Developer: Red Barrels
Platform: PC
Genre: Action, Adventure
Publisher: Red Barrels
The Outlast Trials is a first-person psychological horror survival. The game was developed and published by Red Barrels. The same creators behind the iconic horror game series: Outlast. Games similar to The Outlast Trials would be Dead by Daylight; and Phasmaphobia but with much better gameplay.
The Outlast Trials is the prequel to the Outlast series, which is set during the Cold War at the Murkoff Corporation. At the corporation, there are many mysterious test subjects taking place. Many human guinea pigs have been taken in involuntarily and are; being used to test the advanced methods of brainwashing and mind control. At first, as someone who had played the entire Outlast series before, it did not seem like there was much of a correlation between this game and those that came before this game. Later realising that this game is a prequel to the series, it showed how most of the creatures came to be in the later; games. In all honesty, there wasn’t much attention to the story that; was entirely told in this game with connection to the other Outlast games besides being set in the same world. Though that did not take away from setting the story and scene for the different trials; you had to embark on.
The Outlast Trials is a multiplayer game where you can play either as a duo, trio or quad. You are brought into the sleep room, which is where you do the main menu select trials, buy upgrades, do arm wrestling and have your own bedroom. Personally, the game is so much fun when you have a full squad of people playing, as the game can be challenging and puts everyone on a high horse when starting a trial. The game is a lot more fun when playing it with more people rather than less. The gameplay does not differ at all if you play with two, three or four players. Everything runs smoothly, and no, connection issue stands when playing with other players. You can play with people you know or don’t know; by doing a group search. What’s really interesting is how you can interact with other players in the lobby. There does not seem to be a text option, or at least one we could not find, which would be a nice way to interact with players if you are not using voice chat.
The controls for the game are very straightforward when playing on the PC. You pretty much use your keyboard and mouse. The controls for abilities or items; that you pick up are shown in the bottom right corner of the screen. You also go through a tutorial on; how to properly play the game in a story sequence you go through. As you play the games, controls are; also always highlighted by the item you want to interact with. Also, most things that you can interact with will have a little glow; to them. So all in all, the controls are really easy to use and work; extremely smoothly in the chaotic environment, you are put in.
The visuals of the game are so crisp and clear. Everything about the game is so all up in your face. There is viewer discretion when playing this game as there is a lot of offensive language, gory and other restricted imagery used throughout the game. What The Outlast Trials does so well is it creates a horrific, chaotic environment that you; truly want from playing a horror game. The graphics of the game are high quality, and everything in the game; runs nearly as smoothly even though the game is in beta version. If you loved the way, Outlast captured the true meaning of; horror, then this game does the exact same as well. With music that compliments the location, you choose from having really creepy clown circus music when you select the second program to; a lot more brutal subtle piano music in the first program. Everything about the game is done so well when capturing many details. The experience of the game is best played with headphones on. I also have to say that the interaction that you have; with the characters/monsters/test subjects is all so captivating. The visuals and the soundtrack/effects of this game are really good.
A lot of the different features we enjoyed about this game is that there is a way to revive teammates if they’ve fallen by using certain items. When starting a game, you are also able to customise your character, which; adds more to the gaming experience. As you can add your own touch to the game, and not just that, but you can even customise your own sleep room. When playing different trials, as you level up, you get the currency; that you can use to buy many different items like trophies, wallpaper and lots more. It’s a little bit of extra fun you can do in the game as you wait to join people or wait to start around. The voice chat feature in-game works really smoothly as well, making this very accessible for when playing with other players. Another feature in the game that we enjoyed loads was how you could arm wrestle with people in the lobby.
The game has five different programs that each have 4 different trials within it. These trials tend to be different modes of how you play the game. For instance, there is a trial called Kill the Snitch in which the main objective is trying to get to the snitch and kill him off. As you go through different trials and programs: you meet more lunatics, and each play is slightly different from the other. To unlock different programs and difficulties, you continue; to play the game even more and more.How the game plays out is that depending on the type of trial you pick, there is always a set sequence of tasks you need to do to complete the objective. Most of the time, it includes finding keys in dead bodies; to starting up generators. As you go through solving most; puzzles, you are also given clues to help speed up the process. Each difficulty also comes with set perks and debuffs. You start off; by entering the location and exploring as certain objectives lead to the next ones. Something we did not like as much was that some locations on objectives would not show on the map, so if you are not familiar; with the trial, it would be difficult to progress forward. As you explore locations, you can pick up various items that can help your game and picking up things like posters can increase your evaluation. You complete themed puzzles and tasks based on the location you pick to complete the main objective and escape the trial successfully. It is very important to make sure everyone stays alive because if you; die, you get nothing from the trial.
As The Outlast Trails is still in Early Access, this means that; there are many features to come with the game once it’s fully released. Here are some things you can expect from version 1.0 of when the game releases: More trials and challenges, more life and narrative elements in the lobby, more than one release outro, more polished AI behaviours and animations, more collectables and customization, better player progression and difficulty tuning. So there is a whole lot; more to expect when the game is fully released!
If you are looking for a horrific atmospheric survival game in which you go through many different levels and difficulties to embark on absolute mayhem. Even if you are or are not an Outlast fan, this game will set really good; standards for horror survival games. So be sure to check out The Outlast Trials to; step into a world of complete chaos!
Overall: 8.5/10
This is S & S. We are world game explorers. We play games. We have played over 10,000+ games! We travel, we write reviews AND we play more games!!!!
