They're gone now seven years from the latest title in the saga Outlastflagship of the independent Canadian team Red Barrelsand finally arrives on PC and console definitively March 5, 2024 also what can be considered their most experimental project ambitious. The game was initially released for PC in early access and now you can enjoy it as a video game cross platform to all effects.
If “the team that wins does not change”, Red Barrels he decided to take a risk, but with style: he merged the dynamics and the dark atmosphere of their previous masterpieces with the cooperative system that has been becoming popular for a few years now, giving rise to a survival co-op horror genre very interesting and well structured, maintaining the characteristics that made their video games famous.
A little refresher…
The plot is not at all marginal, as often happens in cooperatives where the ultimate aim is solely to have fun in company: Outlast Trials is nothing more than a prequel, presumably set around the 1959during the War Cold.
In the first Outlast we met the journalist Miles Upshur which infiltrated inside of the hospital psychiatric Of Massive Mountain following the receipt of a mysterious email, he was looking for evidence of strange experiments perpetrated within the structure managed by Murkoff Corporation. Whistleblower, DLC of the first chapter, introduces us Waylon Parkor theinformant who had sent the email to Upshur, only to be discovered and forcibly interned in the mental hospital where he himself worked.
In the second chapter Outlast 2we impersonated the journalist Blake Langermann who, following a helicopter crash with his partner on board, found himself catapulted into a village, Temple Gate, inhabited exclusively by religious extremists. The strange one sect he firmly believed that the end of the world was near, and that a woman would soon give birth the Antichrist.
Obviously, the influence of the was also present here, albeit in a more subtle and less evident way than in the first chapter Murkoff. An interesting gem is that the game has drawn heavily from a fact of news happened In the 1976 (the Jonestown massacre).
In Outlast Trials the events they precede all other chaptersbeing set in early years of the Cold War (on the televisions where a video for the mental manipulation of patients is continuously shown, you can glimpse the year 1959). The character we are going to play is nothing more than a outcasta homeless man, who stumbles upon a mysterious person flyer looking for people like him: people who feel alone, poor and abandoned to themselves, without family or friends. By accepting the invitation proposed by the seductive advertisement, one becomes part of a rehabilitation system aimed at the patient's rebirth, or rather, guinea pig.
Tied to a wheelchair, with a bag over his head until arriving in the operating room, the guinea pig will be presented with the program of test Of reconditioning that he will have to carry out, introduced by a doctor through an informative video on a screen placed in front of him: the doctor does the talking Hendrick Joliet Eastermannwhich deals with the observation and processing of the data collected throughout the rehabilitation. A is set viewer night with screws to the patient's face by two operators Murkoffand thus the therapy begins rebirth.
Ditch your past, create yourself anew
“Eliminate your past, create yourself anew” is the slogan of the rehabilitation and reconditioning project to which the guinea pigs are subjected within theSinyala Institutewhere prominent people work as Hendrick Joliet Eastermannit's ateven old acquaintances, like Rudolf Wernickethe Nazi doctor of the first Outlast.
Once we get past the initial cutscene, we can customizealbeit to a limited extent, our character: you can choose your ethnicity and face, gender, hair cut and color, and then proceed with the tutorial.
In the tutorials the guinea pig we will impersonate is initiated into preconditioning, entering different rooms where in the centre, with the use of macabre mannequins, behaviors and phases of daily life are represented. The patient, to rise to a upper level of the common human being, will have, through these tests, to be reborn and renounce affections, self-defense, to become a new man. In fact, at the end of the tutorial, after having learned the notions basic (how to use the consumables, how to hide and the different approaches that can be adopted in various situations) it will be the task of the guinea pig itself to eliminate the folders with its data, and therefore its pastand the personal effects with which he arrived at Murkoff.
THE test to which we will be subjected, also called programsI am (for now) Threethen subdivided into more test And challenges MKand as we progress with the tests and challenges, the level of difficulty also increases: the first phase is also called Therapy Primary or Genesisand is described as the path of rebirth; the second phase is also defined Plan Xand finally the last stage, the most difficult, is also called Plan Ultra (maybe it was the project in which Rudolf Wernicke, mentioned in the first chapter, also participated? Ed.).
The increasing difficulty makes up for it perfectly repetitiveness of the tests, e it's fun although there are few variations in levels and scenarios.
They are also present challenges weeklyas “Nudity and Terror”, where the resources ei upgrades I am limited or even absentand optimal collaboration between team members is required to complete them, amplifying the fun even for those who complete the game in a short time and want a new level of competition.
Rewards and freedom
Each test and challenge, if completed successfully, even better if with a high final rating, will reward us with creditsof the tickets and gods tokens: upon reaching the 20 tokens, that is, upon completion of all the tests with a decent grade, we could regain our much-desired freedom. But will the torturers really keep their word?
THE credits hey tickets they will instead be very useful for purchasing items artifactsThe stimulants or the recipesall valid aids for the various tests we will have to face.
The artifacts they are in total fourand I'm:
- Artifact blindingwhich if thrown can blind the enemy for a few seconds, giving us time to escape or hide;
- Artifact X-rayan upgrade that allows us to see enemies through walls;
- Stunning artifacta sort of mine that can be left as we pass and, if stepped on by an enemy, can stun him for a while;
- Artifact curativewhich allows you to heal all players if nearby.
There squad fully booked it predicts well 4 playersand the perfect and well-balanced team will therefore have to have an artifact for each player, so as to be able to cooperate as best as possible and conquer the much desired tokens for freedom.
Artifacts, stimulants and recipes can be purchased in thecentral hubat the pharmacist Emily Barlow and the engineer Cornelius Noakeswhere there are also the terminal with which we can access the evidence, and our own room privatewhich can be entirely customized (there are also two tables to play at chess it's at arm of iron while waiting!).
Know your enemy
The most interesting aspect of Outlast Trials it's obviously the vast array of enemies, or Stalkerswhich we have to face during the game: from the simple ones patients from the Murkoffcrazed, covered in bandages and armed to the teeth, to the employeeswho will have the task of putting a spoke in your wheels without mercy.
Among the most particular and disturbing, we mention Phyllis Futterman, a giant woman wearing a human skin mask, who hosted children's shows. After completely losing her mind, she was hired by Murkoff to follow the tests closely. He wanders around the building with a scary puppet shaped like duck who hides a drill inside her mouth, as if to remember the good old days when she practiced as a pediatric dentist.
Another Stalker it is certainly very fascinating The Skinner Mana sort of hallucinatory entity caused by the effect Psychosisif you are caught by the Drug dealer. The Skinner Man looks like a ghost, remember Scarecrow Of Batman: haunts us and torments us, alters the perception of our reality until we use a antidoteor we do not survive its grip.
A novelty interesting compared to other cooperative titles proposed in recent years is the presence of enemies which, in a completely random manner, appear by taking the our appearance and the gamertag (with some errors, but which at a fleeting glance are not always immediately apparent), to gain the trust of the team members and attack them when they least expect it.
Once you have overcome the initial fear and panic, and then after known our enemiesit will not be difficult to escape or take refuge in improvised hiding places, even taking advantage of the darkness in some cases. The AI of enemies it's not brilliantbut the Stalkers still do their job when it comes to the constant tension and anxious atmosphere.
The best comes at the end
Upon reaching 20 tokens, as previously mentioned, we will have access to the Protocol of Releaseand we will buy it back freedom. Obviously none of us expects that Murkoff Corporation let's say it, but this is the ultimate goal that pushes us to overcome every test with difficulty, to solve environmental puzzles, to escape in the dark and hide from fearsome enemies. Overall the game it's funnot tiring, and the cooperation is well structured and designed to entertain even in the long term.
The solo campaign is a little more difficult without a support team, but doable. The presence of challenges weekly from time to time proposals with an increasingly complex level of difficulty helps not to get tired of the formula. There graphics And pleasant but not without flaws, and the customization of our avatar is a bit sparse but it doesn't disturb, considering that being the game in Before person we will rarely see each other.
There plot is subtly told, you can imagine it from the tests to which the guinea pigs are subjected, but also from documents secrets And poster which can be collected in the scenarios, which tell the gruesome story of the Sinyala Institute from the Murkoff Corporation.
Outlast Trials it is therefore a macabre preamblein key cooperative survival horrorwell connected and blended with what is there lore Of Outlast presented with the previous chapters, which takes nothing away from what brought the series into vogue, but rather the enrichesin a way innovative And fun.
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