I've put myself through more hours in The Outlast Trials than I like to admit, and while I'm not Mother Gooseberry's biggest fan and I used to have nightmares about the Skinner Man, there hasn't been something that has really petrified me yet. A lot of the times I jumped were because I'd clumsily run around a corner too quickly and bumped into an enemy, or a friend had shouted something after being sat in silence for ten minutes.
However, the new update coming on Tuesday, December 9, not only adds a haunting new enemy, but an entirely new setting which already gives me the heebie-jeebies.
In a trailer uploaded to the Red Barrels YouTube channel, Project Messiah has been revealed. This update plans to take us away from the sterile halls of the Murkoff facility and into what looks like a desolate lodge. Except, unlike a lot of churches I've been into, this one is filled with masked mannequins, statues, and of course—dead bodies. This is The Outlast Trials after all.
But among all of the masked mannequins is Liliya Bogomolova, also referred to as Sister Liliya, who is adorned in an almost identical outfit to some of the mannequins. So, I imagine one of our main tasks in the trial will be narrowing down which one is her, and then avoiding her at all costs, as she doesn't exactly hold back once you have been spotted.
The trailer also emphasises being quiet and still, two things I'm notoriously not, especially when I'm nervous. So, if screeching down proximity chat could be my downfall in this new map, you best believe it will be. Especially if one of the statues I'm conveniently hiding behind springs to life and grabs ahold of me.
This all falls into the game's newest trial: Despoil the Auction. The details of what exactly this entails puzzle-wise are yet to be revealed, and likely won't be until the update rolls out on December 9, but according to a description given on Steam: "You are the negotiator. Humans are just one more product, amusement for those with money to burn. A fresh plaything is up for auction, it's up to you to ruin the lot."
I'm sure whatever we've got coming will be as dark and twisted as we're used to in The Outlast Trials, and even though I'm already shaking in my boots, I'll no doubt put myself through the perils of completing the trial. How successful that will be, I don't know, but I'll be sure to report back if I make it out alive.
