Outlast Trials [Review]

Outlast Trials is the third installment of the Outlast series, this time with the added feature of being murdered with your friends! This game is four-player co-op, and I highly recommend playing with other people. There are shortcuts you can go through only with multiple people, like boosting each other up high ledges or knocking down barricaded doors. But it also just makes the game better; there’s a lot to do, and the game can get difficult at times. It’s nice to have a friend be the distraction while you do whatever is necessary to complete your objectives. Outlast Trials was developed and published by Red Barrels. Much like its previous installments, it’s a first-person psychological and gory horror game. The staple of playing half the game through a night vision lens is, of course, still present in this game. You have night vision goggles that you can use to see in the dark. When the battery runs out, you can still look through them with very limited vision, but just enough to see your next step in the dark.

I recommend trying to keep a battery with you at all times, as being able to recharge your goggles is the most useful item to have. The game has impressive attention to detail, like how there are different sounds for the different types of surfaces you walk across. Sure, this sounds like a small detail, although it does make a world of difference with surround sound or 3D audio. There’s always something to be looking at, be it a creepy mannequin or some sort of decoration that truly shows how gory and messed up the setting is. The game is about as scary as the previous games but with slightly more action. Outlast gets most of its terror from rendering the player completely useless, forced to hide and wait while you watch the hulking monster walk by, hoping they didn’t see you. In Outlast Trials, you are given slightly more common sense to be able to defend yourself. Nothing too big, just being able to throw a bottle or a brick here and there that’s able to distract or stun an enemy.  It’s a pretty helpful feature, especially if you have one player continue to distract and stun while another gets the job done. We had to do this on the first level; one distracted the big guy while another pushed the snitch’s chair down the track. 

The snitch in this context was someone who was trying to get the trials shut down. Interestingly, in this game, you are actually choosing to be here. As opposed to the other Outlast games, where the protagonist is trying their best to escape while getting whatever information is available. In this game, the trials are portrayed as a form of therapy, and the people who decide to be there deserve to suffer through the trials. Through the therapy trials, you can find files and evidence that will shed light on the complex and hidden lore the Outlast games love to have. Outlast Trials is a great and scary game to play with a group of people. The game is still fairly scary; even with the ability to (slightly) defend yourself, there are still monsters rushing through doors and forcing you to hide. There were quite a few times when I confidently whipped open a door, only for it to smack right into a psychotic patient waiting to drill my skull in or electrocute my abdomen. As a horror and Outlast fan, Outlast Trials is a welcome addition to the series, and the added feature of multiplayer co-op truly makes the game a 10/10 experience. Outlast Trials is currently available on PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series, and Steam. 

 this time with the added feature of being murdered with your friends!

In Outlast Trials, you are given slightly more common sense to be able to defend yourself. Nothing too big, just being able to throw a bottle or a brick here and there that’s able to distract or stun an enemy.