The Outlast Trials is one of the strangest games I've ever played. It's an intense horror game that smashes you in the face with the absolute worst of humanity. And whatever you're imagining right now... it's worse. By a lot.

But at the same time, it's also a goofy co-op game where you and three other people dressed as BDSM clowns take turns bullying the mentally challenged. It's a combination that doesn't work. Shouldn't work. And yet, somehow I've happily spent the past two weeks repeatedly puking, getting puked on, and oftentimes both at the same time. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

So let me show you what makes The Outlast Trials so wonderfully messed up, and whether it's the kind of game you'd actually enjoy.

Video version of this retrospective (~21 minutes)

Stress Simulator

Right off the bat, The Outlast Trials starts strong... in every sense of the word. After an introduction measured in seconds, I was strapped to a chair, had holes drilled into my skull by Dingus and Dangus, and then thrown head-first into a funhouse of horror.

And despite being a completely on-rails tutorial, I found the whole thing to be surprisingly stressful... and I actually mean that in a good way. Everything about that mansion just screams "someone's gonna try to cut off your willy here", so even when I was simply walking through brightly lit hallways, it never felt comfortable. And let's not even talk about that time a pile of censor bars started slashing at my face.

Is it Actually Scary?

Coming in, I was genuinely worried that The Outlast Trials would've gone so far down the 'friendslop' route that the original Outlast would be nothing but a distant, censored memory.

But no. If you enter the trials alone, the game is just as effective a laxative as the original Outlast, and that's not something I say lightly.

And it's all thanks to the atmosphere. Whether you're crawling through an abandoned shopping mall while a troll stalks you through the dark, or shuffling around an orphanage while listening to a madman's... kinda banger song about cocaine, the game just keeps piling on the pressure.

By the time I finished my first trial, which was an hour-long trip through a prison run by a cop with some... slight anger management issues, my shoulders actually hurt. Turns out, I was subconsciously tensing up the entire time. And I mean, how could I not when Captain Cattleprod was trying to give me a colonoscopy?

Now I did eventually get used to this. People are magical in their ability to endure consistent horrific suffering, after all. But what I still can't shake, even two weeks later, is just how profoundly... weird and sad The Outlast Trials' world is.

The enemies you're greeting with a brick to the face aren't some unknowable Lovecraftian monstrosity. They're just regular people that have been drugged, tortured, and pushed so far that there's barely anything left of them. And the game doesn't shy away from that. Every enemy you meet is a pathetic sack of meat, gibbering about things that barely make sense. So even when they're trying to rip off your toes through your mouth, it's really hard to actually hate them.

Doesn't mean I'm not throwing a bottle in their face though

Prime Assets

That said, some of them are a lot more memorable than others, especially the Prime Assets. If your bog standard 'I have night vision goggles surgically implanted into my face' guys are run of the mill psychos, then the Prime Assets are basically psycho kings of Crazy Mountain.

They each rule over a chunk of the trials, and whenever you're in their territory, you'll know it! Either because they're making your life hell by greedily guarding whatever you've been sent to steal, or because they've gotten tired of waiting and are now running after you, their drill-doll raised high!

My favorites are easily Otto and Arora - a pair of malformed, incestuous twins conjoined at birth. And if you think that's crazy, here's an extra treat for you: Arora's butt is linked directly to Otto's throat... so, you know, he's got a bit of a potty mouth. So when you make a mistake and bump into them, it's both hilarious and horrifying to listen to them ramble as they ransack the room trying to find which bucket you're currently hiding in.

And it's exactly that kind of thing that makes Outlast work. It's absurd. It's disgusting. But it never becomes pure misery porn because the game doesn't take itself that seriously. There's always some ridiculous bit of humor mixed in, which gives you a moment to breathe and reset before the next horrible thing happens.

I also have a soft spot for Coyle, since he was the first one that really tormented me

Shock Horror

And I'm extremely glad that's the case, because The Outlast Trials is one of the most genuinely fucked up games I've played in years. A lot of horror games are happy to throw some blood and gore your way, just to shock you. But The Outlast Trials looks at crimes against humanity as a sort of checklist.

It's the kind of game where you'll spend an hour pushing a man towards an execution chamber while he screams and begs for mercy all the way there. A mercy you can't actually provide. He has to die. Slowly... and painfully.

And that's one of the more pleasant examples. There's a lot of stuff in here that I can't even show on Youtube without instantly getting sent to the shadow realm.

But all that gruesomeness does serve a purpose. Because when you can see the price of failure all around you, crawling away from a dwarf that loves to jerk off his shotgun - and that's not a euphemism - becomes one of the most intense things ever.

Even with censors turned, this is still a grizzly game

Sneaky Design

And the best part is, you don't need a degree in stealthology to figure out how any of this works. The rules are dead simple: enemies can see and hear you, and if you pay attention, you can easily figure out how to deal with them.

See a guy wandering around with a blindfold and chains strapped to him? Yeah, he's basically Daredevil, so keep your mouth shut and your footsteps quiet. Spot someone wearing the same cool night vision goggles as you? He can obviously see you in the dark... but drag him into daylight, and he'll have the worst day of his life... so far.

You don't need to pull out a wiki and memorize a bunch of arbitrary rules. You see a threat, you figure out what makes it tick, and then you get the hell out of there. It's surprisingly intuitive.

The same goes for your equipment. Heals kiss your boo-boos, batteries keep your night vision running, and throwables cause distractions or a loss of teeth. Easy-peasy.

But don't mistake simple rules for a simple game!

Oh no, no, no. The trials were designed to drive people to the brink of madness, and they're pretty damn good at it. Your objectives are often convoluted, and their locations randomized with each run. So even if you know a map like the back of your hand, you're still going to find yourself cowering behind a trashcan when the local monster mash decides enough is enough.

But here's where things get really interesting. The game doesn't give you a handy minimap or draw a big glowing line towards your next objective. Well... kind of. Instead all the clues you need exist completely naturally within the environment. Need to figure out where to go in a gigantic shopping mall? Why not check the directory kiosk at the start? Looking for a generator? Why not follow the cables? The information is all there. You just have to pay attention, and I frikkin' love it when a game actually trusts you to not be a dumbass.

So if you're like me - a complete beginner - all of this makes each mission feel like controlled chaos. I always had just enough of an idea of what I was doing to keep going, but never quite enough to actually feel safe and confident.

And that's where The Outlast Trials really shines. Sneaking around, avoiding enemies and carefully planning your next move is all well and good. But the real magic lies in those moments when your plan goes to shit, you get caught, and you're now forced to make a mad, blind dash to safety.

Suddenly all those little hideyholes you passed, every door you left unopened and every item you left behind can mean the difference between life and death. And all it takes is one wrong turn, one silly little mistake, and what was a routing task can turn into something you'll remember for months to come - for better or for worse!

Getting good at sneaking feels suuuuuper satisfying

The Trials Themselves

And I have to give the level design a lot of credit here, because it actually manages to make all these nightmares feel like actual locations. You have shopping centers, orphanages, prisons - all very recognizable places that have been turned into run-down garbage heaps with more broken light bulbs and holes in the walls than stars in the night sky. Not great for their resale value, but it does make them perfect for sneaking around a bunch of psychopaths in tight corridors.

However, the real highlight for me is the creativity. The Outlast Trials team could've absolutely half-assed, or even quarter-assed things. Just give us a bunch of generic missions, sprinkle in a few badguys, and job's done. Nobody would've said a thing.

Instead, they just kinda went... crazy with it. So rather than escorting some annoying NPC, you're pushing a bundle of constantly screaming dolls through rivers of blood so you can grind them up into splinters. And instead of simply killing a target, there's a mission where you have to dispose of someone by using the world's most inconvenient sprayer, filled with the world's weakest acid.

And that's what keeps the missions interesting. Even though multiple trials might take place on the same giant map, the objectives are weird enough, and the situations disturbing enough, that revisiting them doesn't feel like padding.

Now I have to admit, I went into this assuming the whole 'games as a service' thing was just an excuse to sell battle passes and cosmetics. And, to be fair, those are here too. But they're pretty harmless as far as this stuff goes: no pay-to-win nonsense and no maps locked behind a paywall. It's all cosmetic nonsense, so unless you really care about looking like a bird, you can ignore the shop entirely.

Instead, the ongoing support has given the game a truly absurd number of missions to torment yourself with. There are so many trials, in fact, that I still haven't managed to get through all of them, and I've been playing enough that I can hear the molotov guy's scream in my dreams now.

Now obviously, not every mission is a winner. Some objectives, like the one where you have to hunt down mannequins scattered across a gigantic level, can be a genuine pain in the booty cheeks - especially when the game does a poor job of explaining what you actually have to do. But the good easily outweighs the bad. And on a first playthrough, when you have no idea what sort of horrors await you around the next corner, even the more ordinary trials have a lot going for them.

And even when a trial starts becoming a bit too familiar, the higher difficulties can really shake things up. As you climb higher and higher, enemies turn from being a simple threat to a full-blown apocalyptic event. So even when you're going through familiar places, the sudden appearance of three lunatics can really spice up your day.

They're not all winners... but most are!

The Great Divide

Which brings me back to a point I made at the very start: the Outlast Trials almost feels like two drastically different games stitch up together in some mad science experiment.

When you're playing solo, even on the easiest difficulty, it's a genuinely terrifying experience. When you're being hunted by multiple monsters and you have no idea what to do or where to go, you feel just as lost and helpless as your character. And when things go wrong and you have to run for your life, there's nobody coming to save you.

It's all on you, and it's stressful as hell. But honestly? I love it.

But when you bring in a few other people, suddenly the whole thing starts looking a lot more like Lethal Company. Sure, the enemies are still dangerous and you have to skulk around or get your skull skulk'd. But it's hard to be afraid when you see two grown adults in clown makeup hiding behind a tiny table while an enemy searches around for them like it's an episode of Scooby-Doo.

So if you're just getting started, I would highly recommend playing through the main trials solo first. For one thing, this will give you a chance to learn the maps before throwing yourself into the whirlwind of chaos that is the multiplayer. But more importantly, it'll give you a chance to appreciate what makes these places so effective in the first... well, place.

Multiplayer is a VERY different experience

Atmosphere as Thick as a Brick

Now The Outlast Trials isn't conventionally pretty... even if we - very generously - ignore the mountains of human corpses. But what it does have is an insanely strong visual direction. The more you look into each location, the more cool little details you'll uncover... even if you'll wish you could forget some of them.

And the sound design? Good lord is it good! As I learned all the way back in the tutorial, the game makes even a casual stroll across a well-lit street feel like you're marching towards a heart attack. The distant screams, the footsteps you can't quite place, a musical sting that disappears as quickly as it came - they all come together to make an atmosphere that hits you like a brick.

So while multiplayer is great, it's details like this that make me think solo is the best way to experience the game as a beginner. You lose a lot of that subtle flavor when you can hear people laughing and zipping around like lunatics. And more importantly, if you actually experience the horror of these places firsthand, ganging up on the monsters and pelting them with random garbage will be soooo much more satisfying later! After all, revenge is a dish best served with a side of puke.

Is The Outlast Trials Worth Playing?

Sooooo... who would I recommend The Outlast Trials to? Honestly, pretty much anyone who enjoys horror games. If you want a genuinely unsettling, classic Outlast experience that will have you jumping at every shadow, there's enough of that here to make you sweat in winter. And if you have a couple of friends willing to goof off, you can also turn the game into a competition to see who can shove the most bottles into a murderous psychopath's face.

It's not perfect, of course. Some objectives are more frustrating than fun, and with there being so many different trials some of them are bound to be forgettable. But the atmosphere, the sheer creativity, and the way the game can go from zero to pure blind panic makes it easy to forgive a few rough edges. That and you can get it pretty cheap on sale!

So if you're like me and you've been eyeing The Outlast Trials for a while, but weren't sure if it's an actual game or just a money extractor, I'd say give it a shot. Just do yourself a favor and play alone first. Get terrified, make mistakes, learn to fear the enemies - and then switch on co-op and get some well-deserved payback! Trust me, it'll be worth it!