I'm kind of shocked at how well this game came together. I was worried that with all the additional mechanics at play, as well as co-op being implemented, that it wasn't really going to feel like Outlast anymore. That's a concern I see from a lot of other people as well. I'm happy to say that couldn't be further from the case.

The environments and characters are all still bursting with personality, the switch to co-op has not effected that in the least. People worried about that kind of thing are going to be happy with what is in Trials.

The ability to "defend" yourself with perishable items doesn't make enemies feel weak since you can only disorient them for a short amount of time. You can't kill enemies in Outlast Trials, so stealth is still important here. The environments of the trials themselves also allow for much more interesting objectives and progression. I'm confident in saying that, from a gameplay standpoint, this is easily the best in the franchise and Outlast 3 could absolutely benefit from borrowing some of the philosophies used in Trials.

Since it is early access, there are obviously some bugs, and the AI can be a bit finicky at times. But there is nothing here that ruins the experience. This is very stable for an early access game. I didn't lose connection once and everybody seems to be reporting good performance on all their machines (thank god, there's been so many bad PC ports lately).

There is a lot more I could say but we are in early access and I don't want to sink too much time into a review that likely not many people are going to see anyway lol.

TL;DR - If you're worried about the inclusion of multiplayer, put them aside. It still very much feels like Outlast, the gameplay has been built upon from previous titles in an interesting way, easily making it the best in the franchise. The game runs and functions very well overall despite some minor issues with bugs and AI.

I'm kind of shocked at how well this game came together. I was worried that with all the additional mechanics at play, as well as co-op being implemented, that it wasn't really going to feel like Outlast anymore. That's a concern I see from a lot of other people as well. I'm happy to say that couldn't be further from the case. The environments and characters are all still bursting with personality, the switch to co-op has not effected that in the least. People worried about that kind of thing are going to be happy with what is in Trials. The ability to "defend" yourself with perishable items doesn't make enemies feel weak since you can only disorient them for a short amount of time. You can't kill enemies in Outlast Trials, so stealth is still important here. The environments of the trials themselves also allow for much more interesting objectives and progression. I'm confident in saying that, from a gameplay standpoint, this is easily the best in the franchise and Outlast 3 could absolutely benefit from borrowing some of the philosophies used in Trials. Since it is early access, there are obviously some bugs, and the AI can be a bit finicky at times. But there is nothing here that ruins the experience. This is very stable for an early access game. I didn't lose connection once and everybody seems to be reporting good performance on all their machines (thank god, there's been so many bad PC ports lately). There is a lot more I could say but we are in early access and I don't want to sink too much time into a review that likely not many people are going to see anyway lol. TL;DR - If you're worried about the inclusion of multiplayer, put them aside. It still very much feels like Outlast, the gameplay has been built upon from previous titles in an interesting way, easily making it the best in the franchise. The game runs and functions very well overall despite some minor issues with bugs and AI.