The highly anticipated multiplayer survival horror game The Outlast Trials has received an early access release date. With its upcoming four-player game, Red Barrels hopes to try something new in the Outlast universe. Players can collaborate to survive the horrors of the Murkoff Corporation’s latest horrifying experiment. With The Outlast Trials’ upcoming early access, it appears Red Barrels is hoping to conduct its own experiments.
Outlast has previously been a single-player franchise of nightmarish survival horror games. Outlast was released in 2013, and it introduced players to the Murkoff Corporation’s experiments on violent asylum inmates. Outlast 2 features yet another Murkoff experiment that results in the rise of a murderous cult. Since then, Red Barrels has decided to take Outlast in a new direction, abandoning campaign-driven single-player horror games in favour of something new.
The Outlast Trials is the next step in Red Barrels’ horror franchise.
Each “trial” will have one to four players completing tasks, avoiding monstrous enemies, and surviving to escape. The gameplay is intended to be repeated, similar to a live service game. It’s unclear how long-form progression and storytelling will work, but players can expect to find out when The Outlast Trials goes live in early access.
Red Barrels confirmed in a trailer released on Friday that The Outlast Trials will be available in early access beginning May 18. Unfortunately, the trailer reveals very little about gameplay, instead focusing on clips of the game’s voice actors delivering horrifying audial responses. It certainly captures the atmosphere of The Outlast Trials. The trailer also appears to confirm that early access will be available on both Steam and the Epic Games Store, giving PC gamers a choice between the two.
Since 2017, the Outlast Trials have been in development. Red Barrels described it at the time as a “smaller separate project” created because Outlast 2 was not intended to be expanded with DLC. The Outlast Trials’ scope has obviously expanded since then. Red Barrels previously stated that after this project, it would work on Outlast 3, but those plans may have changed.
The Outlast Trials releases May 18 in early access on PC.
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