Oh my! It has been a difficult month for me; in addition to the massive releases of Street Fighter 6, Tears of the Kingdom, Diablo IV, and shortly Final Fantasy XVI, I haven’t had the opportunity to play any of the games I’m actually interested in.
The Outlast Trials, an early access game with a cooperative live-service experience set in the desperate horror genre, is one of the titles in that backlog.
I was quite excited to see what Red Barrels had been working on because I really like the previous Outlast games. I understand that the game has been out for a few weeks, and the team has been working really hard to balance and repair it before its official release.
Shadowy Alleys with Companions
In The Outlast Trials, you and three other pals solve gory riddles in saw-like arenas with the goal of strengthening your mental health and giving you complete control. It’s a deranged environment full of psychological anguish and being pursued by psychotic murderers.
This terrifying roller coaster, complete with a few iconic maps, is full of amusing moments where you watch helplessly from behind a desk or inside a closet as your buddies are attacked. The adversaries you do face, despite the game having been patched several times, strangely still lack the AI needed to navigate the arena with reasonable qualities.
The benefits soon wear off in the end, and the only thing worth pursuing is getting flawless ratings on every try.
The game’s brief narrative revolves around your character being taken from the streets to be rehabilitated, but instead puts them in a series of murderous playgrounds. There is narrative strewn about the arena in the form of collectibles that describes how a rapacious business treats innocent people inhumanely.
While this is interesting enough, considering the nature of the game, it is quickly ignored. It’s a social first encounter, and even while the game does a good job of telling a story, you’ll have to work extra to pay attention to them as your friends are occupying your time.
Thematically, Red Barrel goes above and beyond to portray the most gruesome story they can, and while there are some frightening moments, there were far too many moments that felt forced and left me feeling confused.
The game repeatedly threw corpses with their penises exposed at me in far too many instances. Or convert a church’s exterior into a torture chamber complete with gouging and mutilation. It’s not for the benefit of the entire planet and is a bit excessive.
The Gore and the Specs Match
I tested The Outlast Trial on my CLX Gaming PC, and even with all the settings on Ultra and no DLSS support, the game managed to sustain an amazing frame rate of well over 60 frames per second at 4K resolution.
The striking lighting, reflections, and shadows that surrounded the game’s eerie atmosphere were made possible by the addition of raytracing elements, which completely surprised me. I can’t even begin to count the number of times I was able to avoid an enemy by looking at a reflection from a tiled wall. It’s excellent.
As I previously indicated, The Outlast Trials is very different from the other games in that it allows up to four players to collaborate and solve graphic puzzles. You can enhance your character’s trial efficacy and make cosmetic customisations at the social centre.
As they advance, each player is given a chamber that resembles an asylum to customize—a wonderful social aspect. Red Barrels takes it a step further by allowing users to roam around with personalised avatars while engaging in minigames like arm wrestling.
It caught me off guard and kept me interested until my next quest. A console with matchmaking and trial preparation tools is positioned in the middle of the social area. When you locate a group, you can quickly join them before leaving.
I do like how easily you and your pals made the transition from entering the trails arena and descending the massive lift to running for the exit. It has a wonderful balance of tense and funny moments, but it might also be a double-edged blade.
We spent so much time getting each other ready for this next challenge that I cannot even begin to describe how much it hurt to hear one of our friends yelling for their life halfway through the mission. All it does is make us giggle uncontrollably as we watch our friend get attacked or dragged away.
The inability to really attack directly is a feature of the game; when it occurs, though, it creates an odd dynamic since the element of terror is eliminated and is only replaced with laughing. Although there are several upgrades available to fit our playstyles, they are mostly defensive with some trap components.
To be honest, Red Barrel did a great job designing the three arenas that are part of this early access. Like in the original Outlast, you will have goggles to see in the dark, but they run out of batteries after a while. The cramped hallways and maze-like spaces are meant to keep players moving all the time.
RATING: 6.5 out of 10
Because of Red Barrel’s skill and the game’s outstanding appearance, I think The Outlast Trials has a lot of potential to be a fantastic cooperative horror game.
Ultimately, the game’s lack of variety in material detracts from its long-term appeal. The Outlast Trial is exciting at first, but the monotony of the tasks and obstacles takes away from the whole experience.
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