The Outlast Trials

ReleaseMarch 5, 2024Genre(s)Survival horrorMode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

The Outlast Trials is a first-person horror survival video game developed and published by Red Barrels. It is the third installment in the Outlast series, serving as a prequel to the first two games and features test subjects in a mysterious Cold War experiment. The game was released on May 18, 2023 via early access for Microsoft Windows, and fully launched on March 5, 2024 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

The Outlast Trials is a survival horror game played from a first-person perspective. While the game supports four-player cooperative multiplayer, players can complete the game solo. The player must complete set objectives while evading monstrous enemies. A secondary objective can be completed to obtain a bonus to the player's grade, received at the end of each trial. The game features five distinct "Rigs"; abilities players can select and utilize during the trial. Abilities include seeing items and enemies through walls, healing other players within an area of effect, placing smoke bomb mines to blind enemies, throwing a device to temporarily stun enemies, or placing reinforced barricades on doors to slow down pursuers.^[1]

The player has access to a pair of night-vision goggles, allowing them to navigate dimly lit areas. The goggles need to be regularly recharged with a scarce battery resource. Players can pick up various tactical items, such as anti-psychotic drugs, lockpicks, and healing items. Bricks and glass bottles can be either thrown to distract and lure enemies away from the player, or they can be thrown at an enemy to stifle their attacks and incur a short stun period. Despite this, stealth remains the preferred way to progress through a trial, as outright combat is not an available option. In the early game, players are limited to carrying up to only three items at a time, with an additional inventory slot unlockable to players later in their progression.^[2]

In 1959 at the height of the Cold War, the Murkoff Corporation begin a deceptive recruitment program that targets individuals who have fallen on hard times. Those who volunteer are then kidnapped and transported to the Sinyala Facility in Arizona, where they are forced to undergo an involuntary surgical procedure to have night vision goggles screwed onto their heads. Referred to as Reagents, the subjects are then forced to undergo an Initiation Trial, during which they are directed by the facility's director, Dr. Hendrick Joliet Easterman, to destroy their own public and private records while avoiding the psychotic failed test subjects, known as the Experimental Population (referred to as "Ex-Pops").

After completing the initial trial, Easterman allows Reagents access to the Sleep Room, where they can listen to his radio broadcasts and reflect between Trials. The Reagents also meet and converse with engineer Cornelius Noakes, nurse Emily Barlow, and various Sleep Room denizens. They are later assisted by a fellow Reagent named Dorris, colloquially referred to as "The Shadowy Dame". She no longer partakes in the trials, instead providing contraband goods and "Amps" to other subjects. The Trials the Reagents undergo become increasingly dangerous as they are forced to go against the programs' experimental population. These Ex-Pops are led by "Prime Assets"; charismatic murderers that hold dominion over the Trials' themed environments. Notable Prime Assets encountered by Reagents include the disgraced children's show host Phyllis "Mother Gooseberry" Futterman, the sadistic ex-police sergeant Leland Coyle, and the depraved drug-dealing gangster Franco "Il Bambino" Barbi.

After acquiring enough Release Tokens through the completion of Trials, Reagents who are deemed ready by Murkoff can participate in the Reagent Release Protocol, where they must complete a final Trial before being released into the world. During the Trial, Reagents are assigned documentation with new identities before being given a code word through tuning multiple frequencies. After escaping the Trial through a final door, Reagents fall into a dark infinite space where they walk on water as they need to approach a glaring light in the distance.

Endings vary. In one, Reagents will wake up tainted in blood in a hotel room in Cuba. Eventually the room's phone will ring and when the Reagents pick up, they hear Easterman say the code word heard in the Final Trial, causing them to black out. In the second, Reagents wake up with their hands taped to the wheel of a speeding car as it crashes in front of a hotel in South Vietnam, they struggle when they notice an explosive strapped to their chest, but in vain, as it detonates. In the third, Reagents will wake up in the basement lab of Mount Massive Asylum in Colorado, as they are hooked up to the Morphogenic Engine by Dr. Rudolph Wernicke, who had occasionally observed them from the Sleep Room's observation room. While the other scientists question the Reagents' suitability as candidates, Wernicke believes they may actually be of use. The Reagents soon begin to feel the Walrider overtaking them before hearing the final Trial's code word. In a fourth ending added with the Project Lupara update, the Reagents will awaken in a house in China, with a man overdosing in bed next to them. Something knocks on the door. When the Reagents answer the door, they hear Easterman say the code word and the Skinner Man kidnaps them.

Outlast 3 was announced in December 2017, though no time frame or target platforms were confirmed.^[3] During this announcement, Red Barrels said that because they could not easily add downloadable content for Outlast 2 due to its structure, they have a smaller separate project related to Outlast that will release before Outlast 3.^[3] Red Barrels also described the game as a "TV series". The development team of the game had around 40 people.^[4]

The Outlast Trials was teased in October 2019 and is not a direct sequel to Outlast 2. It is about test subjects for the Murkoff Corporation in a mysterious Cold War experiment that is set in the same universe of the previous games. Red Barrels co-founder David Chateauneuf said "the proof-of-concept is now complete and the game's team is now in development mode".^[5]

On December 4, 2019, Red Barrels released a teaser image of the game.^[6] On June 13, 2020, a teaser trailer was released, announcing a release for 2021.^[7] However, it was announced in August 2021 that the game has been delayed to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[8] To help pass the time, Red Barrels released a series of "Behind The Scenes" videos on their official YouTube channel.^[9] A closed beta for the game was available from October 28 to November 1, 2022.^[10] While the game was only confirmed for Microsoft Windows, the game would also be released for undisclosed PlayStation platforms "in the future".^[4] On March 10, 2023, it was announced that the game would be released in early access on May 18.^[11] On December 8, it was announced that the game would leave early access on March 5, 2024, and also launch on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PlayStation 5.^[12]

The Outlast Trials received "generally favorable" reviews from critics for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S versions, while the PC version received "mixed or average", according to review aggregator website Metacritic.^[13][14][15]

• Official website