Fear First, Story Second ‘The Outlast Trials’ Review
I grew up surrounded by horror, watching films like Dolls (1987) on television alongside my dad, and these frightening, eyes-half-shut movie sessions influenced my love for the genre. For example, to this day, the original Outlast remains firmly in my top five video games of all time, not just horror games but all games. So, when I heard about a multiplayer game in the same vein, I was on board immediately. And let me tell you, as a grown man, I’ve never felt such terror, excitement, and that sweet dopamine hit when you finish a trial like I do when playing The Outlast Trials!
Frightening Race to the Finish
Unlike in the original Outlast and its sequel, the story, while presented through plenty of background lore and broadcasts from the director, plays a secondary role in the actual terror of the trials themselves. It’s a frantic race to the finish. Each trial includes a series of objectives you must complete either solo or with a group of up to four players. The objectives in each trial vary from restarting generators to transmitting religious broadcasts to punishing wooden cutouts and mannequins by pushing them into a whirling grinder of death and viscera.
But wait, wouldn’t playing with a group of friends or random players diminish the overall horror experience? After all, you have backup. I thought the same when entering a trial, but, more often than not, the mishaps of a single individual reverberate through the whole group. The repercussions, seen and unseen, affect your path to each objective. The player group is part of the terror, as everyone wants to cooperate but compete for the top score and rewards at the end of each trial.
Players Can Break The Meta
There’s a problem, however, with multiplayer horror games, and, unfortunately, The Outlast Trials is not immune. Once folks learn the map, the objectives, and the meta, they will exploit this weakness tenfold and race through every trial to earn rewards with minimal effort. It does take away from the experience, and if you can find a group willing to play immersively, it’s not a problem.
Thankfully, it’s entirely possible to solo The Outlast Trials. You receive respawns in the form of pills found throughout the map, and the more you take, the more lives you earn. Then, there are the objectives themselves. When playing alone, they’re scaled back to provide you with enough confrontation but not enough to become overwhelming. It’s the perfect amount of challenge.
A Haunting Atmosphere
The Outlast Trials does plenty right, but it’s the atmosphere that evokes so much emotion and fear. The occasional jump scare, while frightening, is nothing compared to the world-building and design of each trial. The blood splattered across the floor, telling an unseen tale of patients who made attempts before you. The flickering lights, broken glass, the stark, raving mad inmates left behind to cower in fear at every movement and sound; it’s imposing and, dare I say, a downright monumental achievement for the horror genre.
I can’t explain the number of times I wound up caught by Mother Gooseberry because I foolishly stopped to examine the environment. Or, even more prevalent was the number of times I stopped in my tracks because I swore I heard something around the corner. A cough, footstep, the crunch of broken glass; something was there, I told myself repeatedly. It turns out, more often than not, I heard my footsteps.
Home Is Where The Heart Is
The immersion does not start and stop in the trials, however. Back at the Murkoff Facility, where you have a dorm room, you can spend the credits and cash you earn for completing each trial on various items and cosmetics. In my room, I have a poster of “Terra-Robots” hanging beside my bed and a typewriter (It felt fitting, considering my work) on the stand at the foot of the bed. These flavor items — just a tad gimmicky — give you a sense of being in this horrific world. It’s not just about running through a trial, dodging terrors. You’re firmly planted in the shoes of a prisoner/patient in this facility.
This attention to detail, alongside the immense replayability, will earn The Outlast Trials a place among the most incredible multiplayer horror titles on the market. Folks will play this for tens of hours, if not hundreds, especially with additional content post-release.
The Outlast Trials Earns Its Place
Every week, a brand-new horror game seems to be released, between retro pixel art or hide-and-seek horror, and only a handful make a lasting mark on the genre and its community. The Outlast Trials falls into the latter.
It’s a refreshing change from the norm. We’re not investigating an insane asylum in a 10-hour story-based experience. Instead, we’re thrust into a world built with replayability, immersion, and, yes, terror in mind.
I have nothing bad to say about The Outlast Trials. I experienced no bugs, glitches, or crashes during my playtime. While challenging, the trials and their denizens did not make me want to rip my hair out in frustration. It felt fair and rewarding to overcome obstacles, and I’ll remember and share the sense of pride and excitement from finishing my first trial!
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The Outlast Trials
Summary
The Outlast Trials Is a refreshing change from the norm. We’re not investigating an insane asylum in a 10-hour story-based experience, we’re thrust into a world built with replayability, immersion, and, yes, terror in mind.
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