The Outlast Trials entered early access in May 2023 and sold over 500,000 copies in its launch week. It would cross one million sales in July and two million in April 2024. The developer also confirmed that over 1.2 million players became “Reborn” – a term used to indicate completing the base game once.

Available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and PC, The Outlast Trials deviates from previous titles with its co-op premise. As participants in the Murkoff Corporation’s experiments, they must complete deadly Trials (usually involving a crazed killer) and eventually escape.

Check out our review for the base game here – we gave it an eight out of ten – and a roadmap for upcoming content.

Not much is known about the event, save for the Murkoff Corporation adding cameras to all the Trials. There are two new MK-Challenges – Kidnap the Mistress and Stash the Contraband – and players can unlock new limited-time cosmetics during this. They can also complete tasks to receive special anniversary rewards, including new outfits, a cell prop, a player icon and border, and more.

The next update marks resistance leader Amelia executing her plan and the second part of the limited-time event. Whatever happens, Season 3 is in the works and will offer a new Trial Map, a new Deluxe Catalog, a new enemy NPC, two additional MK-Challenges, a new mode, and more.

The Outlast Trials is available for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5, and PC. Check out our review for the base game.

New Trials and MK-Challenges await outside Poison the Medicine on The Docks. Fuel the Release will require carrying fuel for the court, while Teach the Police Officer involves replacing film reels. However, the most interesting is Mansion Escape, as players return to the Farewell Mansion, which has a new difficulty but a new ending to unlock.

The new mode is Escalation Therapy, where players partake in continuous random trials with modifiers. As you survive, new upgrades become available, but one death and it’s back to the start. Players can also harness a new ability, The Barricage, to block paths against enemies. Those finding issues with the difficulty can explore four new options – Introductory, Standard, Intense, and Psychosurgery.

Stay tuned for more details when Project Lupara drops tomorrow, July 16th. The Outlast Trials is available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5 and PC. Check out our review of the launch version here.

The gas deals permanent damage, but hiding can help keep you alive. Toxic Tokens and cosmetics are earned upon completing the Trials, and you can also find new evidence documents to learn more about Toxic Shock as a whole. Players can also look forward to new Mk-challenges in Events and Weekly Trials from May 7th, like Tilt the Scales of Justice and Sabotage the Factory, which are appropriately gruesome.

The current update also makes changes to the structure of Problems. Unlocking Program X now requires completing all Trials of Program Genesis; completing all of the former will enable Program Ultra. You can also get the Core Therapy Poster from finishing the final Trial in Program Genesis instead of achieving your first Reborn.

The Outlast Trials is available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5 and PC. Check out our review here.

With the release of its 1.0 update, The Outlast Trials is getting a host of new features and content, including new MK-Challenges, the Toy Factory, and various forms of progression, including Program X, Program Genesis, and Program Ultra. The game now also has a new conclusion to its story, as well as an increased Therapy level cap up to level 65. For more details, check out the full patch notes through here.

The Outlast Trials recently showed off its antagonists Phyllis Futterman (Mother Gooseberry), and Sergeant Leland Coyle. While Coyle is a former police officer that uses his electric baton and takes advantage of the populace, Futterman is a former children’s show host where violent urgest manifested in her puppet. The main antagonist of The Outlast Trials, however, is the Murkoff Corporation and its higher-ups.

For more details about The Outlast Trials, check out our reviews of its early access version, as well as its full release.

However, unlike the first two titles, The Outlast Trials is multiplayer-focused, where cooperation and survival are as essential as gaining and losing your sanity (in-game and figuratively). From forcibly removed faces and mannequins committing unspeakable acts to gore in the style of home decor, I really can’t overstate enough just how disgustingly brutal it all is.

After almost a year of early access and six years of development, The Outlast Trials stands out as a solid horror title and multiplayer experience, even with some nagging issues and a fundamental shift from the single-player game. The result is a title that leverages the dread and oppressing atmosphere of the franchise in a less contemplative, faster-paced and more frantic fashion.

"There are five Trials across five unique maps, with demented individuals like Mother Gooseberry and Sergeant Leland Coyle hounding you."

Considered a prequel, The Outlast Trials sees players answering an ad for the ever-lovable Murkoff Corporation. It’s seeking volunteers for its experiments, but one hooded and abusive trip later, things aren’t what they seem. You start in the Mansion, a venerable house of horrors that familiarize you with the controls, mechanics and deranged aesthetic that Murkoff is going for. Think less horror chic and more Jigsaw fanboyism mixed with excessive gore. It’s one act of debauchery after another from that point, but the onus is clear – give into therapy, remake yourself and freedom awaits.

It’s easier said than done, however. There are five Trials across five unique maps, with demented individuals like Mother Gooseberry and Sergeant Leland Coyle hounding you. Murkoff also likes to release “Ex-Pops” into a match, ranging from machete-wielding psychopaths to creeps that douse you in chemicals to lower your sanity. Losing some sanity causes the screen to bend and hallucinations to kick in. When it’s all gone, the Skinner Man fully manifests and relentlessly pursues you.

In between all this, you hunt for keys in mutilated corpses, grind bodies, electrocute seemingly innocent individuals, refuel and repower generators, and more. The trademark night vision camera from previous games is now a set of goggles fused to your head, but it still requires constant recharging via batteries. You can only carry a few items at a time, further adding to the tension.

Things only take a more demented turn as you progress further, but the one thing that stays consistent is the strong map design. Each Trial, whether it’s at the Police Station or Fun Park, is well-paced and packed with challenges. Despite all the common objectives that begin to crop up from map to map, like pushing things across barricades which must be deactivated or checking corpses for the correct symbols and corresponding keys, there are some unique twists.

"Regarding the pacing, it exchanges the psychological build-up that the series is known for something more immediately frightening."

Have you ever thrown hearts at targets to progress through a twisted theme park? Would you like to? Kudos to Red Barrels, though – just when you think you’re numb to the sheer audacity and gruesomeness of it all, the next Trial ups the ante further.

Not every unique objective, like tuning the radio waves, is a winner, but they’re executed well enough to make for some enjoyable repetition. Though it’s playable – and winnable solo – the co-op mechanics defining The Outlast Trials are apparent from the get-go. The focus is on enemies relentlessly pursuing and bashing/drilling/electrocuting you, but they won’t chase past a point in their respective zones.

Grabbing their attention and kiting is important in multiplayer, but in solo, that often means having shorter windows to do the necessary tasks. Regarding the pacing, it exchanges the psychological build-up that the series is known for something more immediately frightening.

Still, as annoying as constantly hiding and resetting an enemy’s aggro can be, there’s no denying the tension that results as they loudly smash their surroundings while you hide, hoping they don’t discover you. The AI is mostly on point in this regard, noticing players through windows and checking their surroundings amid sounds of broken glass before stomping off. “Mostly” is the key word because sometimes they fail to detect your presence mere inches away. Don’t underestimate them, especially the burlier Ex-Pops when they get their hands on you.

"Memorizing hiding spots and locations for items, from batteries and health bottles to antidotes to lockpicks, is as important as knowing how to complete the objectives."

Of course, you must also account for trapped doorways and mines (which can either shock you or release toxins that reduce sanity). Map knowledge and careful observation become vital over time. As much as you feel lost or the primal instinct to flee kicks in during the tenser moments, relying on that knowledge helps keep things from devolving further. Memorizing hiding spots and locations for items, from batteries and health bottles to antidotes to lockpicks, is as important as knowing how to complete the objectives.

Once you have a Trial or two under your belt, you can return to the Sleep Room and confer with vendors like Cornelius Noakes, an engineer who sells four different Rigs, each providing a tool on cooldown that can briefly turn the tides, especially Blind and Stun.

Heal is decent in a group, especially when there aren’t enough healing supplies to go around, while X-ray feels borderline useless at times. Each Rig has upgrades to improve its utility, whether it’s increasing the range of Stun’s explosion or X-ray scanning consumables through walls.

Emily Barlow, the pharmacist, hooks you up with prescriptions for passive benefits like slowly healing a bar of health if it isn’t completely depleted, while Dorris provides Amps that can change up your playstyle. You purchase these with Vouchers earned per Therapy Level, with new cosmetics – from outfits to room decorations – available with in-game currency.

"Next to the major antagonists and the ever-present Doctor Easterman, these vendors are your connection to the narrative."

Next to the major antagonists and the ever-present Doctor Easterman, these vendors are your connection to the narrative. Their voice acting is on point, even if their facial animations are almost non-existent. Though you can collect evidence folders to glean more about the current situation, how Murkoff gets its test subjects and who the Ex-Pops were, the plot is pretty straightforward. Those who care about the series’ lore will find several connections to the previous two games, though your character and their growth throughout all this feels secondary.

Given that the whole premise is completing all the Trials (and their small Mk-Challenges, two per map) to gain Tokens to escape, it makes some sense. Long-term, it depends on how Red Barrels intends to develop the plot over time, even if some aspects feel like a foregone conclusion, given its prequel nature. There’s the Weekly Therapy with unique Variators and a selection of Mk-Challenges culminating in a Trial. For example, you may start with two lockpicks and encounter stronger enemies.

"As far as multiplayer horror titles go, The Outlast Trials is one of the best and well worth diving into if you have the stomach for it."

The Outlast Trials is a worthwhile co-op horror experience, though its longevity will, as always, depend on long-term support and updates. The foundation is solid despite some grievances here and there, and it looks great while delivering excellent performance. Sound design is equally solid, even if you tire of listening for your heartbeats to die down as enemies get further away.

Solo players may want more, and it can be frustrating without other players to share the load and back you up. Nevertheless, as far as multiplayer horror titles go, The Outlast Trials is one of the best and well worth diving into if you have the stomach for it.

This game was reviewed on PC.

Morin told Windows Central, “Well, we would have been able to ship out Outlast 3 much quicker than this.” In truth, the developer was “a bit fed up. So we took maybe four to five months. The guys were switching to Unreal 4, so they needed to use the new tech.

“We were brainstorming ideas, and eventually, because, with every project, we like to try and give ourselves new challenges, like trying to be more narrative with Outlast 2 than 1, this time it was multiplayer.”

The concept for The Outlast Trials started as a twist on the first Outlast. Instead of an investigative journalist attempting to learn more about the Murkoff Corporation’s terrible experiments, why not have a group of trapped reporters attempting to escape? “You have to work together to try and survive. Can we make that work? And that’s how that idea came about for multiplayer.

“If we’d have known it would have taken six years, then maybe we would have done Outlast 3 first, but then again, we’re super happy with what we have today, so I think it was worth it.”

The Outlast Trials sold over 500,000 copies in its first week of early access and garnered extensive acclaim (check out our review here). It supports up to four players as they attempt to complete different “experiments” for Murkoff and survive the villains roaming the hallways. Learn more about the latter here, though be warned of disturbing content and violence.

The antagonists are Phyllis Futterman, aka Mother Gooseberry, and Sergeant Leland Coyle. The former hosted a children’s show, but violent urges manifested in her puppet due to dissociative identity disorder. She takes show in chasing and drilling players to death. Coyle is a former police officer who uses an electric baton and takes advantage of the populace.

However, in the shadows are the Murkoff Corporation and its higher-ups. How their story plays out remains to be seen, especially since this is a prequel to the first two games. The Outlast Trials launches on March 5th for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5 and PC – check out our review of the early access version in the meantime.

As part of the Winter Kills event, players will be able to experience new variators in the missions they take part in—Cold Snap and Find the Gifts. There are also new exclusive trials and challenges that players can unlock, complete with new festive character and sleep room cosmetics.

The update also brings with it full support for controller, including new controller layouts and support for vibration. Players are also now able to find new Evidence Documents, further expanding on The Outlast Trials‘ storyline as players continue their investigation into the Murkoff Institute.

The Outlast Trials is currently available as an Early Access title on PC. Its full release is slated for March 5, and versions for Xbox and PlayStation are also in the works. For more details on The Outlast Trials, check out our review.

The Standard Edition retails for $39.99, while the Deluxe Edition will cost $49.99. Along with the base game, the latter includes the Reagent Starter Pack, and both editions receive the Legendary Grizzly Hazmat Outfit as a pre-order bonus.

The Outlast Trials is currently available on PC via Steam Early Access (check out our review here). Unlike its predecessors, it’s a co-op title, with up to four players capable of grouping and completing various experiments conducted by the Murkoff Corporation.

It’s 25 percent off on Steam until December 21st, providing a good entry point before its price increase. Stay tuned for more details on the 1.0 release and update in the coming months.