It’s not the enemies (well, it kind of is the enemies), and it’s not the environments – at least not all the time. In Outlast, the horror-game-mold-breaking 2013 original, the most frightening part of the experience is the camera. That grainy little viewfinder, especially when you activate the battery-sucking nightvision, makes everything feel, somehow, closer, more tactile, and more real. You’re a reporter. Your job is to record. And so you feel obligated to watch and capture every single atrocity and terror contained in Mount Massive Asylum. It’s a subtle but breakthrough tweak in the horror game formula. Now, 11 years later, Outlast has fully broken containment. Mixing Dead by Daylight’s multiplayer focus with the stealth and tension of Alien Isolation or Amnesia, one of 2024’s most hotly anticipated new horrors is finally here in full.
The Outlast Trials is like the horror game equivalent of an especially awful extreme sports weekend. It goes like this. During the darkest days of the Cold War, you and your friends have been kidnapped by the overarching villainous ‘pharmaceutical company’ Murkoff, which is subjecting you to a series of increasingly horrendous ‘therapies’ designed to test the limits of human fear.
Between yourself and up to three companions, the objective is to complete, endure, and generally survive Murkoff’s tests until you’re deemed fit to rejoin society. Spoiler alert: Murkoff isn’t really interested in whether you’re fit to rejoin society.
This is classic Outlast horror – sneak, hide, strategize, run – with a multiplayer topping. After almost a year in early access, during which time it’s accumulated a seriously impressive 9/10, ‘very positive’ rating from Steam players, The Outlast Trials is now finally here in all its 1.0 version glory. If you’re looking for a new online horror obsession after Lethal Company, you can get The Outlast Trials right now, right here.
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