The majority of programs fall into typical tropes of the horror genre almost immediately. Once you’ve survived each initial level, you’ll unlock sub-levels and versions with difficulty modifiers to try your hand at. After customising your character, you’ll be able to select from up to 3 programs – each with unique missions and objectives to complete. In order to erase your past and experience your “rebirth”, you’ll need to embark on and survive The Outlast Trials’ multiple programs. Even so, The Outlast Trials shows there’s some interesting story lurking somewhere in the bloodstained shadows. I certainly missed the more personal touch of the previous Outlast entries’ stories, as you’re just another haphazardly created NPC in amongst a sea of other likeminded survivors. It makes sense that in a more cooperative style game, there’s going to be much less personal focus on you and your character. It can feel a bit piecemeal as a result, but picking apart the wider lore and story will be something I can foresee a lot of people having fun with. Aside from an interesting opening salvo, the rest of the story is pieced together via lore documents you can find in trials. Your actions during trials are graded on performance and you must earn your way to freedom by completing one harrowing task after another. Scientists are constantly watching your every move.

From the hub world being an asylum complete with your own individual cell, to the viewing posts and glass observation rooms – you’ll regularly see on display throughout your trials, the game perfectly captures an eerie, uncomfortable aura. We take the role of a random person who has enlisted into a program, one which promises we “deserve to be here” to have us be “reborn” through the trials of… crazed danger and obedience.Įverything that you encounter takes place in a facility that can best be described as One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest had horrendous relations with Saw and out popped this monstrosity. In-keeping with previous entries in the series, The Outlast Trials does a fantastic job at setting up the context for this descent into violent masochism.

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