities to purchase with in-game currency and points, which allow players to break free of lesser enemies or improve evasion and traversal. The Outlast Trials' customization extends to esthetics as well, with players able to unlock and customize their character's appearance, clothes, and living space, as they progress through the Core Program.

While the title's gameplay and customization are sound, some fans may find issues with The Outlast Trials' core concepts as its unique "horror elements" mix borderline-comical hyper-violence with on-the-nose taboo, as well as bizarrely unfunny lechery. There's seemingly nothing off-limits in The Outlast Trials and the title revels in making its taboo concepts as over-the-top as possible. Enemies are blatant masochists, hurting themselves for pleasure while wandering through their environments. Players are tasked with grinding "children" in meat grinders, recreating crucifixions, and reaching down the throats of headless corpses, and that's just in its opening few levels. However, nothing in the title is there to scare the player.

While these elements were already an issue for some fans in The Outlast Trials' Early Access release, new content largely doubles down on these elements, injecting them into the very focus of certain trials. One such trial’s objectives include collecting and incinerating sex dolls, while another sees players humiliate, then destroy, a deviant “pervert”, whom Murkoff claims was brainwashing children. While overly gratuitous violence and hyper-sexuality are nothing new to the Outlast series, some fans may be a little surprised by The Outlast Trials' escalation of such concepts, especially as the title lacks the required levity or horror elements necessary to justify their inclusion.

The Outlast Trials is a fun, but flawed addition to the Outlast series, trading in the original titles’ claustrophobic horror for in-your-face multiplayer mayhem. The title’s core gameplay loop offers a thrilling challenge and high replayability, delivering plenty of trials for fans to sink their teeth into across its Core, Advanced, and Ultra Programs, with immersive audio-visual elements that deliver on all fronts. Unfortunately, The Outlast Trials' balancing issues, unjustified gratuity, and complete lack of scares may leave some players disappointed. Fans of the Outlast series will likely find plenty of reasons to explore and overcome the Murkoff Corporation’s various testing facilities, as the title offers enough challenge to keep them engaged. However, for general horror audiences, and those new to Outlast, The Outlast Trials may struggle to live up to the legendary reputation of the series’ original entries.