Project Invasion Dramatically Changes The Outlast Trials Formula

Wilson Barnett | Former Associate Editor 

With Halloween right around the corner, Red Barrels has released a major update alongside its annual Halloween event for The Outlast Trials. The update not only brings back the thrilling Halloween event but also a brand new PvP mode for Reagents to be on either side of the coin. 

 Project Invasion

   

Invasion brings in an entirely new way to play for Reagents. The titular Invasion mode allows Reagents to take on the role of the Imposter Ex-Pop, one of the many kinds of enemies you’ll face within the Trial environments. In the Terminal, you can select your role and toggle Imposter accessibility for other Trials. 

Invasion effectively brings a PvP mode to the game without the power balance being too thrown off. Imposters have limited time within the Trials to execute their duty. During their wait time, Imposters can watch the survivor Reagents through security cameras, ping their location, and strategize their plan. Once added to the Trial through the Ex-Pop Insertion Gate, you have an allotted time period where you are dressed exactly like one of the Reagents within the Trial. You can perform stabs, slashes, and executions to varying efficiency while acting as a Reagent. Like the Reagents, you are not immune to fellow Ex-Pop. If you die during the invasion, a penalty will be placed on the Reagent, extending the surveillance time. 

This mode is completely optional. Invasions can be toggled off and on within the Terminal. You can go about the therapy as usual without ever interacting with the Invasion mode or you can play to your heart's content. 

Geister 

2025 marks the third annual Program Geister event for The Outlast Trials. Geister is the Halloween event which adds several new variators to the Trials. These are the special variators within the Geister Trials: 

• Enraged: Ex-Pops and Prime Assets are significantly more aggressive and easy to trigger. 
• Hallucinations?: You are in a constant state of minimal psychosis, summoning the Skinner Man for effective jumpscares as you're venturing around or hiding. 
•  More Imposters: As the name implies, more Imposters are summoned into the Trial environments as a part of Project Invasion. 
• No Player Names: Reagents will not have their username displayed over their heads. 
• Extract Organ Samples: Secondary objective replacing the usual “Collect 3 Propaganda Posters” in order to get an A+ grade. 

With this update, two new MK-Challenges are added: Beguile the Children and Investigate the Minotaur. Let's break down each Trial’s core mechanics. 

 Beguile the Children: This is the latest addition to the Fun Park, making it the environment with the most amount of trials. It opens up an entirely new section of the park, a funhouse of sorts with a maze of a layout. Disturbing storybook visuals litter the environment with winding halls and trippy sights. You are tasked with transporting film reels to their respective projectors scattered through the maps to find a code that you’ll input into the televisions at the end for the mannequin children to bear witness too. It's a confusing and very detailed map, each room filled with grotesque displays from a twisted wonderland to a room covered in eyes. It also expands the already vibrant and expansive Fun Park map in an incredibly fun way. 

Investigate the Minotaur: In the Kress twin’s second Trial, their very first since their debut in July of this year, you must retrieve an oversized box full of evidence for a journalist. The path isn't exactly straightforward. You must carry around a fuse, a mechanic introduced in the Shopping Mall’s central Trial alongside the twins, and open gates so you can return to the journalist. The Shopping Mall is a unique map, having a large center with very tight side rooms and maintenance halls. Not to mention avoiding the deadly Kress twins who are even easier to trigger with the Enraged variators. Returning to the journalist proves to be a difficult task with the enemy placements. It's a great addition to the starving map, desperately needing more MK-Challenges. 

Evidence 

 Eight new evidence documents have been added to the game for Reagents to find scattered within the Trials. Information on Project Invasion as well as furthering the story, particularly with Dr. H.J. Easterman’s increasingly deluded ideologies can be collected for anyone who wishes to learn more about the ever-evolving story. In the evidence documents, a conference between Dr. Easterman, Olivier Baranczyk from the Mount Massive Asylum, and Murkoff Senior Alice Bradley Avellanos takes place where Easterman continues perpetrating his obsessions with the sun being a phallic totem and the Reagents being his children. He insists that they will trust him once the leash on what the Reagents can do is extended ever farther than before. In another conference between Easterman and the facility architect Moses Scarfiotti, he elaborates on ego death. His ideas on what the Reagents should become is transitioning from scientific to familial to ritualistic. Not only is he conditioning the Reagents to do his bidding through killing their own peers, a significantly more supernatural presence is brewing. Continuing on the supernatural, staff are instructed to continue monitoring the Reagent’s ideas on the mysterious Skinner Man as violent ideation drastically increases. 

Catalogue update 

 The in-game store has expanded quite a lot. More in-game purchases can be made for coins which will give Reagents access to not so new Catalogues from previous events. The Murkoff coins can be purchased through in-game purchases for those Catalogues. The Catalogues have all been put on display for purchase, including previous programs such as Toxic Shock, Prime Time, and the previous Geister events. A “Black Market” has been introduced which will give the Reagents costumes in exchange for the coins. The DLC skins still exist exclusively through purchasing with money. Every in-game purchase is exclusively for cosmetics, not for Reagent upgrades or anything to give one player a fundamental upper hand to the others. It is also a way to support Red Barrels, who still remains an indie studio who needs money to keep a live-service game online and consistently updates. 

 Twitch Drops 

 From October 21st through November 18th, Twitch Drops will be given to anyone who links their Twitch account to the game and streams for a particular period of time. Cosmetics will be given to players as a reward for streaming the game while you play. 

 All around, Project Invasion/Program Geister is an exciting and fun major update to the game as we move further into the year. Updates continue to get pushed with constant improvement to the gameplay and story. The ever-evolving story is unraveling as it moves further towards the escalation of the Vietnam War, John F. Kennedy presidency, and whatever lies in store for Amelia Collier. Winter Kills is right around the corner and who knows what else could be in store for the Reagents.