The Outlast Trials

The Outlast Trials is Red Barrels' co-op-focused expansion of the Outlast horror franchise, set during the Cold War rather than in the present day of the previous entries. You play a human test subject involuntarily recruited into Murkoff Corporation's program of brainwashing and mind-control experiments, and the central proposition is that if you survive long enough and complete the therapy, you'll be released back into society — though what's left of you at that point is the game's actual question.

The core gameplay carries over from the Outlast lineage: avoid enemies, hide from what you can't avoid, and run when stealth fails. The new layer is the team. You can complete trials and shorter MK-Challenges solo or in groups of two, three or four, with bespoke tools Murkoff provides — stun gadgets, blinding tools, see-through-walls vision, healing for yourself and your teammates — that you earn and upgrade through the trial-completion loop. Co-op is never mandatory for main objectives but is often the difference between completing a difficult therapy and bleeding out under it.

A Cold-War-era brainwashing framework structures the lore around three documented psychological phases — Break the Self, Build the Self, Salvation — and the trials systematically push you through experiences designed to enact each. Between sessions you customise your test subject, decorate your cell, and pick tools, upgrades and perks. The disturbing tasks Murkoff requires for completion are not abstracted; the photosensitivity, gore, sexual content and language warnings on the storefront are accurate.