Does this game have a future?

[KubaRady]

Hello, i haven't bought the game as of now, and I'd love to ask all you who have and played it a fair bit if you see this game as having a good longevity.

This ties to a few things:
*Good and fun progression
*Fun gameplay that doesn't get stale quick
*Good solo experience and also group experience
*Diversity of the levels
*Future possibilities (Some kind of ranked system, cosmetics etc. ?)

I really like the game but i'd hate to find myself have hard time finding lobbies 2 months from now because the game has died out. Help me bros

[WESTG4M3R4L1F3]

and you , do you have a future?

[rkgrei]

The game's not even a week old yet so it's hard to say, to me this is one of those games where you really love the gameplay loop or it's just not enough to stimulate you. I personally love the game

[KubaRady]

Originally posted by WESTG4M3R4L1F3:

and you , do you have a future?

No, not really. That's why I'm here on this community hub with you.

[Ｔｅｎｓｅｎｕｍａ]

Depends how much they update it so none of us really know; I feel like it does. At least for a solid few years.
Apparently solo on harder difficulties is abysmal and the game (to make it Much easier) relies on comms so solo players might get bored but with a group (even randoms) it's pretty enjoyable imo. Even if you fully know what you're doing / get past the "scariness"

[opposedcrow1988]

I think it helps that the Outlast series is pretty well known among the horror game community (and has apparently done well enough to produce several mainline games as well as offshoot games like Outlast Trials) so Red Barrel doesn't have to expend a lot of effort trying to get players invested in a brand new IP. There's also a survey that players can take to provide granular feedback on the various gameplay systems (progression, UI, unlocks, etc.) as well as specific levels and scenarios.

Sadly, as with most games that are built with a focus on co-op multiplayer, solo play is technically an option but I doubt purely solo players will get very far. When you play solo you have a limited number of "retries" if you get killed, and if you're persistent you can at least complete the default trials and their associated MK challenges, but later on you'll encounter level modifiers that drastically ramp up the already quite intense difficulty (more traps, more enemies, fewer hiding spots, main villains that can one-shot you, etc.) and completing those modified levels by yourself is virtually impossible.

My guess is Red Barrel will be making tweaks here and there based on player feedback, but I don't think they really intend Outlast Trials to be an experience you can play entirely solo. I also don't think this is the sort of game that could support AI-controlled bots to back-fill missing players since most of the gameplay involves having to sneak around and complete highly technical puzzles.

At the very least Outlast Trials should have a decent short-term future, but it's tough to say how drastically Red Barrel will be willing to change the core gameplay concepts based off player feedback. Red Barrel has said it doesn't want to give any sort of specific timetable for how long Outlast Trials will be in early access since it wants to focus on refining the experience until it feels the game is ready for prime time. However, not giving a specific EA end date could also mean they just keep it in EA indefinitely. I suppose for now we'll just have to wait and see.

[Doshka]

Originally posted by KubaRady:

Originally posted by WESTG4M3R4L1F3:

and you , do you have a future?

No, not really. That's why I'm here on this community hub with you.

EMOTIONAL DAMAGE!

Also its too early to say. Depends on how the devs develop this game further and what the end product is.

[PovKetz]

It'll likely go down a similar route of GTFO, with dips in player counts until the next update that pushes out another Trial(s). The game itself is fun, both from a solo, randoms, and playing with friends perspective. The first two levels are quite large and often sections off for different trials and smaller mk challenges, which makes it feel like 9* smaller maps with the occasional familiar area between them vs 3* large maps.

It's unlikely it'll get a ranking system, perhaps check out speedrunning if you're interested in that sort of thing. This is co-op afterall, not much to really "rank". And finally there is quite a few cosmetics already to go after. All in all i'd say wait to get into it if you're unsure, as more content is likely on it's way

*Forgot about the orphanage

[Ｔｅｎｓｅｎｕｍａ]

Originally posted by PovKetz:

It'll likely go down a similar route of GTFO, with dips in player counts until the next update that pushes out another Trial(s). The game itself is fun, both from a solo, randoms, and playing with friends perspective. The first two levels are quite large and often sections off for different trials and smaller mk challenges, which makes it feel like 6 smaller maps with the occasional familiar area between them vs 2 large maps.

It's unlikely it'll get a ranking system, perhaps check out speedrunning if you're interested in that sort of thing. This is co-op afterall, not much to really "rank". And finally there is quite a few cosmetics already to go after. All in all i'd say wait to get into it if you're unsure, as more content is likely on it's way

+1 to that
This game reminds me of GTFO and I'm surprised to see someone else mention it, since it says "season 1" for Project X it makes me wonder if they'll rotate / create new content all the time; would be cool for sure but the dip while everyone waits for the next update sounds about right

[Maxomss]

Originally posted by opposedcrow1988:

I think it helps that the Outlast series is pretty well known among the horror game community (and has apparently done well enough to produce several mainline games as well as offshoot games like Outlast Trials) so Red Barrel doesn't have to expend a lot of effort trying to get players invested in a brand new IP. There's also a survey that players can take to provide granular feedback on the various gameplay systems (progression, UI, unlocks, etc.) as well as specific levels and scenarios.

Sadly, as with most games that are built with a focus on co-op multiplayer, solo play is technically an option but I doubt purely solo players will get very far. When you play solo you have a limited number of "retries" if you get killed, and if you're persistent you can at least complete the default trials and their associated MK challenges, but later on you'll encounter level modifiers that drastically ramp up the already quite intense difficulty (more traps, more enemies, fewer hiding spots, main villains that can one-shot you, etc.) and completing those modified levels by yourself is virtually impossible.

My guess is Red Barrel will be making tweaks here and there based on player feedback, but I don't think they really intend Outlast Trials to be an experience you can play entirely solo. I also don't think this is the sort of game that could support AI-controlled bots to back-fill missing players since most of the gameplay involves having to sneak around and complete highly technical puzzles.

At the very least Outlast Trials should have a decent short-term future, but it's tough to say how drastically Red Barrel will be willing to change the core gameplay concepts based off player feedback. Red Barrel has said it doesn't want to give any sort of specific timetable for how long Outlast Trials will be in early access since it wants to focus on refining the experience until it feels the game is ready for prime time. However, not giving a specific EA end date could also mean they just keep it in EA indefinitely. I suppose for now we'll just have to wait and see.

Im just here to comment on the solo part.
It took me some 33 hours, but i got all levels on A+ solo. This should show, that you defnitely can play this game on your own. Having 4 lives makes it almost impossible to lose. But the good rating is also achievable once you know, that it does not depend on the time of completion. You can play very safe, slow and get A+ solo.

Edit: I agree with the others. The Devs development of the game will show whether it has a future or not. But I personally really like the grinding mechanic with Project X and the overall gameplay loop and mechanics.

[Toonen1988]

This game can have a future, but not in it's current state. Yes, I can recommend this game to every horror and co-op fan. But not as a long term video game, simply by the fact that this game is to static.

Afcourse you have different paths that are blocked off and opened each time when you play a trial. And yes, the objectives can be in a slightly different locations but overal, the game is very static.

It would be better if they had a system that not only changes the paths in a trial, but also the layout of the entire map. Different room set-up, different roads to walk, different objectives etc.

Also the AI could use some work. It's easy to learn the behaviour of the AI, since they are static aswell. I would like to see a more dynamic behaviour for AI aswell.

[☽ | Luna | ☾]

It 100% does