If you want to choose the most popular horror games in the past decade, "Outlast" released in 2013 is definitely on the list, with "Escape" costing only $1 million and "Escape 2" costing 500W creating $64 million in profits for Red Barrel Studios, and 15 million copies sold do make this IP a big sign of horror games.
The popularity of "Escape" has also invisibly raised players' expectations, but in recent years when the sequels of popular IPs have been somewhat overturned, players have also been worried about the sequel after "Escape 2", and after the recent release of "The Outlast Trials" (hereinafter referred to as "Trial"), Red Barrel Studio dispelled players' doubts and pointed out a direction for the future of "Escape".
Breaking through the trials of difficult situations
"Trial" has nearly 10,000 reviews on Steam, with a positive rating of 94%, and the game is still in the early experience stage. It can be said that such a reputation and sales are inseparable from "Trial" groping out the traffic password of horror games.
For most horror games, weirdness and horror are the main atmosphere, and at the same time give you a cold refreshing refreshment, such as Five Nights at Freddy's, where you may be watching cute toys lie quietly one second, and the next they will rush to your face. Using scenarios and environmental cues, such as Layers of Fear, always makes it difficult for you to move, and the scene hints at what will happen next, always giving the player nervousness. "Escape" takes a different route.
The five-night harem of teddy bears
Halloween, released in October 1983 at Atari 2600, was based on the horror film Halloween 1978, and it was also the first time a chase was used in a horror game to make players feel thrilled and nervous.
Moonlight Panicked 1978
Although it is difficult to say that "Escape" is a game developed under the influence of "Halloween", "Escape" does show the chase gameplay vividly in a cinematic narrative, and in an era when many horror games are embedded in other ways to expand the user base, "Escape" uses pure exploration to decrypt horror to bring this game category to life again, spawning a large wave of horror game streamers and players.
But behind the brilliance of "Escape" has always had a fatal problem, that is, as a single-player horror game, many players are timid and dare not play, and they will prefer to watch others play, that is, "horror games are good-looking, but I don't play", and even the popularity of "Escape" is inseparable from the rise of the live broadcast industry.
But just watching others play many times is difficult to grasp the essence of horror games, especially "Escape", a game with extremely immersive chase battles as the main experience; After the release of "Escape 2", there has been a significant decline in both sales and attention, and even the reputation of players has declined, so if you continue to launch a sequel that changes the story, changes the background, and enhances the picture, it is undoubtedly smashing your own signboard.
The visual expressiveness of "Trials" is clearly improved
Therefore, in this "Trial", Red Barrel Studio introduced a multiplayer online experience without changing the essence of "Escape", pushing the gameplay of "Escape" to a new milestone. Although this step of "Trial" is a bit big, in terms of the current game quality and content, this step is big, but the red barrel is wearing open pants.
Horror service game
The biggest difference between "Trial" and its predecessor is that it transforms the pure single-player "Escape" into a service game, and although most players scoff at the mention of service games today, the approach of "Trial" is a decision that feels that it can bring the series of games back to life.
Before entering the level, players will first come to a lobby where players can interact, team up, communicate, etc. with other players randomly matched. In addition, the player also has his own "bedroom" in this hall, the layout of this bedroom can be matched by the player at will, furniture, wallpaper, floor, etc., and the player can also customize the player's own character in the bedroom, and the player can change the appearance of clothing and decorations according to the preset character model.
And to get these costume items, you have to play the challenges in this game. "Trials" splits the linear level into different maps, there are currently three maps, each map contains three challenges, divided into medium and short duration, the first time medium length of the level flow is about 40 minutes, the short duration is about 20 minutes, the game time of course depends on the player's guts.
Upon completion of the game, players are scored based on their performance in the game, earning XP and unlocking cosmetic items and in-game currency. At present, the main use of in-game currency is to buy cosmetic items that players have unlocked and furniture in the dormitory, and no other in-app purchases have been found in the game. For now, Trials is a one-time buyout, giving players service content through the original content in the game.
In terms of service-oriented content, "Trial" has made these changes, it can be said that this work is to ensure the stand-alone content while increasing the motivation of players to continue to play, in the past "Escape", it is relatively difficult for players to have the drive to re-experience the game again, after all, the interesting point of horror games is the unknown, when you know when there will be monsters that scare you, it is naturally less terrifying.
Through the addition of different maps in the development team, more challenges will allow players to have more content that can be tasted; However, even the replayability of the current three maps is worth the ticket price.
The challenge of cooperation in dispersal
If there is one word to describe the content of the challenge of "Trials", then "scattered" is the most appropriate.
This game supports up to four players, as many players say, when a horror game is played alone, you can get the most extreme thriller experience of the game itself, but when multiple people play together, then you may not get thriller, but joy.
After entering the challenge, players need to follow the process to decrypt one by one, and after completing all the links, players need to return to the original point or escape location, wait for the arrival of the train that can escape, and then step on the train to complete a game. As the player progresses, more and more monsters will be chased and killed, and it is not uncommon for three or four monsters to run after the player in the final stages of the challenge.
Increasing the number of monsters, Trials has not forgotten to increase the player's abilities.
As mentioned above, experience points can be obtained after completing the game, and this experience point is used as an important means to improve the performance of the player's character. Each upgrade gives the player skill points that increase with level, and players can use skill points to unlock skills for escape. Skills are divided into primary skills, secondary skills, and ability skills.
The main skills are divided into four types: stun, mine, medical and detection, which players can learn at will, and the effect of the skill is also simple and easy to understand. Stun can make enemies unable to move for a certain period of time, mines have the same effect, need to be deployed in advance, medical treatment is to add blood to themselves and teammates, and detection is to let the player perceive the situation of the attached enemy; These skills can also be enhanced through skill points in the future, which greatly increases the fun and cooperation of players in the game.
Although these skills are powerful and even overturn the setting of not being able to fight back in "Escape", they can only carry one skill in entering the challenge, and the slightly longer cooldown time also requires players to think reasonably about the use of skills in the challenge, so in the specific game, it is better to tremble step by step.
The blessing of secondary skills and ability skills also further improves the player's operable space in the game, and also makes the game richer, and to a certain extent, the unlocking and improvement of skills is also a part of the player's driving force, and it also tests the player's cooperation.
But for most players, the online experience is not working together, but saving each other, or killing each other.
When a player needs to touch a key puzzle, but the monster is roaming nearby, under normal circumstances, another player needs to lead the monster away, and the original player continues to decrypt it. But in reality, the player who did lead the monster away was knocked down, and the decrypted player was discovered by the monster again, and it was common for him to escape and forget the location of the decryption. Even after suddenly encountering monsters during exploration, it is not uncommon for a four-person squad to scatter and forget their original mission objectives after frightened and fleeing.
It can be said that the online experience of "Trials" has given this game a new experience of chase battles. In the past, players often fled passively, but in this work, even many times players will take the initiative to take the responsibility of leading monsters when considering cooperating with their teammates; In a sense, the bold players can help their teammates attract monsters, and the timid players can also decrypt them with peace of mind. This online experience is a worthwhile experience for both new players and veterans of horror games.
summary
As a game currently in EA, the underlying frame of "Trials" is very well built. He has a multiplayer cooperative online to make the game more interesting than playing the game, and there are also ways to counter monsters so that some horror games have the power of a battle, while rich character skills and appearance construction also make the game more playable;
It can be said that "Trial" has made it possible to bring the series back to life, and he has handed over a complete and innovative answer sheet to fans who have been waiting for 6 years. "Trial" overturned some of its once glorious settings, cut back on the narrative it was good at, and disappointed many of these fans, but Red Barrel Studio, who was reluctant to stick to the rules and dare to make progressive decisions, has a future to look forward to.
"Trial" is based on "Escape", and better than "Escape"