The horror genre is inherently alluring, instilling a feeling that no other can capture in quite the same way. For the faint of heart, the raw terror that horror causes isn’t worth whatever enjoyment is derived from the experience. On the flip side, horror instills some with a sense of giddy joy, keeping pulses racing and engagement high. The Outlast games have played into that horror feeling well in the past, but the upcoming The Outlast Trials looks like it will take things a step further.
There are a few key aspects that all great horror media needs to get right. For movies, this often revolves around what viewers aren’t being shown – the blurry figure moving in the background of a shot, what’s hiding on the other side of a door, and any other eerie thing that might cause some unease. In games, though, players are given full control of the camera in a 3D space, making it a lot more difficult to keep certain things hidden. Instead, the emphasis has to be placed on things like the enemy and environment design.
Enter The Outlast Trials. Players have slogged their ways through developer Red Barrels’ creepy Asylums and dilapidated villages in prior entries, but The Outlast Trials is clearly taking things a step further. The first gameplay trailer for The Outlast Trials gave just a taste of what Red Barrels is cooking up, but that taste is an indication that the developer is moving things in a great – or rather, terrifying – direction.
The Outlast Trials Enemy Design
For a video game, ensuring that there are iconic enemies to face off against is a massive part of creating lasting appeal. It’s been a driving factor for the Outlast games so far, the most notorious being Chris “Strongfat” Walker. Walker pursues the player throughout most of the original Outlast game, being a sizable and foreboding presence as players try to uncover the mysteries of Mount Massive.
Walker is just one example of the menacing enemies that have tormented players in the Outlast games, and The Outlast Trials is already looking promising for more. Fans get a decent look at some of what they’ll be facing off against in The Outlast Trials’ gameplay trailer, which shows a mix of acrobatic and goliath enemies taking down players as they navigate through the facility’s challenges.
Some of these enemies fall into the category of familiar tropes, like the large hammer-wielding man that viewers can see around the forty-second mark in the gameplay trailer, but others boast nightmare-inducingly terrifying looks, like the woman in the mask that looks like a nanny out of hell. Plus, even the ones that fall into the “trope” category are still terrifying.
The Outlast Trials Environment Design
Great horror is adaptable to just about any environment. It’s one of the many things that make horror so engaging and entertaining, perhaps rivaled only by stellar audio design. Horror can happen anywhere, be that a creepy old school, a forest, or even a hotel. It’s taking the mundane and corrupting it that helps convey that something is wrong, and for most people, it’s that general off-ness that makes horror so unsettling. Of course, sometimes creators decide to go full send, making locations that are essentially carnivals of terror.
The Outlast Trials looks no different. Fans get a few shots of the research facility that they’ll be trying to survive in the gameplay trailer, and it looks like the SAW movies turned all the way up to eleven. There are blades hidden in the doors, gaps to jump, and a bevy of other terrifying obstacles. It’s a veritable fun house of terror, and Red Barrels is nailing the aesthetic.
The question is how well the interior will be paced as players make their way through. The Outlast games, and horror games in general, tend to offer a split between tense, adrenaline-inducing, and slow moments. For instance, players may need to stealthily get by an enemy, make an escape after being spotted, then have a breather as they move through a quiet section of the location they’re trapped in. The Outlast Trials has to offer a similar structure, as constant chases may get tiresome.
Co-op Changes Everything
The greatest variable is how co-op will effect the experience. The Outlast games have been singleplayer until now, there’s been a steady rise of asynchronous multiplayer horror games in the last few years. Dead By Daylight is the most notable example, but fans have also seen the likes of Friday the 13th and Resident Evil Resistance.
That means there are other successful ideas out there that Red Barrels can pull from for ideas, though fans still only have a general idea of how The Outlast Trials will play. The game will still be playable solo, though the ways that co-op can be used to shake up the experience are undeniably intriguing, especially if The Outlast Trials incorporates some sort of “everyone for themselves” mentality that could make things more competitive. While it wouldn’t be ideal to have players actively working against each other, ulterior motives during co-op play is always a fun twist.
If anything, the co-op element may make The Outlast Trials feel more akin to a horror TV show or movie than a horror game. It allows individual players to serve as characters in their own little narrative, all set against the backdrop of a terrifying research facility. That alone is enough to make The Outlast Trials seem promising.
Unfortunately, there’s still no solid indication of when The Outlast Trials will release. Fans can hope to see the game in time for Halloween, but with no release date currently announced, it’s unlikely that will be the case. Regardless, it looks like The Outlast Trials has a solid groundwork to succeed as it stands.
The Outlast Trials is in development.