![]() A rough fifteen minutes or so of tiptoeing through the shadows with your tail tucked firmly between your legs later, and you're suddenly in the real world. ![]() Needless to say that the devs swung hard and true, and brought out its initial burst of shock-horror right from the get-go.Įquipped with a pair of night vision goggles, you're initially led to investigate a myriad of shadow-trodden tunnels and “death rooms”, each highly reminscent of James Wan's beloved SAW franchise. Not that I expected anything less from Red Barrels, mind you. And I'd be lying if I said these weren't some of the most utterly terrifying and body-breaking moments I've ever seen spat out from the realm of survival-horror. The first twenty-plus minutes of The Outlast Trials sees you immersing in an atmospherically on-point labyrinth built on fever dreams and mechanical nightmares. Third time's the charm though, I guess? A Prologue to Die For And, you know, that's great - because who doesn't love a little extra backstory drizzled over their prequel in this day and age? It was a safe move, and it paid off surprisingly well, despite being somewhat predictable and a little stale. What's more, the fact that Murkoff Corporation also features as the game's primary punch bag does assist with fleshing out the lore ever so slightly. Narrative-wise, The Outlast Trials is pretty much on the same wavelength as its previous chapters. Like before, their aims are to brainwash those in their clutches, and ultimately assess their state of mind before spitting them back out - washed up, psychologically unbalanced, and laden with everlasting trauma. To put you in the picture, The Outlast Trials is set long before the events of both Outlast and Outlast 2. In the thick of the Cold War, Murkoff Corporation-the same company that featured in the original game-seeks to use human guinea pigs by way of forcing them to engage in a series of barbaric and questionably sinister challenges. That said, this certainly isn't your run-of-the-mill Outlast experience, and it begs the question: has Red Barrels truly lost sight of what made the series that genre-defining pillar of strength it was back in 2013, or is it completely devoid of creative control over what should, in all honesty, be a striking return for the acclaimed anthology? Welcome Back ![]() ![]() Question is, was The Outlast Trials really worth the several years of twiddling thumbs and reliving the same recurring nightmare of foraging for alkaline batteries in the dark? Or, was it morally flat and directionless a textureless bombshell with very little to brag about outside of its spiritual connection to the IP?ĭon't get me wrong, The Outlast Trials bears the right to be deemed a worthy adversary in the realm of co-operative play. And it's about time, too, what with Outlast 3 still being kept under wraps and all details on it being tediously scarce. Red Barrels' long-awaited spin-off of Outlast has, with a little nudge and a shove, released on PC. ![]()
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