The sets are immersive, like I said before. Horror survival is fun, but not when you have to repeat it more than a few times. You will get caught by a lurker and get into trouble, and if you’re playing on singleplayer it will become a repetitive, frustrating process very quickly before you figure the level out.

The only qualm I have with these mechanics is that they’re essential to completing a trial. You can save your teammates if you please, an icon will pop up to lead you to them if you choose to follow, but if the antagonists spot you completing this time consuming task, it could cost you your life. The ability to pull an enemy off of them and the ability to administer first aid can both be overpowered if not injected into the game correct, but Trials manages to find a good balance in these mechanics. There are multiple ways to help your fellow test subjects. In the first Outlast games, you’re a lone, helpless survivor… in Trials, you’re a group of helpless survivors. I think the set design was critical to maintaining the feel of an outlast game while introducing multiplayer, but more than that, they nailed the mechanics. Comms are optional, as the game gives you an alternate way to communicate if you want to at all.

Spawning into a trial with up to four players, I quickly realized that the aspect of multiplayer doesn’t dilute the experience one bit. The multiplayer experience in Trials is excellent. Not having enough to join your lobby, not having enough to play missions… the beta seems to have open, public lobbies, which is absolutely helpful in finding teammates (and probably essential in such an early beta). A common problem in multiplayer games is, simply put, not having enough friends.

Download the outlast trials