The Outlast Trials

My usual co-op test is simple: would four people of wildly different horror tolerances all find something to do, or would the scaredy-cats quit after twenty minutes? The Outlast Trials passed that test harder than I expected. Red Barrels took their no-weapons, run-and-hide formula and stretched it across a mission-based structure where up to four players operate as "Reagents" inside the Murkoff Corporation's Cold War-era Sinyala Facility, completing grotesque therapy sessions that range from feeding children to eliminating snitches, all while enormous, deeply unsettling enemies stalk every corridor. The core loop is stealth survival stripped to its fundamentals: move through the dark using night-vision goggles, manage your battery supply, hide, and run when you're spotted. What makes it click as a co-op game is the RIG system. Each player equips an active ability, and the smart move is spreading them across the squad. The Stun RIG lets one player temporarily freeze a pursuer while the rest finish the objective. The Heal RIG keeps the team alive when medical vials run dry. The Blind RIG drops a smoke mine that obscures enemy vision long enough to break aggro. On top of that, Prescriptions function as passive perks you upgrade over time. One player volunteering as bait while another completes the puzzle is not a meme strategy here; it's actually the intended design, and it works. Each run is graded on speed, items used, and damage taken, which quietly adds a competitive edge that brings out the competitive trash-talk in even the most casual group. The atmosphere holds up whether you're solo or in a full party, which is genuinely impressive. Solo play retains that suffocating Outlast isolation, though missions take considerably longer and the difficulty curve is sharper. In co-op, the fear shifts from pure dread to shared chaos: someone triggers a psychosis event, the Skinner Man appears from the shadows (or does he?), and your teammate's gamertag suddenly looks slightly wrong because that is not your teammate, that is an evil doppelganger, and the screaming that follows is the funniest and most terrifying thing you will experience this year. The five main trial locations each contain multiple missions plus shorter MK-Challenges, and weekly trials add mutators like glass shards on the floor that both make noise and deal damage. There is genuine replay value built into the structure. The Sleep Room hub between missions lets you customise your cell, arm-wrestle teammates, and prepare your loadout, giving the whole thing a social rhythm that keeps sessions from feeling like a relentless grind. The honest criticisms are real though. The fundamental gameplay session always follows the same shape: get in, avoid detection, complete the objective, get out. Objectives vary in theme but not dramatically in mechanical feel, and by the time you are cycling harder difficulty tiers for cosmetic unlocks, repetition starts to bite. The story takes a clear back seat to the mission structure, which will frustrate anyone who showed up expecting the narrative intensity of the original games. The post-launch progression hook, centred on decorating a cell your character spends almost no time in, is an odd choice that does not land as a retention driver. And if your friends tap out early and you are left running trials with random matchmaking, the experience can feel significantly flatter. For the Saturday night crew? This is close to the ideal session game. Roles are intuitive enough that a horror-novice running the Heal RIG feels useful immediately, and the runs are short enough to squeeze in three or four before anyone has to leave. It is not a replacement for the single-player Outlast experience, and franchise purists hunting a story-driven horror campaign will find it thin. But as a co-op horror game that prioritises genuine scares and tactical teamwork over asymmetric PvP nonsense, it fills a gap nothing else quite does.

Riley · Scout Team

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