The Outlast Trials

The Outlast Trials is a first-person horror survival video game developed and published by Red Barrels. It is the third installment in the Outlast series, serving as a prequel to the first two games and features test subjects in a mysterious Cold War experiment. The game was released on May 18, 2023 via early access for Microsoft Windows, and fully launched on March 5, 2024 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

Gameplay
The Outlast Trials is a survival horror game played from a first-person perspective. While the game supports four-player cooperative multiplayer, players can complete the game solo. The player must complete a set of tasks while evading monstrous enemies. The game features four distinct character classes and skill trees. Each class has a unique ability, allowing players to perform actions such as seeing through walls, healing other players, placing mines, and throwing a device to temporarily stun enemies.

The player has access to a pair of night-vision goggles, allowing them to navigate dim-lit areas. It needs to be regularly recharged with a scarce battery resource. Players can pick up various useful objects, such as anti-psychotic drugs, lockpicks and healing items, but they can only carry three items at once. The player cannot directly fight against enemies, at most being able to temporarily stun them with specific items, and stealth is the preferred way to progress in the game.

Plot
In 1959 at the height of the Cold War, the Murkoff Corporation begin a deceptive recruitment program that targets individuals who have fallen on hard times and become homeless. Those who volunteer are then kidnapped and taken to the Sinyala Facility in Arizona where they are forced to sign consent forms and undergo an involuntary surgical procedure to have night vision goggles screwed onto their heads. Labeled as Reagents, the subjects are then forced to undergo a Trial where they are directed by the facility's director, Dr. Hendrick Joliet Easterman to destroy their own public and private records while avoiding the psychotic failed test subjects, known as Ex-Pop.

After completing the initial trial, Easterman allows Reagents access to the Sleep Room, where they can listen to his tales, those of engineer Cornelius Noakes, nurse Emily Barlow and various Sleep Room denizens. They are later assisted by a fellow Reagent named Dorris who no longer partakes in the trials and instead provides contraband goods to other subjects. The Trials the Reagents undergo become increasingly more dangerous as they are forced to go against the programs' Prime Assets which include the disgraced children's show host Mother Gooseberry and the sadistic ex-police sergeant Leland Coyle.

After acquiring enough Release Tokens through the completion of Trials, Reagents who are deemed ready by Murkoff can participate in the Reagent Release Protocol, where they must complete a final Trial before being released into the world. During the Trial, Reagents are assigned documentation with new identities before being given a code word through tuning multiple frequencies. After escaping the Trial through a final door, Reagents fall into a dark infinite space where they walk on water as they need to approach a glaring light in the distance.

Endings vary. In one, Reagents will wake up tainted in blood in a hotel room in Cuba. Eventually the room's phone will ring and when the Reageants pick up, they hear Easterman say the code word heard in the Final Trial, causing them to black out. In the second, Reagents wake up with their hands taped to the wheel of a speeding car as it crashes in front of a hotel in South Vietnam, they struggle when they notice an explosive strapped to their chest, but in vain, as it detonates. In the third, Reagents will wake up in the basement lab of Mount Massive Asylum in Colorado, as they are hooked up to the Morphogenic Engine by Dr. Rudolph Wernicke, who had occasionally observed them from the Sleep Room's observation room. While the other scientists question the Reagents' suitability as candidates, Wernicke believes they may actually be of use. The Reagents soon begin to feel the Walrider overtaking them before hearing the final Trial's code word.

Development
Outlast 3 was announced in December 2017, though no time frame or target platforms were confirmed. During this announcement, Red Barrels said that because they could not easily add downloadable content for Outlast 2 due to its structure, they have a smaller separate project related to Outlast that will release before Outlast 3. Red Barrels also described the game as a "TV series". The development team of the game had around 40 people.

The Outlast Trials was teased in October 2019 and is not a direct sequel to Outlast 2. It is about test subjects for the Murkoff Corporation in a mysterious Cold War experiment that is set in the same universe of the previous games. Red Barrels co-founder David Chateauneuf said "the proof-of-concept is now complete and the game's team is now in development mode".

Marketing
On December 4, 2019, Red Barrels released a teaser image of the game. On June 13, 2020, a teaser trailer was released, announcing a release for 2021. However, it was announced in August 2021 that the game has been delayed to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To help pass the time, Red Barrels released a series of "Behind The Scenes" videos on their official YouTube channel. A closed beta for the game was available from October 28 to November 1, 2022. While the game was only confirmed for Microsoft Windows, the game would also be released for undisclosed PlayStation platforms "in the future". On March 10, 2023, it was announced that the game would be released in early access on May 18. On December 8, it was announced that the game would leave early access on March 5, 2024, and also launch on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PlayStation 5.

Reception
The Outlast Trials received "generally favorable" reviews from critics for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S versions, while the PC version received "mixed or average", according to review aggregator website Metacritic.