The Outlast Trials

The Outlast Trials

Released Mar 2024

Red Barrels invites you to experience mind-numbing terror, this time with friends. Whether you go through the trials alone or in teams, if you survive long enough and complete the therapy, Murkoff will happily let you leave… but will you be the same?

92% positive · 117K reviews
Not yet
Released, ongoing live service game
High confidence
Live Service
Not yet
Released, ongoing live service game
High confidence
Live Service

Where to buy

Steam $39.99 Green Man Gaming Steam key $39.99
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Evaluation

The Outlast Trials launched into full 1.0 release on March 5, 2024, and Red Barrels has operated the game as a live service with a consistent seasonal content structure ever since. The numbered season cadence is as follows: Season 1 (July 2024), Season 2 (December 2024), Season 3 (April 2025), Season 4 (July 2025), Season 5: Project Messiah (December 9, 2025), Season 6: Project Judas (March 24, 2026), and most recently Season 7: Project Boneyard (July 14, 2026). Each seasonal update delivers new Trial environments, new enemies, new MK-Challenges, gameplay system reworks, and cosmetic content. Between major seasons, Red Barrels also ships Limited-Time Events (such as the Blood Drive community event, running through August 25, 2026) and regular balance patches. The most recent developer communication was a hotfix on July 25, 2026, in which Red Barrels explicitly stated they "hope to keep adding and improving the Therapy and The Outlast Trials on the whole." The ongoing Blood Drive event is still active as of the assessment date (August 14, 2026), with an end date of August 25, 2026. The in-game store, seasonal catalogs with purchasable currency (Murkoff Coins), and recurring Limited-Time Catalogs with expiring rewards confirm the game is built around a continuous content cycle with no announced end to development.
Evidence
Hotfix patch notes for Project Boneyard include a developer statement expressing intent to 'keep adding and improving the Therapy and The Outlast Trials on the whole.'
news post · Jul 25, 2026 source development ongoing
high
Season 7: Project Boneyard launched with a new Trial environment (Prison Farm), a new Trial (Locksock the Warden), two new MK-Challenges, a new enemy (The Biter), Invasion 2.0, Escalation 2.0, and the Blood Drive community event running through August 25, 2026.
news post · Jul 14, 2026 source content shipped
high

Content

8 of 8 released · no outstanding content

Media

Details

Developer
Publisher
Red Barrels
Achievements
27
Platform
Windows
Controller
full support
Steam Deck
Verified
Players
Single-player · Multiplayer · Co-op

About this game

Red Barrels invites you to experience mind-numbing terror, this time with friends. Whether you go through the trials alone or in teams, if you survive long enough and complete the therapy, Murkoff will happily let you leave… but will you be the same?

SYNOPSIS


Set in the era of the Cold War, human guinea pigs are involuntarily recruited by the good folks at the Murkoff Corporation to test advanced methods of brainwashing and mind control. In a world of distrust, fear, and violence, your morals will be challenged, your endurance tested, and your sanity crushed. All in the name of progress, science, and profit.

SURVIVE: SOLO OR COOP


You’re all prisoners of Murkoff trapped inside their facility. You can choose to complete the trials by yourself or you can tackle them in a team of 2, 3, or 4 players.
Coop is never forced when it comes to mandatory objectives but working together can be highly beneficial.
Whatever the number of players in your party, it’s about surviving and getting out.

Ultimately, your goal is to complete Murkoff's therapy and earn the right to be released back into society. In order to do so, you must complete the Trials and the MK-Challenges.
Trials are immersive story driven therapies that take a certain time to complete. Mk-Challenges are shorter therapies occurring in modified or redesigned section of an existing map.

HIDE OR FLIGHT


In pure Outlast fashion, the core gameplay involves avoiding enemies, hiding from them, and trying to run away. Murkoff will provide tools you can use to increase your stealth capabilities, create opportunities to flee, slow down enemies, and more. However, you will have to earn those tools and work hard to improve them.
The tools will allow you to
  • Stun enemies
  • Blind them
  • See through walls
  • Heal yourself and people around you.
Murkoff will ask you to perform disturbing tasks in each trials or mk-challenges. Only after completing those, will you be allowed to exit the Trials or the MK-Challenges.

CHARACTER CUSTOMIZATION


Customize and create your own trial patient.
Your cell is your home while you complete the therapy, you can decorate it however you wish.
Choose your tools, upgrades, and perks to fit your playstyle.
Meet the Denizens of Murkoff’s Sinyala Facility in The Outlast Trials. Each one of them will try and help you get through the Trials in one piece! Think you’ll make it?


INVESTIGATE


You’ve been abducted by the Murkoff Corporation to undergo unethical experiments that will modify your psyche and behavior throughout the Trials.
Collect documents and items that will help prove Murkoff’s malpractice against its patients.
The Process:
  • Break the Self: Murkoff aims to break down the test subject’s fundamental beliefs. Aspects of self-identity are systematically attacked. Like boot camp or indoctrination, the goal is to force a person to purge themselves of anything held sacred or taboo, the things that limit their behavior. The constant assault on identity, guilt and self-betrayal eventually leads to them breaking down.
  • Build the Self: It’s a bad cop, good cop principle. The rejection of the old ideology leaves a vacuum into which the new ideology can be introduced. As the antithesis of the old ideology, it forms a perfect attraction point as the person flees the old in search of a contrasting replacement. This progress is accelerated as the new ideology is portrayed as harmonious and ideally suited to the person's needs. Collegiality and calm replaces pain and punishment. Just at the point when the person is fearing annihilation of the self, they are offered a small kindness, a brief respite from the assault on their identity.
  • Salvation: Faced with the stark contrast of the pain of the past with the rosy glow of the future that the new ideology presents, the person sheds any the final allegiance to the old ideology, confessing any remaining deep secrets, and takes on the full mantle of the new ideology. This often feels, and has been described by many, as a form of rebirth. It may be accompanied by rites of passage as the person is accepted and cemented into the new order. The rituals will typically include strong statements made by the person about accepting the new ideology fully and completely, swearing allegiance to its leaders. Saluting flags, kissing other artefacts and other symbolic acts, all solemnly performed, all anchor them firmly in the new ground.


Content and Photosensitivity Warning:

The Outlast Trials contain strobing and flashing lights that could cause a small percentage of people to experience seizures when exposed to certain lights, patterns, or images.
This game also contains intense violence, gore, graphic sexual content, and strong language. Please enjoy.
Last evaluated Aug 14, 2026
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