The Outlast Trials asks the question; what happens when you take a series known for its visceral horror themes that play on isolation and solitary paranoia, and add co-operative aspects? Some may say that this was a question that nobody was asking.
While those who feel this way may have a point, I for one, am very glad that Red Barrels chose to ask this question. Based on the experience of playing first two Outlast games, co-op survival horror as seen in The Outlast Trials was never something that I had on my bingo card as a horror fan, yet it feels fresh and surprisingly obvious in hindsight.
The Outlast Trials is out now and is available on PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC.
With the limitations of the solitary horror experience stripped away, The Outlast Trials allows players to experience collaborative terror. Relying on three companions to have your back can add curve balls that you may not be ready for. It also allows you to bond with your online friends in a way that few other games provide. Nothing brings people closer together quite like going through hell together!
It would have been so easy for Red Barrels to churn out a formulaic Outlast-themed 4V1 asymmetrical horror title, but instead the team chose to pursue a proper co-operative experience, where teamwork and group strategy are key to survival.
Longtime fans of the franchise need not worry though, it isn’t as if the script has been flipped completely. The Outlast Trials still features all of the staples you would expect to see from a game in this franchise; from visceral body horror, to tension-filled night vision sequences, and deviously deadly booby traps, it is all featured here in all of its terrifying glory.
The game wastes no time at all in reintroducing players to the depraved, sick, violent world of Outlast, playing a sinister cutscene that displays explicit content in the opening moments. This sets the tone perfectly for the disgusting, decrepit experience that you are about to enter into.
The Outlast Trials is not for the feint of heart
The Outlast Trials serves as a prequel to the first two games and is set against the backdrop of the Cold War. This feels like an appropriate era of human history to set the game, given the overwhelming sense of paranoia that was prevalent in the world at that time. It is also heavily rumored that the US government began sanctioning the CIA to carry out the MK Ultra program during this period; a program that seemingly draws some parallels to the experimentation seen in The Outlast Trials.
While stuck in this laboratory, you and your companions are forced to take part in five trials in order to gain your freedom. Completing these trials will unlock upgrades that the player can use to make progress easier to achieve. Files can also be gathered during each of the trials that expand a bit more on what is going on behind the scenes of these twisted experiments.
As was the case in the previous Outlast games, much of the tension in The Outlast Trials is derived from the fact that the player isn’t able to arm themselves with any proper weapons to fight back against the monsters baying for blood. Instead, the main tactic here is to run away, climbing over any obstacles in your way until you can find a decent hiding spot. I am so glad that this mechanic was kept intact for the co-op experience.
Not only does it make foes more threatening and formidable, but it also forces players to think tactically in a way that wouldn’t be required otherwise. Instead of just emptying a machine gun clip into a monster, or striking them with a spiked baseball bat, I found myself using the environment to my advantage, including using the enemy’s own booby traps against them. Opting for this method yields results that are much more satisfying than something like the melee combat seen in Dead Island 2.
Know your enemy
The game’s environmental design is strong, evoking a strong sense of decay and eeriness. While there are only five properly realized locations to explore outside of the laboratory at launch, these environments are all littered with detail, and have clearly been painstakingly designed to disturb the player traversing them as much as possible. This adds to the overall horror, and the harshness of the environment makes it feel like as much of an antagonistic character as the deadly creatures hunting you down.
The design of these creatures is just as appropriately distressing as you would expect, with painful looking costumes being worn and decaying genitalia on full display. Unfortunately though, as was the case with the game’s environments, the amount of enemy types is limited. Several times, the same villain will be reused, leading to the novelty of seeing their respectively horrifying visages wearing off far quicker than I would have liked as a fan of body horror.
The game’s true genius lies in its co-op mechanics though, as it exemplifies how things can go from being relatively under control to pure and utter unbridled chaos in an instant. One second, you can be working as a well-oiled machine to bypass a certain enemy, utilizing certain items found in the environment to distract and stun the monster. But when a brand new enemy suddenly spawns in and starts violently flailing towards your party, all of a sudden it becomes a mindless scramble for who can find the last hiding spot to avoid getting eviscerated.
There were even a few occasions where situations like these turned what was a pulse-pounding exercise in terror, into a comedy of errors leading to screams turning into collective fits of laughter. After playing with three companions, I then went back on to play by myself, only to realize how much less fun this experience is as a solo player. The Outlast Trials is definitely a game best experienced in co-op with friends.
Teamwork makes the dream work
Overall, The Outlast Trials turned out better than it really had any right to be. This game served as a pleasant surprise to a sceptical fan of single player horror experiences. If you are looking for a macabre title to enjoy with friends, then The Outlast Trials offers exactly what you are looking for, and unlike many other multiplayer horror experiences, this one actually works. My experience was smooth, with no major bugs or glitches being encountered by me or my teammates.
My only real complaint with the game is the short runtime and lack of extensive content. Sure, there is some replayability factor here, but the novelty of exploring the same five environments while being chased by recycled enemy types did grow tiresome after a while. Hopefully Red Barrels will be able to remedy this by adding more content to the game in future updates, although some might find the experience to be a little sparse at launch.
The Outlast Trials – 8/10
