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Mother Gooseberry. Leland Coyle. The Outlast Trials infuses innocuous names with terrifying potential. The horror of it glides beneath the surface, only its glinting eyes exposed. Combined with solid worldbuilding and a tense gameplay loop, you have a recipe for one of the best multiplayer horror experiences around. The murky world of Murkoff is only getting darker with the launch of Project Lupara and its newest Key Asset: Franco “Bambino” Barbi. This milk-obsessed gangster delivers new horrors and some serious Ramon Salazar vibes. Here’s how Red Barrels hopes to milk horror to the last drop.
Fiendish Franco Barbi Takes Aim
We expect knives and chainsaws. We expect cleavers and blunt instruments in the hands of the killers that haunt us. In a way, there’s a comfort in that. Though these weapons terrify, they carry a silent promise: the bad guy can’t hurt you unless he gets close. Hand the villain a gun, however, and everything changes. It’s no coincidence that Project Lupara expands the list of the best Rigs to the game by adding a Barricade, usable to reinforce doorways, giving Reagants time to escape. You don’t want Franco to see you.
Denying a killer line of sight now matters in ways it never did before. Locking eyes with Mother Gooseberry and knowing that she knows where you are is a black hole in the stomach kind of feeling. Seeing Franco round the corner with his sawed-off shotgun, his filthy white suit about to get filthier with the addition of your blood, feels worse. During the Bambino event, Franco Barbi will appear alongside Gooseberry and Coyle in certain Trials and MK-Challenges. You’ll also encounter him on the new Docks map. There Franco runs his drug manufacturing empire (and murders with impunity).
The son of a New Orleans mafia don, Franco’s entitlement and instability run deep. He’s an awful little Napoleon, bent on using his sawed-off “Pacifier” to vent his psychosexual violence one blast of buckshot at a time. Red Barrels has some of the best character designs in horror gaming. Franco continues that legacy with disturbing behavior and even more upsetting voice lines. The introduction of four new difficulty settings (Introductory, Standard, Intense, and Psychosurgery) ensures that players can tune the awful up to maximum if they want.
Project Lupara also brings players a new lobby mini-game (the Stroop Effect Tests) to unwind between doses of horror. The Outlast Trials is also getting Daily and Weekly tasks, complete with rewards, in case you need another reason to stick around after the lights go off. On the superficial side of things, players will get access to a ton of new cosmetics. That’s thanks to the “Project Lupara” and “A New You” Catalogs. I’m always down to play horror movie dress-up. Still, it’s Escalation Therapy and Project Lupara’s new modes that take The Outlast Trials to horrifying new heights.
Project Lupara and Murkoff’s New Modes
Escalation is a new roguelite mode that pits Reagents against a never-ending series of randomized Trials. Variations ensure that every Trial is different (and harder) than the last, and the difficulty won’t ratchet down until permadeath ends it all, restarting the cycle anew. Beginning with nothing and building your loadout piece by piece will add a challenging new dynamic. That said, it’s too early to say how much meat this mode will deliver. Still, the longer you live, the greater your reward, so there’s an incentive to give it a go when you’re not unlocking new outfits.
Project Lupara brings another big addition to The Outlast Trials: new Trials and MK-Challenges. Two arguably steal the show: Poison the Medicine and Mansion Escape. Poison the Medicine marks the Reagents first encounter with Franco on The Docks. It’s a harrowing encounter in which spilled drugs are the least of your concerns. Mansion Escape, meanwhile, reworks the final Trial (Farewell Mansion) to feature evolving difficulty. It even includes a brand-new ending.
Project Lupara makes big promises, but it seems poised to deliver. The update checks off some of the biggest items on the community’s wishlist. Whether you want a new look, a new game mode, or a baby gangster who throws tantrums and starts blowing holes in people from the comfort of his personal drug depot, it’s here. Blood will spill with this update, and surviving won’t be easy. Yet Project Lupara gives players more reasons than ever to try.
