‘The Outlast Trials’ Scared Me So Much That I Couldn’t Review It [Dodging Death]
A couple of weeks back, I joined the team here at Dread Central after rekindling my love for horror games through Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden…or so I thought. I thought I put my big girl pants on, and I was ready to take on the world of horror video games, so I jumped in head first with The Outlast Trials. What a gigantic mistake.
Hardcore Horror at Last
I was ready to dive into the “hardcore” side of horror video games. I thought I was swimming in Resident Evil waters, and dipping my toe into The Outlast Trials—solo, might I add—felt like I was being waterboarded by the devil himself. Does that sound dramatic? GOOD! It is how I felt every night after my kids went to bed, sitting down after dark to get through this game.
I’ll be honest: I was going to review The Outlast Trials, and I legitimately had to tell my editor I tapped out because I just didn’t think I’d be able to make enough progress with how truly stressful this game was. The first thing I experienced was a jump scare that I absolutely should have seen coming. It was such a novice mistake on my part. I was inching toward a closet to hide in, which it then prompted me to climb into, and sure enough, this disgusting mangled…thing…popped out at me.
My partner heard me hit a note I never had before, and I don’t think I will be living it down any time soon—score 1 for The Outlast Trials.
The Tutorial Was Plenty
So that was the first five minutes of the game or so. It didn’t take long to push me to scream, but that wasn’t enough to break me. However, the long, drawn-out tutorial was almost enough to ruin my spirit. In The Outlast Trials, the first small chunk of the game is spent learning all about how to play, but instead of a quick “here’s what the buttons do,” it was more of a torture chamber meant to crush the spirit of your character, and by association, you.
Scary stories aren’t usually what will make me put away a game or turn off a movie. I love a good freaky moment, even a jump scare here and there. But I was not prepared for what would come after that first experience with the closet. I basically crawled through the rest of the tutorial. Something that probably took players only 20 minutes or so took me a very, very cautious hour. I think I unlocked a whole new level of anxiety during The Outlast Trials.
While carrying files, I would walk about three steps, put it down, sneak to scout out the area, and do it all over again. If I saw anyone walk by, I would instinctively run at full speed to get away, knowing full well that this was not the way forward. Sheer panic would get me, and all reason and logic would go out the window. Luckily, the game’s mechanics were forgiving in that when I climbed under a bed, oftentimes the big bads were confused, so my stupidity was rewarded. Folks, we aren’t even out of the tutorial yet, seriously.
Onto the Main Event
Believe it or not, I made it out of The Outlast Trials tutorial and headed into the main game. I should have been warned when my editor here at Dread Central made a few comments about how far into the deep end I was jumping. Zero to sixty or nothing, right? I figured the worst kind of horror movies don’t bother me (aside from torture porn and hurting kids/animals, it’s not scary, just…angering. Ghost kids, though? Screw them!). Fatal Frame was all jump scares, and I made it.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden was a gentle nudge in the horror game direction, pairing a beautiful story with some scary enemies and a jump scare or two. However, it really didn’t prepare me for the level of cautiousness I would experience in The Outlast Trials. Looking back, it was funny because I was too scared to move slowly and too panicked to process anything if I tried to move quickly. I basically did nothing, and I played the game for hours.
You horror game players are a special breed, let me tell you. It was recommended that The Outlast Trials be played in a group. It’s bad enough that I’m relaying my humiliation via the internet to all of you. I was supposed to hop in a voice chat and let other adults hear me panic, scream…and yes, maybe even cry? Absolutely not.
I was repeatedly trapped by the same bad guy right at the beginning of The Outlast Trials, and between anxiety, fear, embarrassment, and stubbornness, this is where my time with the horror title ended.
Why I Think I Failed, and I Mean Failed Hard
So what made The Outlast Trials so incredibly brutal? I think most horror video game players will agree that it is one of the worst ones, but why? The imagery is horrific, for one. These are tortured, disfigured, bloody, dirty beings that have lost all sense of humanity. They aren’t scary dogs or ghosts but people who have been put through absolute nightmares. That definitely brings a layer of scariness.
The level of feral that Red Barrels brought to its characters takes that up a notch, too. Medical experiments and torture are pretty bad, but hiding under a desk while one of those monsters flopped their entirely intact and exposed male genitalia in my face really drove their lack of humanity home.
Even still, a frightening enemy, disturbing stories, jump scares, and a little flailing genitalia don’t necessarily make for a horrifying experience. There is a difference between jumping at something in the moment and being so frightened that you can’t go on. The Outlast Trials banked on one very important mechanic to instill true fear in its players, and more specifically, me.
You’re defenseless. Whether you’re sneaking through hallways, escaping the Skinner Man, or running for your life, if these enemies catch you, there is almost nothing you can do except continue to run. Being a 5’1” woman, that is a very real fear in everyday life: being in danger and completely helpless. So, in a video game that so expertly sets the scene for total terror, taking away a player’s strength to make being small and invisible their only saving grace is some next-level horror. So, suffice it to say The Outlast Trials has been retired from my Xbox library. But I’m not discouraged yet. There are so many varieties of horror and different takes on the genre. I fully intend to use Dodging Death to explore all the scary avenues available to me. I can’t wait to see what’s next…after a farming sim palette cleanser, of course.
Categorized:Editorials
