The Outlast Trials is a prequel to the original Outlast games, set earlier in the Murkoff timeline and focused on the company’s early human experimentation. It connects to the other games through Murkoff, the broader conspiracy, and lore references rather than by continuing the same protagonist’s story.

How it fits the series

  • It takes place during the Cold War, before the events of Outlast and Outlast 2.
  • You play as test subjects in Murkoff’s experiments, which helps explain how the later horrors in the series began.
  • The game is multiplayer/co-op, but it still belongs to the same narrative universe as the single-player games.

Connection to the older games

  • Outlast and Outlast 2 are about survivors encountering the results of Murkoff’s work.
  • The Outlast Trials shows the source of some of that damage: the company’s early trials and brainwashing-style testing.
  • So the connection is mainly backstory and lore , not a direct sequel chain with returning playable heroes.

Simple timeline

  1. The Outlast Trials : early Murkoff experiments, set first.
  2. Outlast : later events at Mount Massive Asylum, where the consequences start to surface.
  3. Outlast 2 : a separate story that still sits in the same larger universe and references the same dark corporate thread.

In plain English

If the original games are the nightmare’s aftermath, The Outlast Trials is the part where you see the nightmare being built. It’s the most direct link to the franchise’s lore, even though it changes the format into co-op. TL;DR: It’s a prequel that explains Murkoff’s experiments and expands the universe, rather than a continuation of the exact stories from the first two games.