The Outlast Trials Review (Mild Blobfish)
The Outlast Trials is a great addition to the Outlast series; even with multiplayer it stays true to its roots. It's easy to pick up and lose hours to.
The game significantly expands the Outlast lore, and my favourite element is that its multiplayer elements are tied to the lore. This keeps the co-op gameplay immersive and justified which is always something you worry about when Multiplayer is added to a Single Player game. It manages to maintain the dark, body horror unsettling atmosphere that defines the series.
At its core, the gameplay loop is simple: you enter a trial, complete various tasks, then are granted the ability to escape - all while more and more enemies spawn. Within the maps; there are tasks like the radio frequency finder which is more then just get item A for location B - however most of the time it feels like the minigame is find X Randomized Key in X randomized location.
The level design is excellent, rewarding players who learn the maps and master their layouts. Randomized elements—like door placements and item locations—keep each playthrough fresh, and one thing I enjoy is that the difficulty curve changes based on player count so you can enjoy the game alone if you want the original Outlast feel.
With that being said; replayability is a strong point. Varied loadouts, rigs, perks, and skills allows the maps you play over and over again to be tackled differently, as well various challenges and developer-led events introduce twists.
The game has "battle passes" but unlike some ingame monetization aspects; I found this one respects the player’s time, with fair rewards for playing the game, good cosmetic unlocks and incentives to keep playing even after freeing your character. I don't feel "scammed", finishing trials gives plenty of rewards.
If there’s a downside, it’s that with enough experience, the fear factor starts to diminish. You begin to see through the horror to the mechanics underneath, turning it into more of a calculated process rather than a pure survival nightmare.
All in all - very nice will continue to play. 8.5/10.