- "Set in the era of the Cold War, human guinea pigs are involuntarily recruited by the good folks at the Murkoff Corporation to test advanced methods of brainwashing and mind control. In a world of distrust, fear, and violence, your morals will be challenged, your endurance tested, and your sanity crushed. All in the name of progress, science, and profit.
Red Barrels invites you to experience mind-numbing terror, this time with friends. Work together and maybe you'll survive The Outlast Trials. It's always better to shit your pants in good company." - ―The Outlast Trials description
The Outlast Trials is a cooperative first-person psychological survival horror video game developed and published by Red Barrels. It is the third installment in the Outlast series, serving as a prequel to the first two games. The game makes its debut with a cross-platform online cooperative mode,[6][5] allowing up to four players to participate, although a single-player route is also available.[7] After two delays,[8][9][10] The Outlast Trials launched in early access for Microsoft Windows via Steam and Epic Games Store on May 18, 2023,[3] with PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S versions and cross-platform features coinciding with the game's full release on March 5, 2024.[5][4]
The Trials
The Outlast Trials contains the trials that are 'missions' in which Reagents have to complete objectives in order to gain rewards and get further towards their Rebirth.
Trials are completed solo or in a group of up to 4 other Reagents.
Program Genesis: Path to Rebirth
(Formerly the previous split programs), this program has a blend of everything to get Reagents on the path to rebirth.
Program X: Path to Ascension
This program features a mix of MK-Challenges and Trials that challenge the Reagents in advanced difficulty.
Program Ultra: Path to Hell
This program has extreme challenges for the most daring of Reagents.
Temporary Programs
Program Omega
Released on June 13, 2023, Program Omega forces the Reagents to stay together while enduring the series of deadly variators and ended on October 24, 2023.
Program Geister
Released on October 27, 2023, Program Geister was a Halloween event centered around a hallucination set of variators and ended on November 17, 2023.
Weekly Therapy
Introduced as of November 17, 2023, Weekly Therapy Challenges provide an interesting goal in the form of new sets of variators that accompany Trials and MK-Challenges.
Winter Kills
Released on December 12, 2023, Winter Kills is a winter holiday event centered around escaping the cold and gathering gifts and ended on January 9, 2024.
Toxic Shock
Released on April 16th, 2024, Toxic Shock is a limited time event centered around avoiding toxic gas that deals permanent damage and located the various rats scattered around and ends on May 7th, 2024.
Plot
The game is set in the same universe as other Outlast-related titles and takes place in the year 1959,[11] during the height of the Cold War era, where players take on the role of test subjects—referred to as Reagents—abducted by the Murkoff Corporation. Imprisoned in a secret Murkoff facility comprising a dozen warehouses connected by underground tunnels, players will be thrust into a series of physical and mental ordeals, tormented by iconic characters, and challenged alone or in teams to survive with their sanity intact. Inside the warehouses, Murkoff has constructed heightened lift-sized models of real-world environments. In between the trials, Reagents return to the Sleep Room, where Murkoff takes good care of them. Reagents can interact with Murkoff employees to obtain the items that they will need for their next trial.[2]
Characters
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Development
Announcement
On December 7, 2017, Red Barrels posted an update on their future plans, which included Outlast 3 and an untitled Outlast-related project that was in the works. According to Red Barrels, as it was not possible to include downloadable content within Outlast 2, the studio decided instead to work on a separate project that will include much-requested features, likely alluding to Trials' cooperative mode. While not being a direct sequel to Outlast 2, the game's story is set in the same universe.[12]
On October 31, 2019, Red Barrels posted a teaser image for their upcoming project with a caption that reads "Where freedom ends".[13]
On December 4, 2019, Red Barrels officially announced their upcoming title The Outlast Trials, with its story taking place during the Cold War era. The initial reveal post also featured an image with characters wearing night vision goggles, leading some readers to speculate that it might be a virtual reality game. The developers later clarified that the game will not have any VR features.[7] The Outlast Trials was developed by a team that consisted of around forty people.[2]
In an interview with Official PlayStation Magazine UK, Red Barrels co-founder Philippe Morin mentioned that the Cold War era was chosen as a setting in order to flesh out the mythology behind the games by revisiting Project MKUltra at its height. Morin also described the multiplayer as "...flexible, so that people can play it in any way they want" and noted that the cooperative mode will have segments where players will find themselves separated from one another: "Stuff will happen, shit will hit the fan and soon you may find yourself separated from the group".[14][15] In a later interview with PlayStation Blog, Red Barrels described the game as a "TV series".[2]
Behind the scenes
Throughout Trials' development, Red Barrels showcased "Behind The Trials", a series of brief behind-the-scenes videos featured across their social media that focused on various aspects of the game's design. These include a footage compilation of motion capture stunt work for various enemy encounters and player death animations (motion capture process handled by Game On studio), an overview of the game's character and audio design, soundtrack composition, interactions with their community, as well as the developers' inspirations behind Trials' story and its horror-themed elements.[16][17][1][18][19][20][21][22][11]
A documentary on the making of The Outlast Trials will be released sometime after the game's completion. It was originally slated to release sometime in 2022, but the date was later retracted after the developers delayed the game for a second time.[1][22]
Promotional material
On June 13, 2020, as part of PC Gaming Show, Red Barrels released a ninety-second cinematic teaser. The trailer opens with several surgeons forcefully mounting a night vision device onto an immobilized subject's head. Once completed, the head surgeon asks for his staff to bring in the remaining test subjects, before the scene cuts to a hallway chase sequence where two escapees aid one another in breaking out, but are quickly cut down by their pursuers; one is stabbed through the back of her neck, while the other has his head crushed by a shadowy figure wielding a sledgehammer, as the title card overlaps across the screen to reveal the tagline "Freedom ends in 2021", alluding to the game's initial release year. The song featured at the start of the trailer is called "Is It Just A Game" by Buddy and the Fads.[8]
Gameplay trailer
On August 25, 2021, as part of Gamescom 2021, Red Barrels released Trials' first gameplay trailer, showcasing the game's mechanics, features, and setting.[10]
Closed beta
On August 23, 2022, as part of Gamescom 2022, Red Barrels released Trials' third overall trailer where they announced sign ups for a closed beta of the game that took place between October 28 and November 1, 2022.[23] Players who wishlisted the game on Steam would randomly be selected and notified via email if they wished to participate.[24] Early participants of the closed beta experienced several connection issues to the servers—which the beta was tied to—that would make it impossible to connect or would kick players from their sessions. These issues were later mitigated by the developers.[25] Upon its conclusion, the participants were offered to take a survey and share their thoughts on the game's design, express their experience, as well as provide constructive criticism to the developers.[26]
The beta allowed players to play two trials, with the first acting as a skippable tutorial. In it, the player is introduced to the game's setting and controls. The trial also provides a bit of narrative background in which the player has to destroy files relating to their public and private lives in order to surrender themselves completely over to the Murkoff Corporation and begin their fabricated treatment. The trial also introduces the character of Mother Gooseberry who stalks the player throughout the level.
"Snitches get Stiches" is the second and main trial of the beta that centers around the player infiltrating a police station in order to find and kill the snitch. During the course of the second trial, the player is stalked and chased by Leland Coyle, a psychotic police warden armed with a shock rod and several other manic prisoners. The trial could be played on four different difficulties; Easy, Normal, Hard, and Insane, all of which are unlocked by completing the trial on each subsequent difficulty. Each difficulty changes the aspect of the trial, with higher ones adding more obstacles to the terrain and increasing the difficulty of already existing ones. Some of these include the addition of motion cameras that need to be avoided in order to keep the gate open, making existing enemies more aware of the player's presence, as well as increasing the complexity of lockpick puzzles.
Upon completing the trial, the player received in-game currency that could be used to buy character cosmetics within their cell. A range of different cosmetic options could be obtained from full outfits to small additions, such as new goggles, toaster skins, and player icons. None of these items carried over into the early access nor any subsequent versions of the game.
Release
Originally slated for a 2021 release,[8] Red Barrels later retracted the date, stating that the game was still in development.[9] On August 25, 2021, as part of Gamescom 2021, Red Barrels showcased Trials' first gameplay trailer that alluded to a possible 2022 release, before delaying the game for a second time.[10]
Early access
On March 10, 2023, Red Barrels released Trials' fourth overall trailer announcing the game's early access release for Microsoft Windows via Steam and Epic Games Store for May 18, 2023. The trailer showcases behind the scenes footage of Trials' voice talent recording lines for the game.[3] The console ports are planned to coincide with the game's full release along with its cross-platform cooperative mode, although said mode will not feature cross-progression.[5][27]
Gallery
Promotional
Locations
Gameplay
Concept art
Holiday-themed postcards
Videos
Trailers
Behind the scenes
YouTube Shorts
External links
General
- The Outlast Trials on Red Barrels' official website
- The Outlast Trials on Wikipedia
Online storefronts
- The Outlast Trials on Steam
- The Outlast Trials on Epic Games Store
- The Outlast Trials on Microsoft Store
- The Outlast Trials on PlayStation Store
Notes
- ↑ Released in early access on May 18, 2023.
- ↑ Fully compatible with Steam Deck.
- ↑ Made available on consoles with the full release of the game on March 5, 2024.
- ↑ Via Steam, Epic Games Store and Microsoft Store for Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Store for Xbox consoles and PlayStation Store for PlayStation consoles.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Trial #1: Sound and Music, The Outlast Trials - Behind the Scenes". Red Barrels. YouTube (October 29, 2021).
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "The Outlast Trials “is like a TV series”, offering new challenges for players and developer alike". PlayStation Blog (September 3, 2021).
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "The Outlast Trials - Early Access Date Announcement Trailer". Red Barrels. YouTube (March 10, 2023).
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "The Outlast Trials - Console Announcement Trailer, The Game Awards 2023". Red Barrels. YouTube (December 8, 2023).
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 "For everyone asking about consoles, we are working to have The Outlast Trials be playable on as many platforms as possible with cross-platform play but no cross-progression. This will take time and we aim to have this for full launch, but it won't be available for EA.". TheRedBarrels. Twitter (April 19, 2023).
- ↑ "The Outlast Trials will be an online multiplayer, there is no local co-op.". TheRedBarrels. Twitter (December 11, 2021).
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Welcome to The Outlast Trials. The Red Barrels team is excited to announce our latest project in the Outlast universe. Set in the era of the Cold War, The Outlast Trials will allow players to face the horrors that await by themselves or with fellow test subjects 💉 The Outlast Trials is still in production, and as our co-founder David Chateauneuf puts it: "Now we've done our proof of concept, it is time to focus on content creation, variety... and gore." Get ready. (And no, the game is not VR.)". Outlastthegame. Facebook (December 4, 2019).
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Just a heads up, our answer to this question is still the same: we do not have a release date set for The Outlast Trials, and we are still in development. This Q&A will focus on the studio, and our released games! 👍". TheRedBarrels. Twitter (June 9, 2021).
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 "The Outlast Trials Gameplay Reveal, Gamescom 2021". Red Barrels. YouTube (August 25, 2021).
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Trial #8: Art, The Outlast Trials - Behind the Scenes". Red Barrels. YouTube (February 24, 2023).
- ↑ "It's time for a little status update from us. First off, we wanted to take a moment to thank all of you that have bought Outlast 2 and have been supporting the studio for more than 5 years now. Red Barrels was nothing more than a dream, but with a lot of blood, sweat and beers it has now become a small, fully independent studio with a kickass team who can work miracles. We strive to create unique experiences and take risks. Hopefully, we'll manage to entertain you for years to come. About the future, many of you have been requesting a DLC. While the first Outlast was made with the idea of a DLC in mind, that was not the case for Outlast 2. We’ve considered many options, but none of them felt appropriate for a DLC. Outlast 2 was created to make you feel like a rat in a maze, without any knowledge of what’s outside the maze. We will, at some point, make an Outlast 3 and answers will be given. You can also check out The Murkoff Account's epilogue. It takes places right after the events of the second game and offers some insight into the events in the game. (https://redbarrelsgames.com/comic-books/) Currently we're working on something a lot of you have been asking for... It won't be a sequel to Outlast or Outlast 2, but it will be a distinct experience set in the Outlast universe. We can't say more right now, we first need to make sure we can make it work. Like I mentioned, we strive to be risk-takers and this one is a pretty big challenge. If all goes well, we'll soon be able to reveal more. In the meantime, the Outlast franchise will be released on the Nintendo Switch during the first quarter of 2018. Cheers! The Red Barrels Team". Outlastthegame. Facebook (December 7, 2017).
- ↑ "Announcement coming soon.". TheRedBarrels. Twitter (October 31, 2019).
- ↑ "Plus, an overview on what to expect from PS5, a talk with the Outlast Trials dev, the verdict on Zombie Army 4, and everything you need to know about Persona 5 Royal! And that's just a taste. This issue is packed with much more. Read it here". PLAYgamingmag. Twitter (February 11, 2020).
- ↑ "Extra! Extra! Read all about it 📰 Our co-founder, Philippe Morin, sat down with @OPM_UK to discuss The Outlast Trials. You can find our interview and the rest of the issue here". TheRedBarrels. Twitter (February 18, 2020).
- ↑ "Take a peek #BehindTheTrials to see what our animation team has been working on at Game On motion capture studio for #TheOutlastTrials! What caught your eye in this video? 😏". TheRedBarrels. Twitter (July 9, 2021).
- ↑ "Trial #2: Characters, The Outlast Trials - Behind the Scenes". Red Barrels. YouTube (December 10, 2021).
- ↑ "Trial #3: Storytelling and Inspiration, The Outlast Trials - Behind the Scenes". Red Barrels. YouTube (March 31, 2022).
- ↑ "Trial #4: Animation, The Outlast Trials - Behind the Scenes". Red Barrels. YouTube (June 9, 2022).
- ↑ "Trial #5: Psychology of Horror, The Outlast Trials - Behind the Scenes". Red Barrels. YouTube (July 15, 2022).
- ↑ "Trial #6: Design, The Outlast Trials - Behind the Scenes". Red Barrels. YouTube (September 29, 2022).
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 "Trial #7: Community, The Outlast Trials - Behind the Scenes". Red Barrels. YouTube (December 23, 2022).
- ↑ "The Outlast Trials - Closed Beta Trailer, Gamescom 2022". Red Barrels. YouTube (August 23, 2022).
- ↑ "It's happening... check your emails". TheRedBarrels. Twitter (October 28, 2022).
- ↑ "Walrider got us... servers all went down. But you'll be happy to know Murkoff Mitigation Team has addressed the issue and they are slowly coming back up!". TheRedBarrels. Twitter (October 28, 2022).
- ↑ "Keep sharing your Closed Beta experiences with us! Screenshots, clips, feedback, pistachios; WE WANT IT ALL! Also fill out our survey so we can work towards our roadmap to release with your feedback in mind". TheRedBarrels. Twitter (November 1, 2022).
- ↑ "We are planning to have consoles for the game's full launch if all goes well. I would not qualify it as ages though 👍". TheRedBarrels. Twitter (March 24, 2023).