Red Barrels, the team behind Outlast and Outlast 2, has today revealed their newest game in the series, though it's probably not what you were expecting when they teased it on Halloween. The Outlast Trials is a four-player Outlast experience set during the Cold War, and Red Barrels' co-founder David Chateauneuf says the team "is hard at work creating a new experience that will bring fear and anxiety to millions of players."
Few details were shared for the game beyond its setting and basic premise of allowing players to undergo "trials" alone or with up to three others. This marks the first time in the series that multiplayer has been involved. It doesn't sound like The Outlast Trials will follow the current trend of asynchronous multiplayer horror games such as Dead By Daylight and the upcoming Resident Evil Resistance, and with few other details, one can merely speculate regarding details beyond that. Though if you recall, at least one other major hint was given in the original teaser, which can again be seen, this time in full, in the new key art reveal.
The character reaching for help is wearing some sort of ID Bracelet that includes the initials "MK," which may refer to either the Murkoff Corporation, the story universe's cryptic Big Bad, or possibly MK-Ultra, a real-life CIA operation which has been written into the Outlast universe.
Either way, it seems participants in these titular trials are unwillingly present, perhaps signifying some sort of SAW-like obstacle course of traps and scares. We'll know more soon according to the team, as they said they've been working on the game for months and have begun to ramp up production.
The most recent entry to the series, Outlast 2, sees players crash-land in the middle of a doomsday cult in the middle of the barren Arizona desert. It earned "Strong" marks here on OpenCritic with an average score of 75.
