The Outlast Trials Review (Justiguy)
Whether you go through the trials alone...
Before reading this review, note that it is done from the perspective of the initial single player experience FOR those looking for a single player experience like the previous Outlast games.
I want to clarify before continuing. This is a good, polished game. For those looking for a multiplayer Outlast experience, you're going to probably find that here. There is a non-zero chance (a pretty high one in fact) I'll be editing this review in the future, in fact. However, as someone who intended to largely (if not exclusively) play this as a single player experience (which the game's description does say you can do), I felt like my initial feelings deserve being heard by others who might be coming to this game hoping for an experience like that of the original Outlasts- the first being one of my favorite games of all time.
The Outlast Trials place players into a myriad of situations and areas within which they are meant to fulfill their goals and then return to the home base. This is a fine start, but the problems arise for the single player when you find yourself being subjected to some of the restraints and restrictions of this being treated as an online multiplayer game:
1. You are restricted to three lives per therapy session, and you can't quit the game and resume a session from where you left off.
2. You cannot pause the game, even when playing alone. If players could join an ongoing game of their own accord with your input, this would make perfect sense, but not allowing players playing completely solo to pause a horror game seems a bit iffy to me.
3. If a player is idle for too long, they will be booted from the game, regardless of how much progress they've made and whether or not they were playing alone. Again, this is a decision that makes perfect sense for an online game, but considering you already can't pause the game and are on limited lives, this seems extra punishing for solo players. I found myself needing to step away to walk my dog, only to find myself having been booted to the main menu when I return with nothing to show for the hour of gameplay I'd engaged in up to that point.
4. When you are booted from the game this way, you don't gain any experience or rewards like you would have if your character simply died and ran out of lives. Again, this is a design choice that makes sense for the online aspect of the game: why reward players who were potentially dragging down their partners? On the other hand, one could argue a player who was playing alone is already being punished by the game enough by losing all of their progress.
Once again, I do want to reiterate that this is a good, polished game. It's one I'd been looking forward to for years, and one that I could probably recommend to most folks in a broad sense... BUT it's one that comes with some caveats if you're going to come at it like I intend to (in order to get the most enjoyment out of it possible), and for those of you out there who these things might be relevant to, I think it's fair to go in knowing beforehand so you don't find out only after coming back to losing an hour of progress.
Red Barrels, if you come across this review, know that I love your games and really think there are some simple ways to fix this. Maybe add an option to create an entirely separate profile for offline if you're worried about balance or something, so that at least players playing offline could play without having to worry about the online-exclusive restrictions that don't have anything to do with them? It could also make for a good means of practice for players who might like to work UP to playing online with others, without pulling anyone down.
For now, I'm looking forward to the future of this game, but in the state it's in, as I said, I can't recommend it to folks looking for more Outlast.