The Outlast Trials is a co-op horror experience set in the Cold War

Red Barrels has announced The Outlast Trials, a new co-op horror experience that is set in the Cold War within the Outlast universe (via IGN). 

On October 31, the developer published artwork of stained and dirty hands clasped together, looking like one person was pulling the other up or out of somewhere. A bracelet with the inscription “MK 329300” is worn on one of the wrists, and hinted that “MK” meant the evil Murkoff Corporation. I theorised that this would be a co-op spinoff wherein one player would be the mole or the journalist, and the other would be a patient, and the two would work together to escape the horrors of the institution. 

AND I WAS RIGHT. ALMOST. The Outlast Trials is a co-op experience, but it will “allow players to face the horrors of the trials by themselves or cooperate with up to 3 other test subjects.” Set in the Cold War era, this imaginably gives Murkoff the green light to set up truly terrifying trials, creating hypnotised sleeper agents, or mutated supersoldiers, or worse. The reveal artwork shows three patients wearing goggles, which possibly suggests a virtual reality release. 

The game is currently in development and there are no confirmed platforms or release date. Red Barrels co-founder David Chateauneuf said, “Now we’ve done our proof of concept, it is time to focus on content creation, variety… and gore.” I think Whistleblower was a tip top DLC for the original game, and an experimental spinoff like this (pun not intended) could be something special to tide us over til Outlast 3. Sign me up.