The series Outlast made a solid name for itself in the memory of horror game fans within a few years of its launch. The early 2000s lacked strong, breathtaking horror games, but Red Barrels was the savior that motivated many other studios to develop new horror games. After the studio and its distinguished series have been absent for more than four years, they are back in 2022 with a new part called The Outlast Trials that will completely change the way the series is played. Here’s all the info we have about The Outlast Trials and why you should be excited to try it?!
The game that tells the story of the Murkoff Corporation from the beginning
The Outlast Trials story takes place in the United States of America during the Cold War as it discusses the founding of the main evil company in the Outlast universe known as the Murkoff Corporation. That institution does experiments on humans such as mind control through the MK Ultra project, and other hideous projects that have actually taken place at the hands of the CIA (it is said at the moment that those projects are over, but are we going to believe their words?).
The first part of the Outlast series and its addition Whistleblower made it clear to us through a group of reports that Murkoff has an antique history dating back to the Cold War era, and many players thought that Prequel’s making of the first part would be the perfect direction for the series until we know everything that happened in this world, before to go to the future.
What makes The Outlast Trials more special than the previous series?
The whole idea is in the gameplay as Outlast Trials allows you to experience the whole game from A to Z with 3 others of your friends. This will be the first time in the series we see the introduction of cooperative play in a story experience in this way, as this will allow you to have a terrifying experience with your friends instead of facing these nightmares alone. What I’m most excited about personally is seeing how the studio will present puzzles that can be solved collaboratively.
The idea here is that the game will not force you to try it cooperatively with your friends, but rather you can enjoy the full game individually like the previous games. This will be a challenge for horror game lovers (like us) because we want to face dangers and nightmares alone in order to get the dose of adrenaline I’ve been waiting for years.
One of the new additions to The Outlast Trials is the possibility of self-defence. All of the previous Outlast games offered you 3 options: run, sneak, or face your fate, which is definitely death. Outlast Trials gives you a fourth option which is self-defence using some traps. Of course, you won’t kill enemies or face them like Resident Evil, but at least you’ll be able to defend yourself until you give yourself a chance to escape.
The Outlast Trials replaces the camera with night vision goggles. From the first teaser that was released for the game we can see a group of doctors and scientists from the Murkoff company attaching night vision goggles to the player (a lab mouse in this case). Since Red Barrels hasn’t taken a long look at the gameplay yet, we don’t know if we’ll need batteries for these glasses like the previous parts’ cameras, or if the mechanics will be left out of the game entirely.
Philippe Morin (one of the co-founders of Red Barrels studio) spoke in a recent interview with the PlayStation Blog explaining what The Outlast Trials will bring us:
If previous games can be compared to movies, we can compare The Outlast Trials to TV series. Your journey to freedom will be long. Whether players decide to try the game alone or with their friends, we want them to feel like they are fighting for their lives and their freedom. The approach used in developing The Outlast Trials is the same as that used in previous games, twisted realism, violence and bloodshed.
The Outlast Trials will see great improvements graphically
The first two parts of the Outlast series used Unreal Engine 3 because development on it was easy for the studio. The second part in particular provided us with a great graphical experience, and some believe that it surpassed the graphics of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, which was released in the same year. However, the series needed a graphic development, especially since Outlast Trials will be released on the new generation.
This is where Unreal Engine 4 comes into play, and from the first look at the gameplay view, you can be sure of the gigantic technical and graphic development that the game will offer. Unreal Engine 4 will not only help develop the game’s graphics, but studio Red Barrels has confirmed that the engine has helped them create, implement and modify various ideas very quickly.
That was all the information we had at the moment about the upcoming twisty experience in the world of Outlast. Currently, there is no specific release date for The Outlast Trials, but studio Red Barrels has confirmed that it will come to PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S sometime in 2022. We also expect the game to be released on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and the Nintendo Switch. The game’s page on Steam confirms that the game will support cross-platform play, which makes sense as it is a PVE story game and not a PVP competitive experience.
