The Outlast Trials Beginner Guide

The Outlast Trials is the third game in the Outlast series and a prequel to the first two games. Set in the Cold War era, it casts you as one of Murkoff Corporation human guinea pigs, involuntarily recruited to test advanced methods of brainwashing and mind control. The store page frames the experience in four verbs: survive solo or in co-op, hide or flee from enemies, complete disturbing tasks to be allowed to leave a trial, and collect documents that help prove Murkoff malpractice. You are a Reagent, and the enemies you face are the Ex-Pop, the experimental population of the facility, led in each themed environment by a Prime Asset.

Between trials you return to the Sleep Room, the hub area where you pick your next Program from the Trial Board, manage your loadout, and customise your own cell. The end goal of the whole structure is Rebirth: complete Murkoff therapy, meaning its Trials and MK-Challenges, and earn the right to be released back into society. That structure is explained in full in our Trials vs MK-Challenges guide, linked below.

We do not quote individual player reviews here, because a hand-picked quote proves nothing about a game with more than a hundred thousand reviews. What matters is the aggregate, and it is strong. The game holds a Very Positive rating on Steam. The breakdown we use is the Steambase review page, which counted 121,478 total reviews in October 2026: 111,986 positive and 9,492 negative, which works out to about 92.2% positive. A different tracker, SteamDB, counted 123,168 reviews with its own weighted rating of 90.93%, which is not the same statistic as Steam raw positive share, so the two numbers are not mixed in this guide. We use the Steambase breakdown because it shows the positive and negative counts separately.

Two review facts are worth knowing before you buy. First, the review count grew fast in October 2026, from about 112,500 in September to about 121,478 in October, on the back of the autumn discount surge, so any count you read is a snapshot, not a fixed number. Second, do not use the often-quoted 93% figure from early October coverage: that was the English-language subset of about 42,000 reviews, not the full review base. The full-base picture is the about 92% figure above, checked November 1, 2026.

Do not confuse the two October discounts. The 90% discount to $3.99 ran during the Steam autumn sale and ended October 8, 2026; it is expired and is not the current price. The live discount at check time is the 70% Steam Scream Fest discount to $11.99, ending November 2, 2026 at 1 PM ET. If you are reading this after November 2, ignore both sale prices and check the store page, because the regular $39.99 price is the only figure that is safe to assume. The Switch 2 version launched October 27, 2026 at $39.99 on the eShop and includes Season 7.2 content.

Read the spec as two different promises. Minimum means the game runs at low settings, 720p and 30 frames per second, with ray tracing off. Recommended means high settings, 1080p and 60 frames per second, also with ray tracing off. The jump that matters most is memory: 8 GB meets the minimum, but 16 GB is the recommended tier, and in a game where a stutter can mean being caught, that is the single most meaningful upgrade on the list. The GPU floor for a comfortable experience is the recommended class, a GTX 1660 6 GB or equivalent, not the minimum class. Both tiers need a broadband connection, because the game is online even in solo play, and both need the same 40 GB of space.

This section contains no purchase links and no prices, because no hardware price in it has been verified against a price-tracking source, and this guide will not attach a buy link to an unverified product. The picks are tiers, not shopping links. For a comfortable Outlast Trials machine: a mid-range modern graphics card with at least 6 GB of video memory, matching or beating the recommended GTX 1660 class, is the sensible value tier; 16 GB of system memory as the floor; a solid-state drive with room for the 40 GB install plus the operating system, because the game loads enclosed trial maps repeatedly; and a modern quad-core processor or better, at or above the recommended i7-6700K or Ryzen 5 2600X class. A Steam Deck runs the game, since it is Verified, but expect to play closer to the minimum tier than the recommended tier. If your machine only meets the minimum spec, the game will run, but turn settings down before your first trial rather than during it.

The platform list as of November 1, 2026 is PC via Steam and Epic, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2, which was added on October 27,

2026. On language, the Steam language table lists 14 languages. Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese both offer interface and subtitles, but neither offers full audio, so there is no Chinese voice acting. Do not buy expecting a Chinese dub. On cross-play, Red Barrels own Switch 2 launch post on October 27, 2026 said players can team up with friends across all platforms with cross-play. Full pairwise confirmation on Red Barrels official support pages was not found at check time, so this guide reports the launch-post wording rather than claiming every platform pair has been individually confirmed by an official support page. Cross-progression, meaning carrying your save from one platform to another, is likewise not confirmed by an official source at check time; secondary sources say saves stay on their original platform, with sharing only inside the Xbox console family.

Both. You can complete trials by yourself or in a team of 2, 3, or 4 players. Mandatory objectives are never forced co-op, but co-op is highly beneficial.

The regular Steam price is $39.99. A 70% Steam Scream Fest discount to $11.99 was live at check time on November 1, 2026, and ends November 2, 2026 at 1 PM ET. After that date, check the store page, because the sale price no longer applies. The expired 90% price of $3.99 ended October 8, 2026 and is not current.

Simplified and Traditional Chinese offer interface and subtitles, but not full audio, so there is no Chinese voice acting. Steam does not give the game an official Chinese name.

Yes, the game is Steam Deck Verified. Expect performance closer to the minimum spec tier than the recommended tier.

No. The Outlast Trials is a prequel, and its trials are self-contained therapy scenarios. Knowing the earlier games adds background on Murkoff, but nothing in the beginner experience requires it.