# The Outlast Trials

The Outlast Trials is a 2024 first-person psychological survival horror video game developed and published by Red Barrels. It serves as a prequel to both Outlast (2013) and Outlast 2 (2017) and revolves around test subjects who are involuntarily recruited in a mysterious Cold War experiment.
First announced on October 2019, the game was originally slated for a release on August 2021, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A closed beta was available from October 28 to November 1, 2022, until it was finally released via early access for Microsoft Windows on May 18, 2023, and fully launched for Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on March 5, 2024. The Outlast Trials received generally positive reviews from critics.

## Gameplay

Like its predecessors, The Outlast Trials is a first-person survival horror. While the game supports four-player cooperative multiplayer, players can also complete the game in a single-player mode. The player must complete several objectives while evading 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 also features six distinct abilities players can select and use during the trials. These 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.
The player has access to a pair of night-vision goggles that allows 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 as 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 only three items at a time, with an additional inventory slot unlockable to players later in their progression.

## Plot

In 1959, at the height of the Cold War, the Murkoff Corporation begins a deceptive recruitment program and summons volunteers who are then kidnapped and transported to the Sinyala Facility in Arizona. Referred to as "Reagents", the subjects are forced to undergo an "Initiation Trial" where they are involuntarily proceeded surgically to have night-vision goggles screwed on their head and meet the facility's director, Hendrick Joliet Easterman.
As Easterman directs them to destroy their own public and private records, the Reagents complete the trial by avoiding psychotic failed test subjects, known as the "Experimental Population", also referred to as "Ex-Pops". Reagents are then allowed access to the "Sleep Room," where they listen to Easterman's radio broadcasts and reflect between trials. They also meet engineer Cornelious Noakes, nurse Emily Barlow, and various Sleep Room denizens while assisted by a fellow Reagent named Dorris Ritter, who no longer partakes in the trials and instead provides contraband goods to other subjects. The trials the Reagents undergo become increasingly dangerous as they are forced to go against the "Prime Assets", Ex-Pops that hold dominion over the trials' themed environments. Notable Prime Assets include disgraced children's television series' host Phyllis "Mother Gooseberry" Futterman, sadistic ex-police sergeant Leland Coyle, and depraved drug-dealing gangster Franco "Il Bambino" Barbi.
After completing the trials, Reagents who are deemed ready can participate in a "Release Protocol", where they must complete a final trial before being released to the world. During the trial, they are also assigned documentation with new identities before being given a code word through tuning multiple frequencies. After they open a final door to escape, Reagents fall into a dark infinite space where they walk on water as they approach a glaring light in the distance.

### Endings

The Outlast Trials features five endings that are different each play through.
* Reagents will awaken tainted in blood in a hotel room in Cuba. Eventually, a phone will ring and when picked up, Easterman's voice will say the code word heard in the final trial, causing the Reagents to black out as the screen fades to black.
* Reagents will awaken with their hands taped to the wheel of a speeding car as it crashes in a hotel in South Vietnam. While the Reagents notice an explosive strapped to their chest, they struggle in vain as it detonates.
* Reagents will awaken in a house in China, with a man overdosing in a bed next to them. Someone knocks on the door and, when the Reagents answer, Easterman's voice will say the code word, causing a phantom-like entity known as the "Skinner Man" to attack them.
* Reagents will awaken in the jungle of Republic of the Congo as they face a group execution. A soldier interrogates the group and demands to know who is an American spy, the location of a poison, and how they found Patrice Lumumba. After translating the code word, the Skinner Man approaches the Reagents, causing them to black out. As the Reagents regains consciousness, they brutally execute the soldier, are surrounded by soldiers' corpses, and are then shot dead.
* Reagents will awaken in the subterranean laboratory of Mount Massive Asylum in Lake County, Colorado as they are hooked up to the Morphogenic Engine by Rudolf Wernicke, who had occasionally observed them from the Sleep Room. While other scientists question the Reagents' suitability as candidates for the experiments, Wernicke believes they may actually be "for other use". The Reagents soon begin to feel the Walrider overtaking them before hearing the code word as the screen fades to black.

## Development

In December 2017, Outlast 3 was announced though no time frame or target platforms were confirmed. 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. Red Barrels also described the game as a "TV series"; the development team of the game had around forty people.
The Outlast Trials was teased in October 2019 as a prequel to both Outlast and Outlast 2 around test subjects for the Murkoff Corporation in a mysterious Cold War experiment. Red Barrels co-founder David Chateauneuf said "the proof-of-concept is now complete and the game's team is now in development mode".

### Marketing

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

## Reception

Aggregate score :
| Aggregator | Score |
| Metacritic | (PC) 69/100 (PS5) 75/100 (XSXS) 74/100 |
Review scores :
| Publication | Score |
| GameSpot | 8/10 |
| GamesRadar+ | |
| IGN | 7/10 |
| Push Square | |
| Shacknews | 8/10 |
| VG247 | |
The Outlast Trials received "generally favorable" reviews from critics. The PC port received “Mixed or Average” reviews, according to review aggregator website Metacritic.