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Outlast Trials does its job well as a scary game that you can share with friends. Here is our first impression of The Outlast Trials, a review of its gameplay and story during the closed test.
First of all, let's go through what The Outlast Trials is. The Outlast Trials is a first-person survival horror game that takes place in the Outlast universe. You play as a test subject who volunteered to be part of a program run by the Murkoff Corporation. Unbeknownst to you, this program of “rebirth” is a deadly one. You, along with others like you, are thrown into various experiments focused on brainwashing and mind control. Whether you survive or not is up to you and the teammates you meet along the way. With the basic story and gameplay of The Outlast Trials out of the way, let's dive into our first impression of the game. Beware of spoilers if you plan on playing the game for yourself
The Outlast Trials
The game wastes no time throwing you into the thick of things. After accepting the terms and conditions, you immediately enter a cutscene. This cutscene is as gory as it is horrifying, as you go through the facility tied to a chair, screams echoing all around you. Inside the operating room, you hear the sound of drills and blood splattering on the walls. After a while, you find out what the drills are for, as they drill a pair of goggles onto your head. Afterward, you go through character selection. The game does not really have a robust character creation skin, as you just have a set amount of faces, body types, and hair to choose from. There are no sliders or fine-tuning present, so it's possible to end up with a character that looks like others. It doesn't really matter, though, as you don't really see yourself much anyway.
Once character creation is over, the game puts you through a tutorial level. If you've played the previous outlast games, then Outlast Trials' gameplay should be familiar to you already. You can walk, run, climb over tables and short walls, and hide. Even sneaking and using night-vision goggles make a return, so from the get-go, it feels like an Outlast game. Outlast Trials does a really good job of setting up the atmosphere. Even without enemies, I found myself a victim of the sounds and sights I see. The game also does a great job of teaching you the mechanics. Instead of bombarding you with tooltips and the like, it makes you do the actions it is teaching you.
For example, instead of just telling you that medicine bottles heal you, the game actually gives you a jumpscare that gives you some damage. After a bit, you encounter a medicine bottle and can use it to heal yourself to the full. The same goes for the antidote, with the game putting you into psychosis prior to finding the antidote item. The hiding and door-locking mechanic are properly taught as well, and the pacing of the tutorial as a whole was great. After a close encounter with one of the game's big antagonists, Mother Gooseberry, I enter the game's lobby: the Sleeping Room.
The Sleeping Room is the multiplayer lobby and is where you will spend most of your downtime in the game. This area is where you can replay tutorials, buy cosmetic items, and even arm wrestle with other test subjects. This is also where players can form parties and pick which trial they will do. For the Closed Beta, I only had access to the Police Station trial, called Snitches get Stitches. I entered the trial with a random group, and this is where the real game begins.
Snitches get Stitches has us finding a snitch inside the police station, and promptly executing them. To do this, we have to infiltrate the police station, bring them to the electric chair, and electrocute them to death. Of course, if it was that simple, this game would be too easy. Various gameplay mechanics made it difficult to do. For example, enemies start chasing you from the beginning. You can use bricks to stun them, or bottles to lure them away. However, you can never really defeat them, so all you can do is run and hide. Outlast Trials retains one of the most important gameplay mechanics that previous Outlast games have: the inability to really fight back.
After we found our snitch, we started pushing him toward the electric chair. Suddenly, the lights go out, and we had to repair some generators. This gave me some flashbacks to Dead By Daylight, another little horror game I enjoy playing. I will talk about Dead By Daylight again later as this is one of the comments I have about the game. Going back, repairing generators introduced me to a new gameplay mechanic: fake teammates. Every now and then, I would see a player with a name above their head. Upon closer inspection, however, the name is slightly off. When caught by these fake teammates, they will attack you quite a bit before leaving.
This is where it became clear that communication is key in this game. Knowing where your teammates are and knowing where important objectives are is adamant in Outlast Trials. In-game voice communications, as well as pings, are a must in every team. This is especially true during the times when the players must find multiple objectives, like various keys or generators. Once you get the teamwork done, however, things become slightly easier.
I only say slightly easier because the enemies you encounter in the game are very persistent, and can easily take down players who are unprepared. During the game I find myself attracting enemies to myself just so my teammates can do their work. Now and then, I mess up and take some damage. However, since we finish our objectives, it's a worthwhile sacrifice. Eventually, we kill the snitch and promptly escape from the facility. That's really most of the gameplay of Outlast Trials. Players go through trials over and over again, mastering them and doing higher and higher difficulties.
As for Outlast Trials' story, it's told in a very roundabout way. During the tutorial, it was easy to tell the story, as the game only had to focus on you. You are someone with a dark past, and this dark past led you to Murkoff. During the tutorial, you destroyed files containing information about both your public and your private life. This effectively erased your existence from the outside world, and turned you into an unnamed cannon fodder for the facility.
During the mission, however, you don't really get fed the story that much. Instead, players need to observe and listen to the things that the enemies and NPCs they encounter are saying. For example, the Snitch in the mission, much like you in the beginning of the game, has a bag over his head. All throughout the mission, you will hear him ask for mercy, beg for his life, and repeat over and over that he just wanted the money. You never really find out anything more about the Snitch, other than you had to kill him. This gives a glimpse of just how evil the Murkoff Corporation is. You can also get some lore from collectibles that found inside the levels
All-in-all, Outlast Trials' story is not something that's given to the player straight up. Players need to work for it, and piece together the lore to figure out just what the Murkoff Corporation is doing.
Outlast Trials first impression summary
Overall, my first impression of The Outlast Trials is very good. It is a very fun game to play with friends, as teamwork is important in everything you do here. One comment I do have, as I mentioned before, is that I feel like this game will receive the Dead by Daylight treatment down the line. When Dead by Daylight was first released, it was a bonafide horror game. It was not rare for players to scream from getting scared by the killers, or the thought of being killed by the killer. However, as time went on, and as players got more used to the game, the fear was just not there anymore. Players eventually grew out of the fear they first had, and now Dead by Daylight is closer to a competitive game than a horror game. I feel Outlast Trials risks experiencing this down the line.
Of course, this is not a bad thing, as I do like that kind of gameplay. However, it's important for the game to always do or introduce something new to the players. This ensures that that experience of fear stays, as that's what makes an Outlast game an Outlast game.
As for its story, Outlast Trials' story is not all that bad. It makes me curious enough to want to find out just what Murkoff's goals are, as well as my own character's story. The game always implies that I did something in my life, and that's why I am there. The game does a good job of making me want to figure that out. I am very much looking forward to the game's release, however, I'm very sure that I won't play it alone.
That's all for our first impression and review of The Outlast Trials. The game is available on PC, although a release date is still not set.
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