The Outlast Trials wants you to know that it’s hardcore pretty much immediately — it’s not like those other multiplayer horror games. Before you’ve even pressed a button, it eviscerates some poor guy in front of you, then drills something into your face in first-person while the music sounds like a chainsaw being accosted by a gang of hoodlum bees. It pretty much never lets up from that point and while the game itself is certainly fun, it doesn’t really give itself (or its scares) enough room to breathe.
I’ve been playing The Outlast Trials, a game I’ve been looking forward to for quite a few years after being the leader of the Outlast 2 Defense Force, as part of its Closed Beta on Steam. Set before the events of the first two games, The Outlast Trials puts a multiplayer spin on the very effective, very grisly formula, as you play a homeless person who “volunteers” for trials with The Murkoff Corporation, who have the kind of name that just sounds evil, like Disney. When a sinister Punch and Judy homage drills an apple into your hand, you’ll probably be left wishing you were Snow White instead.
The Outlast Trials feels like Red Barrels have tried their best to transpose the Outlast franchise’s most famous elements into a multiplayer environment, specifically night vision, shocking violence, and almost relentless antagonists who you have little hope of combatting. You pick your hapless triallist, choose from a few perks and upgrades (which didn’t really feel all that notable in the confines of a Closed Beta), and then start running and screaming.
Utilising stealth, you’re tasked with creeping around a dilapidated mansion as a disembodied voice tells you to leave your previous life behind, the whole thing acting as the world’s least chill tutorial. Red Barrels has absolutely taken it up a notch in the aesthetic department in the years since the second game, as The Outlast Trials has some of the best visuals ever committed to a horror game, even if the lip-sync doesn’t seem quite there yet. You’ll be so taken with how the game looks that you might not notice the naked guy leaping at you. It’s hard to miss all the hanged people, murdered dinner guests, and poor guy who is quickly turned into mince, though, almost in rapid-fire succession.
Once you’ve chucked your life away, you’re then taken to a holding area where you can play another level either solo or with other players. Playing alone isn’t a fantastic way of experiencing The Outlast Trials, as although the game has lots of narrative elements (subtle and otherwise) running through it, it’s definitely balanced for multiple players. The way that The Outlast Trials just piles tribulations on top is almost overwhelming when playing solo, but manageable, sometimes exhilirating with friends.
After being transported to a police station, you’re tasked with electrocuting a snitch to death by finding keys, pushing them around, and eventually flipping switches. In the middle of all this, there’s many enemies to encounter, including giants and Dead Snow-looking coppers, who you can counter with special items and perks, or avoid by creeping around them. Players have much more control than in other Outlast games and have more tools at their disposal, but the odds are still overwhelmingly stacked against you. Working together is really the only way of getting out alive, or even really enjoying how oppressive The Outlast Trials can feel.
The Outlast Trials starts out at 11 and never really comes down from there, meaning that it keeps throwing gruesome, intense stuff at you without taking a breath to let any of it sit. By your 15th mutilated body, 20th aggressive music sting, and 50th chase sequence, you’re already long desensitized to its heavy metal horror, almost to the point that it really feels like it’s trying just far too hard to shock. Imagine if the last 20 minutes of Martyrs was a video game and you have the right idea. It all gets a bit exhausting — The Outlast Trials doesn’t feel like a game you’d want to play for dozens and dozens of hours like its peers.
Make no mistake, The Outlast Trials is still a fun game in short bursts, with lots of fun flourishes (arm wrestling in the lobby being one of them) that help it stand out from what is becoming an increasingly packed crowd. However, as far as consistently delivering the scares and tension goes, it might want to trial the “less is more” approach before full release.
A Steam key was provided by PR for the purposes of this coverage.
READ NEXT: 50 Best Horror Games Of All Time
Some of the coverage you find on Cultured Vultures contains affiliate links, which provide us with small commissions based on purchases made from visiting our site. We cover gaming news, movie reviews, wrestling and much more.
