Pay to slay
The Outlast Trials being a live service game is not inherently a bad thing.
That’s where The Outlast Trials has me concerned.
It’s all down to the replayability factor.
There is no power fantasy here, where you watch your chosen character get stronger and stronger over time.
This works for an Outlast game, but risks feeling somewhat disjointed as an online multiplayer experience.
The truth is that it’s hard to call The Outlast Trials a “fun” experience.
The bedsheets aren’t mine.
The cute little fish-shaped vase and typewriter are not mine.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
Again, not exactlyfunin the traditional sense but very effective at executing its themes.
The same cannot be said for The Outlast Trials.
No Murkoff, no Sinyala Facility.
No Facility, no more Outlast Trials.
That being said, The Outlast Trials is not intended to be a single-player experience all the way through.
Every facet of the experience, from gameplay to immersion factor, shines in multiplayer.
Every trial feels like you’re just scraping by.
It’s such a different experience that the single-player mode feels almost unfairly unbalanced in comparison.
As the blood dries on another sunless dawn, The Outlast Trials has made an indelible impression upon me.
Does the multiplayer factor blunt the sharp tension and atmosphere of what makes this a truly definitive Outlast game?
Perhaps, but the option of going it alone is always there to humble you.
The Outlast Trials was reviewed on PC via Steam with a copy provided by the publisher.
