The Outlast Trials Review: Multiplayer Gameplay Impressions, Videos and Top Features

The Outlast Trials from developer Red Barrels arrives at a time when it feels like there is certainly more room for must-play cooperative multiplayer games.

With something like Helldivers II dominating the space this year and co-op a must-have for any release, now is a great time for unique experiences to push the medium. And The Outlast Trials gives it an in-universe shot with this first-person horror survival game.

Technically a sequel to single-player games, this multiplayer effort with up to four players builds tension in unique ways and comes wrapped with some interesting design decisions that take inspiration from live-service names in a way that could keep the player base healthy for a long time.

With any risk like this comes possible great rewards, so The Outlast Trials could very well turn into the year's next surprise success.

Graphics and Gameplay

Few games play with light and dark the way The Outlast Trials does.

As players navigate hellish environments under duress, the game's lighting and shadow work reveals itself as some of the industry's best. And in a fascinating twist, given the grisly backdrop and grotesque enemies and even jaw-dropping actions unfolding on screen, players eventually come to prefer the darkness that can hide them as opposed to the revealing light.

Little details litter the environment. There's the horrific stuff stacked in corners and such, yes. But there's also in-universe propaganda all about and—by far best of all—scientists in white lab coats behind windows watching the player attempt to survive the trials.

Sound design is an important part of a game like this and The Outlast Trials nails it well. One chuckle from a deranged enemy that a player can only hear from the left earphone while thinking they're safe, stealthy moving toward an exit makes that clear right away.

Make no mistake, everything about the game looks great. But the light-dark mechanics and how it interplays with sound and gameplay make this a super-immersive stealth-oriented experience, at least at first.

Because The Outlast Trials doesn't offer much in the way of combat. We're talking about attempting to avoid detection while literally hiding under beds from monsters. When push comes to shove, one of the only options open to players is distracting enemies with thrown objects while attempting to escape.

It's compelling to find oneself restricted to the defensive only and there's a very real element of necessary communication and strategy with other players to make things easier. Some co-op games do this well, others flop. The Outlast Trials is very much a member of the former.

Beyond that synergy among teammates, individual players will find that battery usage is a commodity to manage. Inventory management is another layer added to the tension because those players who tend to stress and take their time over what to actually keep or discard might find themselves out of time, discovered and cut down. Players can only hold three things at once, forcing them to decide between items that heal, lockpicks and others.

Puzzles and other tasks (scaled to party size), if not simple sprints to escape an area, also confront players. These aren't terribly complicated because they don't need to be, given the frantic stakes. And something like lockpicking, thankfully, doesn't feel artificially difficult to drive tension because frankly, a player's composure drives the tension enough. Mistakes feel earned, not forced.

Leveling up by actually managing to survive feels extremely rewarding, something only amplified by the presence of playing with friends who shared in the horrors and tension.

Perhaps most impressive about the gameplay, though, isn't these decisions but an important piece of execution—enemy AI. Once discovered, enemies track the player well and pounce in jump-scare ways that are supremely refreshing.

Sure, before long, some players might dissect the how and why of enemy behavior and the limited number of levels, making for something much more video game-y. But those first few hours are a thrilling bliss of horror and tension.

Story and More

Players are Reagents, people taken to a facility during the Cold War and forced to participate in death games, for lack of a better word—think of the Saw movies.

It's a horrific backdrop for a tale and the action is grisly and oftentimes repulsive, yes. But there's also hilarity in there because of the absurdity of it all. We won't go into too much detail about some of the enemies that are real head-turners, but there are even silly objectives that are simply absurd—like feeding a cart full of dolls into a woodchipper.

This is probably a good balance because the game loses some of its horror tension as more real people join a party.

For those who seek it out, there are bits and pieces of lore found within the game that add to the overall narrative, seeing as this isn't the first game in the series. But it's very limited and there otherwise isn't much of a story going on here between the opening and closing cinematics of a round.

Overall, though, there's just not that much to do. There are a handful of stages in the game, which also get reused in smaller challenges outside the main story track.

The Outlast Trials attempts to counteract this with a pretty smooth progression system. New difficulties that ramp up the enemies in a stage, traps, etc. sit locked behind leveling up. So do key skills that track alongside the ramped-up difficulties too, such as the refreshing ability to carry even more items or smash through doors quicker (or even the ability to slide!).

A prestige system, at least, encourages players to create more than one Reagent after maxing out the first, so there's some notable replayability gained from that.

But again, there being so few differnt stages causes issues. And it's a mileage-may-very situation, as some players might not mind rerunning the same thing over and over, but others undoubtedly will.

Even so, the framework here is impressive. To borrow from above, some games hit the live-service model well. Others absolutely do not. The Outlast Trials is the former. There are tons of fun unlockables and challenges to tackle for those who feel like getting their checklist-completionist thing going.

To its credit, the game's performance seems very good with minimal to no frame drops, too. And a very brief tutorial and solid set of options in the menus rounds out a package that promises to keep expanding in future years.

Conclusion

The Outlast Trials is a brief thrill with massive potential to grow into something so much more.

Without the unexpectedly stellar enemy A.I., this would've been a massive flop given the gameplay loop. But that loop, especially for new players, is nearly unlike anything else out there. Given the subject matter, it won't be for everyone, but those who can stomach it deserve to check it out.

Unfortunately, the limited number of things to do out of the gates does hinder things. Unfortunate, too, considering there is a live-service model here that is actually really good.

But again, the framework of a massive hit is here and it's easy to see many, many players sticking with The Outlast Trials as it continues to grow while showcasing a pretty good example of a modern co-op effort with modern trappings done well.