One of the most soulless products I have ever purchased. A spit in the face to previous fans of the franchise. Rather than delivering what made Outlast, well, Outlast, Trials instead is a live service monstrosity fit with the usual trappings. Leveling systems, skill trees, classes (???), gear, cosmetics, roadmaps and microtransactions. I had bought under the pretense it was a more story-focused affair with coop elements, but my heart sank as all the soulless slop live service bullshit slowly crawled on my screen.

I could not even enjoy this with friends, the easiest layup imaginable. The AI is dumb as bricks and the mission structure is lazy and repetitive. I only wish that Red Barrels had taken some inspiration from Hazelight's co-op ventures and delivered a strong co-op experience that was reminiscent of the previous title's core values. There are elements here that could work in a story-driven co-op experience, instead, they are squandered for inane tasks or aggravating mission objectives. Additionally, the flow of the game is bizarre as you have 2 separate loading periods, 1 simply flourishing for the mission. It's during these glimpses that Outlast Trials almost parodies its own franchise, with hallucinated enemies shoving their cock in your face or disemboweling themselves in front of you. It's frankly fucking embarrassing. It's as though a completely different company has created this game, there is zero nuance or reasoning for this to occur, and exists solely for the cheapest of shock values. It's just intermittent flashing scenes of violence that your player character is hallucinating before being thrust into another loading screen.


The state of this franchise is disappointing. This game isn't even scary, they couldn't even do that right. I hope Red Barrels got the money they wanted from this blatant cash-grab. If this is the direction of the franchise moving forward you can count me out.

Embarrassing.