While some of the retro stylings give a psychedelic ’50s–’60s drug-induced feel of We Happy Few, Outlast makes Silent Hill look twee in terms of scariness. The institutional setting of the multiplayer lobby gives some major Fallout 4 vault-dweller vibes, and gameplay has that fight-your-way out element of the Gauntlet level in Nuka-World. The Outlast Trials has a grungy, atomic-era feel. But you! You are different because you have the wherewithal to escape - sneak and solve your way past a series of psychological obstacles, alone or with friends. You are a test subject trapped in Murkoff’s Sinyala Facility, a secret research laboratory populated by mutated grunts, grotesque berserkers and other deplorable failed experiments. The Outlast Trials, releasing to Early Access in 2023, is the first multiplayer title in the series. Released in 2013, Outlast left many seasoned gamers unable to finish it because the experience was literally “too scary,” and liable to give the player nightmares.

Outlast is a different kind of survival horror because it is truly terrifying. There are tons of games that are gory and gruesome, full of jumpscares and tense moments - games where you hide somewhere, firmly pressing the “hold breath” button with sweaty fingertips, praying the timer doesn’t run out before the psycho-killer NPC leaves the room. It’s not often that a horror game is successful in the genre.

The outlast trials release