The Outlast Trials Reviews
The Outlast Trials is a bloody cooperative horror game that burns brightly, but fizzles after a few enjoyable hours.
The Outlast Trials is excessive and frantically enjoyable - but can occasionally tip over into frustration more than fear.
The Outlast Trials is a unique cooperative horror game with a lot of potential, but it's one of those early access games that's unpolished and lacking content.
Every trial feels like you're just scraping by.
Red Barrels' third Outlast game is a departure in many ways, but remains memorable for its twisted villains and the grotesque world they inhabit.
It's one of the most extreme and hardcore multiplayer experiences we've ever had, but at the same time catching its madness and overcoming its challenges is very, very satisfying. It's not for the faint of heart, of course.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
As a player, a lot of what’s on the table with The Outlast Trials ain’t for me. The prospect of time investment for a survival horror-style game combined with the Fortnite-style game loop makes my brain hurt. But I understand why it works for the folks who are down, and looking at those sickos having a great time in the Early Access version is a vicarious sort of fun you can have from the critic’s position. I don’t enjoy it, but I “get” it, and being able to see the enjoyment elsewhere helps wrap my head around the game holistically and fill in the blanks. I open this window into my brain for y’all to help explain why a game I won’t be picking back up again still gets a good score!
The Outlast Trials seeks to bring a world designed so far for a single player to the multiplayer terrain. The result? A delicious survival game that, while unfair to the bravest, offers hours and hours of fun to any group that has enough stomach to face their terrifying figures and buckets of blood and viscera.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
A good multiplayer experience, which still needs some refinement and which goes a little too far in penalizing solo players.
Review in Italian | Read full review
A huge part of me believes that The Outlast Trials - with a little more seamlessness between trials and objectives that aren’t rehashed and repeated - could’ve made an amazing single-player game, with multiplayer as an option. Though even with my qualms, The Outlast Trials is ultimately a game I’ve had a lot of fun with where there’s absolutely no compromise on quality, and Red Barrels should be applauded for that. It has been packed, shipped, and delivered with the utmost attentiveness from its developer. It’s just a shame that when it comes to the replayability of the game, it’s something I’ll likely revisit on occasion with friends as I would Phasmophobia or Lethal Company, and not much more than that.
The Outlast Trials is in better shape now it's out of Early Access, and while AI and fixes have been made, it's still light on content.
The Outlast Trials is possibly the most deranged the series has ever been, with plenty of smart ideas albeit quite sparse on content.
While the strictly defined horror gameplay might not keep one hooked for hours-long sessions, The Outlast Trials’ style and atmosphere is worth several return journeys. It makes very few changes to the series’ usual stealthy scariness, yet the inclusion of three other players makes for a breezy version that’s pretty damn entertaining. Be aware that playing it alone makes everything take four times longer and isn’t particularly fun, but with even just one more player, some torture porny fun can be had.
The Outlast Trials is a fun, but flawed addition to the Outlast series, trading in the original titles’ claustrophobic horror for in-your-face multiplayer mayhem. The title’s core gameplay loop offers a thrilling challenge and high replayability, delivering plenty of trials for fans to sink their teeth into across its Core, Advanced, and Ultra Programs, with immersive audio-visual elements that deliver on all fronts. Unfortunately, The Outlast Trials' balancing issues, unjustified gratuity, and complete lack of scares may leave some players disappointed. Fans of the Outlast series will likely find plenty of reasons to explore and overcome the Murkoff Corporation’s various testing facilities, as the title offers enough challenge to keep them engaged. However, for general horror audiences, and those new to Outlast, The Outlast Trials may struggle to live up to the legendary reputation of the series’ original entries.
The Outlast Trials delivers a scary uncertainty with immersive gameplay that harkens back to the first Outlast game. This is a fun title that has a good amount of difficulty to it, where you can play it solo and still have fun even though this is mainly a co-oping experience.
All in all I expected more from this horror game. My nephew has raved about how good the first two were and even though this has been in EA on PC for years I was eagerly awaiting the console release. Sadly, The Outlast Trials just didn’t live up to the hype for me. With monsters that didn’t really feel scary, and maps and objectives that just start to feel repetitive really quickly, I can really only recommend this one for the real Outlast fans.
Although it can be played solo, surviving The Outlast Trials is better and more fun with friends, although they’ll need pretty strong stomachs and a taste for extreme imagery. The Outlast Trials has strong survival puzzle mechanics, a good bit of macabre humor, and a confidently over-the-top presentation. It’ll need some additional content over time for real longevity, but the foundation is strong.
While The Outlast Trials is a game that can be completed, it has many issues that currently keep it from being a fun experience. The game is very repetitive and cumbersome while the balance that it has is all over the place. Unfortunately, these issues seem to be only fixable with a lot of reworks and massive patches. Even then, it still won't address the boring gameplay loop and the lack of actual challenge outside of modifiers that only exist to make the game even more frustrating. This is a game that only hardcore Outlast fans can be invested on and thus, it is hard to recommend.
The Outlast Trials is a unique, engaging, horrifying, and memorable multiplayer experience, and although this is its greatest strength, it also lessens the pure horror experience that Outlast is otherwise known for. The excellent environments and narrative choices are well worth experiencing; I only wish there was more story content to experience, and variety in mission structure.
The Outlast Trials is first and foremost an excellent stealth game in which you have to avoid enemies by hiding in the shade, under the bed or inside a closet, taking care not to make noise. After that, it's an extremely brutal survival horror, in which we have to carry out heinous acts without becoming victims of psychopathic madmen ready to tear us apart in the most gory ways. The atmosphere of the Cold War prison camps with no way out has been recreated to perfection, and it's easy to empathize with the protagonist as he tries to survive, accompanied only by the mad beat of his own heart. Co-op multiplayer with three other friends completes the offering.
Review in Italian | Read full review