The Outlast Trials Review: Red Barrels Hits the Target and Offers Truly Convincing Characters and Settings
Genre: Horror Co-op Multiplayer
Platform: PC, Xbox Series S/X, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5
Rating: Mature 17+
Developer: Red Barrels
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3.5/5 (three and a half stars)
Among the various examples, we can calmly mention also The Outlast Trials, the third chapter of the renowned horror saga that has terrified gamers all over the world. If we think of all the horror games that might be better suited to an online multiplayer spin-off, Outlast wouldn’t be at the top of our list. Its macabre psycho-terrors and heavy themes are certainly not what you typically look for when relaxing with friends after work, and I credit Outlast 2 with at least a handful of my recurring nightmares. Perhaps it’s this – the fact that it shouldn’t work as well as it does – that makes The Outlast Trials such a delight. The Outlast series has written important pages in the history of modern video game horror, offering genuinely different experiences from those in which evil must be faced with shotgun blasts. Red Barrels never wanted us to stand up to the monster or the killer on duty, instead calling us to run away with our hearts in our mouths.
After a couple of more traditional chapters playable exclusively in single-player, the Canadian development team decided to take a different path with a certain margin of risk. Today our focus shifts to Outlast, a horror title known for its dark atmosphere and gripping narrative, which we could almost define as a walking simulator, considering the only opportunities offered by the game: running away or hiding from your pursuers, using only a camera with infrared mode to see in the dark. How many times have we cursed Miles Upshur for his decision to infiltrate a psychiatric hospital alone, especially at night and unarmed? Well, today we will have the opportunity to further curse the virtual protagonists of the new The Outlast Trials, an online cooperative title also developed by Red Barrels.
The Plot of The Outlast Trials
The Outlast Trials distinguishes itself from its predecessor not only by the addition of a cooperative component but also by the nature of the challenges players face. While the original game immersed the player in a lonely, claustrophobic nightmare, The Outlast Trials promotes collaboration and team strategy, pushing players to work together to survive the horrors around them. This shift in perspective not only adds a new level of challenge and complexity to the game but also offers a new dimension to the story and narrative, something we’ve seen emerge in titles like Dead By Daylight.
In The Outlast Trials, you will find yourself in the shoes of a homeless man, lured by the promise of possible redemption, only to find yourself caught in a trap orchestrated by the Murkoff Corporation, a shadowy multinational corporation known for its unclear intentions and terrible experiments on human patients. Waking up in a gigantic structure, you will discover that you are prisoners together with other unfortunates, all involved in a series of tests whose only imperative is survival. In a hostile environment filled with an atmosphere of terror, you will have to face the challenges imposed by society and discover the dark secrets hidden behind its experiments, as you fight for your freedom and your very life.
In doing so, unfortunately, you will be forced to move around the game world unarmed and unable to fight enemies, who, as usual, are anything but normal. To help you there is always the night vision device, accompanied by a series of easy-to-use tools, such as latches, healing ointments, batteries, and vials of adrenaline useful for running faster. As mentioned previously, the aim is to survive adversity while facing the challenges presented by society. It is preferable to face these challenges in cooperative mode with other people, since playing solo is almost excessively difficult, as well as particularly tedious.
The Outlast Trials Review and Analysis
The fact that The Outlast Trials is a live service game isn’t inherently a bad thing. The fact that microtransactions will most likely play a role in the title doesn’t bother us at all, especially when so many cosmetics, items, and other decorations can be unlocked in the game. However, it’s no secret that live service titles can be very difficult to manage these days: if a community remains active on a title, it’s often due to a clear developer commitment to future evolutions and a core of gameplay that doesn’t tire despite the repetitiveness. This is the aspect of The Outlast Trials that worries us. It’s all about the replayability factor. A typical session of The Outlast Trials takes place in the Sinyala Facility where, alone or in collaboration with up to three fellow Reagents, you face a series of puzzles focused on stealth in one of five different maps, avoiding the aggressive enemies that patrol the space. As is typical of Outlast, the player is largely unarmed and cannot defend himself without the aid of items purchasable or found in the environment.
Your character has volunteered to participate in this devious psychological experiment, and the overall goal is deceptively simple: collect 20 tokens (increased from 10 during Early Access, thanks to the addition of new maps and mission types) to earn freedom, with a maximum of two tokens awarded upon completion of a trial. Once the current Reagent is freed, you will take on the role of another, maintaining your XP level and any upgrades you purchased. The idea is to play and replay the same handful of missions in an attempt to escape, and then relive the nightmare once you succeed. It’s an interesting departure from the seemingly infinite level cap seen in games like Dead by Daylight, and it’s a fit for us. There’s no real growth system, where you see your chosen character get stronger and stronger over time. This works for an Outlast game, but risks being a bit disjointed as an online multiplayer experience.
The truth is, it’s hard to call The Outlast Trials a “fun” experience. Having played the majority of the game myself, I can tell you that I have no desire to continue to subject myself to this torment over and over again, as addictive and chilling as it is. I played each of the Outlast games exactly once, and it was enough to scar me for most of my gaming life, as well as make me nauseous from the repetitiveness of the mission objectives. The Outlast Trials is no different: the solo experience is not fun in the broad sense, but it manages to excite in its way and make us feel exhilarated. In every test you have the impression of just having to scrape the bottom and, in a short time, you find yourself falling prey to Murkoff’s conditioning. Rushing to our cell after a particularly bad failure – “Grade: F, Diagnosis: Dog Food,” I feel like I’m returning to an oasis of tranquility, our little slice of normality that we’ve carved out for ourselves in the most abnormal way. The sheets are not ours. The fish-shaped vase and the typewriter are not ours.
All this will be disposed of when our current reagent gains freedom, it will be put back into the system and recycled for the synthetic joy of another individual suffering from Stockholm syndrome awaiting the next trial. Again, it’s not exactly funny in the traditional sense, but it’s very effective in executing its themes. The Outlast Trials therefore presents a rather bleak premise, which we are unable to face again in single-player, despite having fun, in that sick way in which only Outlast can be appreciated. This is because, despite the loneliness and tension of the main games, a little comfort can always be found in one fact: the end of all this horror is getting closer and closer. The same can’t be said for The Outlast Trials. The game intends to keep going, as long as it can, and while the small smattering of story available since launch sees players finding evidence to build a case against the Corporation, we’d be surprised if it was possible to put an end to Murkoff. No Murkoff, no Sinyala Structure. No Structure, no more The Outlast Trials.
That said, The Outlast Trials is not designed as a single-player experience. Every aspect of the experience, from gameplay to immersion factor, shines in multiplayer. When playing with others, the title becomes an entirely different beast, a different game from the tense, drawn-out terrors of solo play. You can arm wrestle, play chess, and then prepare to face one of the many MK tests or challenges; this all feels strangely normal, which demonstrates Red Barrels’ excellent ability to create an atmosphere. In every test, you have the impression of just having to get by. The Outlast Trials is also much more tactical and strategic in multiplayer, especially once each player has picked up a piece of equipment to help even the odds and can split up to search for keys, items, or delicious human hearts. It’s such a different experience, so much so that the single-player mode feels almost unfairly unbalanced in comparison.
There are the same number of objectives to complete, the same number of terribly hawk-eyed enemies returning to your last known position, and they all seem to chase you for much longer before giving up. All of this makes The Outlast Trials for single-player feel like an unofficial hardcore mode if that’s the kind of masochism you’re after, but be aware that the difficulty, already challenging in itself, will increase dramatically and make you wonder why on earth. you chose to do this to yourself. As the blood dries in another sunless dawn, The Outlast Trials has made an indelible impression on us. It’s an electrifying and compulsive experience that will make every nerve in your body explode, but it’s also a chaotic playground to let loose with your fiercest friends. Does the multiplayer factor dampen the tension and atmosphere of what makes Outlast a truly definitive game? Maybe, but the option of going alone is always there to humiliate you. As it stands, The Outlast Trials has the potential to become a success story for multiplayer horror fans and series devotees, but with too many questions left unanswered by its existence as a live service game, time will be the final test when it comes to deciding who will stay for the big finale – if there ever will be one.
Experiments that Tire Quickly
From a gaming point of view, The Outlast Trials does not deviate too much from its predecessors, but to the gameplay typical of the episodes of the series – extremely simple and intuitive – it adds a series of extra elements, necessary to justify the replayability of the trials. In addition to being able to run away and hide anywhere, the characters can also carry a maximum of three objects which correspond to resources to be used with some caution. These are usually healing drinks, antidotes against the toxin, batteries for night vision goggles, and pills that guarantee an extra life, essential when you fall into the clutches of the villain.
There is also a strategic component linked to the active skill, given that each user can take to the track with one of the four gadgets to unlock and upgrade. In our case we almost always used a small explosive that recharges over time: it can stun enemies for a few moments and deactivate traps, which are very present, especially on higher difficulties. These tools add depth to the gameplay and it’s always fun to use them in combination with those of your teammates. The problem lies in the way in which these abilities are enhanced and, more generally, in the slow progression system of The Outlast Trials, the main flaw of cooperative horror. Compared to Early Access, the developers have structured the experience differently, organizing the tests into three different groups: each of them includes the same tests, but is characterized by a higher level of challenge. On the one hand, this choice means that the initial difficulty is significantly lower and also allows those who want to enjoy the game solo to have fun.
On the other hand, however, it forces those with more experience to have to repeat all the missions over and over again before being able to access the intermediate challenge level and then the highest one. There’s no point beating around the bush, there’s no upgrade or skin that holds up. The Outlast Trials is a fun product but, at the same time, is much less replayable than one might believe. After having played the missions a couple of times, there is hardly any incentive to take them on again. The procedural elements fail to encourage you to start farming useful resources, be it coins for purchasing cosmetics or tokens to free the re-agent and access the most difficult therapy. The weekly therapy itself does not represent a game changer, since it is nothing more than a collection of missions identical to the basic ones with extra modifiers which, for example, prevent the use of objects, limit movement by blocking doors, or make enemies more dangerous. Furthermore, an average game takes a considerable time and, unless you are a master of stealth, managing to complete all the requirements and return to the common room will take you more than half an hour, without the possibility of pausing if you are playing in a single player.
A Horror With Style to Spare
From a technical point of view, The Outlast Trials does its duty and shows off a more than decent graphics sector on the latest generation consoles, where it runs at native 4K resolution at 60 frames per second without almost ever stumbling upon annoying oscillations. After all, the Red Barrels horror presents rather static scenarios and few characters on the screen, characteristics which, combined with skillful use of Unreal Engine 4, have allowed the team to obtain a remarkable glance both in terms of both effects and what concerns the quality of the models. The credit also and above all goes to the artistic direction: the Canadian collective has demonstrated that it has an incredible ability to create scenarios and the creatures that populate them, some of which are scary even just when they appear on the loading screens or promotional images.
The Outlast Trials Review: The Last Words
The Outlast Trials is certainly an interesting project, an original way of proposing the atmospheres and gameplay typical of the Red Barrels saga but in a context unrelated to the plot and with a progression aimed at repetition: like any successful live service the title is based on self-contained sessions to be tackled preferably in co-op. This is the biggest problem and doubt that hovers over the future of the title: you can play alone but the experience becomes more demanding and with very little stimulation given the lack of a real thread and a real ending, while in co-op the situation is decidedly better, as long as the game is properly supported over time without ending up in oblivion and more than repetitiveness, which has always been the main risk of this type of production.
