The Outlast Trials: First Level Preview
Something’s in the air lately, and it clearly isn’t love. No, this is the unmasked stench of death at the hands of the nefarious Murkoff Corporation – which fans of the Outlast series may remember as the same entity that thoroughly mismanaged Outlast 1’s Mount Massive Asylum and erected Outlast 2’s creepy radio towers. The dastardly experiments continue in The Outlast Trials, a first-person horror survival sim that – and I’m putting this lightly – finds all the best ways to unsettle you. I had an extremely tense experience playing the tutorial and the first level on an ultrawide monitor in a dark room, but if you don’t want to go it alone, you can now bring up to three friends with you in a series first. Thus, Trials is potentially the next great co-op horror survival game.
The first two Outlast games revolved around the unfolding story of an investigative journalist uncovering a dark mystery, but in this Cold War-era prequel, you play as a prisoner vying for your life in a Squid Game-like race for survival across several titular trials. As such, The Outlast Trials sees you trying to outrun, out-sleuth, and outsmart your fellow inmates – who are often violent and heavily disfigured, making them awfully terrifying when they jump out of closets and pin you to the floor in classic jumpscare fashion.
These scares are definitely more in line with American chainsaw horror than some of the darker, more psychological horror one might expect from, say, a Silent Hill game. However, The Outlast Trials commits to the bit with excellent sound and level design that exudes eeriness, even when you can’t hear the screams. Areas are often difficult to parse without the use of your night-vision goggles, which can quickly deplete and only
Read more on ign.com
