The Outlast Trials Early Access Impressions | Trial Version of the Trials

You might be pleased that I will keep this Impressions Article spoiler-free. I really, really care about your immersion in this story. I have finally gotten my hands on the Outlast Trials, and as a big fan of the previous Outlast games, I just had to jump in on the action immediately and provide my impressions to you, so that you can see if you and your squad should pitch in cash for this horror experience. It’s not a review of The Outlast Trials per se, because for that, we’ll wait for the full release of the game.

Outlast… Together!

Yes! You can Outlast together with your friends now! Isn’t that lovely? You can scream into each other’s headphones on Discord while you are role-playing a Scooby-Doo episode.

Related: Can You Play The Outlast Trials Solo? – Answered

The Lore of The Outlast Trials is indeed, set in the Outlast universe, and will open your eyes to more story pieces that have some connection with the original games. However, I feel the Outlast story won’t be fully told there, and that Outlast 3, or a sequel with a different name will have to deepen the story telling or even round up the entire story and answer all of our questions.

Where is The Outlast Trials Set Timeline-wise?

The Outlast Trials is a PREQUEL to the first two games. So, a villain origin story.

Related: Is The Outlast Trials Coming to Consoles? – Answered

Is The Gameplay of The Outlast Trials Early Access Good?

I found amusement in both single and multiplayer (haven’t managed to round up a full squad of friends yet due to everyone’s schedules) and the gameplay is absolutely solid. I am running the game on a PC from 2016 (GTX 1060GB as the GPU) with some old drivers without any issues (don’t ask why) so the game is optimized well, and I can only see it becoming better.

It becomes boring to play alone quickly, as the Trials will last a very long time unless you are a seasoned expert and aim for the speedruns. Keep in mind that the game is designed for multiplayer primarily. As a team, you can pass the Trials with more fun and more speed.

What are the Bad Sides of The Outlast Trials Early Access?

I haven’t seen any crashes so far (8 hours of gameplay) but I have seen some matchmaking/lobby bugs, such as being assigned to a Trial I didn’t select, getting a lobby cancellation for a connection failure reason or no given reason at all.

I haven’t encountered any bugs (that I’ve noticed, honestly) and the only “issue” somebody might have is the “lack” of content (I put those symbols for a reason) because there are not many Trials to play right now. It’s obvious that there will be more with the full release of the game, and that more would come after the release. I mean, during the first test phase we had just one Trial literally. Give it time. Red Barrels want to give all Early Access enthusiasts a bit more of content so that the game does not get stale fast.

Is The Outlast Trials Early Access Worth Buying?

I’m giving it a positive grade. You will enjoy it. It’s not a botched AAA release like most AAA games we’ve seen this year, and I feel lucky to be in the position to dodge such games and dig into the Indie scene, where small teams give their heart and soul to create the games they are proud of, instead of going on a cash-grabbing spree (not gonna point any fingers, you make the conclusion).

Also, I will be providing guides for The Outlast Trials as time passes, so you might wanna check the game tag under the article, for guides such as Which Rig is the Best to Get First in The Outlast Trials? or other similar ones that should help you as you are starting out (unless you want to explore the game by yourself, which is indeed, more immersive, and I respect that fully).

Early Access Played on Steam (PC). Product Key Provided by the Publisher.