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| “ | You was born guilty and you'll die just like it. | „ |
| ~ Leland Coyle, one of the Prime Assets. |
| “ | If you're going to play with my babies, you're going to play with mother. | „ |
| ~ Mother Gooseberry, one of the Prime Assets, slyly referring to her own murderous nature. |
The Experimental Population, more commonly known as the Ex-Pop, are the secondary antagonists of the 2023 survival horror video game The Outlast Trials, a prequel to Outlast. They are products of the Murkoff Corporation's sadistic experiments, driving them into hostile and violent madness.
They are the primary enemies of the game, being used as challenging obstacles in Project LATHE, created by Hendrick Joliet Easterman, taking place in the Sinyala Facility, the game's main location. The player characters - the Reagents - must be forced to avoid the Ex-Pop, as they are given no weapons of any kind, leaving tactical stealth as their only method of survival against them.
Ex-Pop come in many forms, playing different roles in hindering the progress of the Reagents. Most of them will directly attack the Reagents, constantly giving chase without rest, while others play a more supporting role. The most recognizable Ex-Pop are the known as the Prime Assets, usually acting as the more dangerous and persistent of the Ex-Pop, as well as being higher-ranked by Murkoff.
The Prime Assets Leland Coyle and Mother Gooseberry are voiced by Julian Bailey and Cat Lemieux respectively. Most of the voice actors for the Ex-Pop are unknown, the smaller grunts are voiced by Catherine Kidd, who (alongside Tamara Brown) also voiced Marta in the previous game, Outlast 2.
The Big Grunts were voiced by Chimwemwe Miller, who also voiced Chris Walker in the first Outlast game, as well as Junior in The Dark Pictures - Man of Medan. The Night Hunter is voiced by Karl Graboshas, who also voiced Father Loutermilch in Outlast 2.
History[]
In 1959, the Murkoff Corporation began Project LATHE, which involved abducting citizens around the United States to experiment on them. Many of these individuals involved the homeless, criminals or those simply down on their luck in one way or another. The program also involved removing harmful records, which was one of the largest reasons why some people signed up.
During the Cold War era, these experiments persisted. Although there is no exact timeline and extended details on each of the Ex-Pop signing up or being abducted into the program, there are details on the lives of the Prime Assets. At an unknown point in time before the events of the game, a former police officer, Leland Coyle, was having a chat with a Murkoff employee by the name of Clyde Perry. The conversation they had turned violent, leaving Perry with two broken fingers, blood in his urine and covered bruises.
Due to the violence and strength that Coyle demonstrated, Perry suggested him for Project LATHE. Given Coyle's mutilated appearance, it is very likely that painful experiments were done on him, further increasing his mentally-ill state. Coyle had a history of committing many other crimes, such as killing his former wives and covering up the true cause of death. These reasons may have also had a hand in Coyle's involvement in the program, becoming a Prime Asset.
At another unknown point in time before the game's events, a woman named Phyllis Futterman, who started out as her father's dental assistant at a young age, and would distract younger patients with puppets. This talent was widely noticed, and as a result, Futterman got her own children's show called "The Mother Gooseberry Hour", first airing in 1951. The show was very successful, but after the death of Futterman's father, she developed dissociative personality disorder.
This mental illness played a part on Mother Gooseberry's show, as the show's tone began to shift to increasingly dark subjects. Her efforts created a cult-like behavior in her child viewers, leading them into narcotic addiction, theft and possibly murder. In 1955, the police raided her show, leaving two officers dead and five others injured. The design of her studio was described as "The most grotesque architectural perversion since. H.H. Holme's Chicago Murder Castle". Some time after, she was taken in by the Murkoff Corporation and also made a Prime Asset. She had also managed to seduce staff members and other inmates with her charisma and charm.
The type of experiments done on the Ex-Pop remain unseen, but it has left nearly all of them with mutilated skin, covering their bodies with all kinds of cuts, lesions and gashes. It also left them with a faint grasp on reality, and some struggle just to speak properly. Due to the brainwashed and hostile nature of the Ex-Pop, they are made to be mobile obstacles for the Reagents. The Prime Assets are treated by Murkoff with much more respect, interacting with them on a friendly level.
The Outlast Trials[]
After the Reagents are abducted and prepared for the trials, they are left in an artificial mansion acting as the game's tutorial level. They encounter a small amount of Ex-Pop for the first time. One of the first enemies encountered is the Pouncer, which attacks the player and leaves them with low health, although this is done to introduce the player to the game's healing mechanic.
The Reagent then finds a stage, with a mysterious hand emerging from a curtain holding an apple. When the Reagent tries to take it, it's revealed that Mother Gooseberry was behind the certain. Speaking through the alternate personality of the puppet and drilling into the Reagent's hand, leaving them gravely injured. After this, she becomes an enemy the player must avoid.
The player then witnesses Gooseberry dragging an unfortunate victim near a grinder, killing him by drilling into his head, then throwing his dead body into the grinder. The Reagent then encounters the Pusher, a gas mask-wearing Ex-Pop that sprays a noxious gas that causes psychosis, causing an enigmatic thought-form known as the "Skinner Man" to appear. This is done to introduce the game's sanity mechanic.
After the Reagents survive the tutorial, they are taken to the sleep room, where they can choose any trial they like, as well as team up with other players. Depending on the difficulty of the trial, the amount of Ex-Pop in a trial can increase, as well as the damage they do.
Appearance[]
Nearly all of the experimental population appear with some deformities and mutilations. One of the most common and apparent visuals are their skin, being covered in bloodied patches and gashes. Some Ex-Pop seem to have cancerous growths in different parts of their bodies. Some have also experienced severe hair loss. The only type of Ex-Pop that do not share these traits are the Imposters, as they look exactly like the Reagents in every way.
Behavior[]
There is one common behavior among nearly all Ex-Pop, they will stop nothing to patrol their respective areas and chase down the Reagents. Despite their violent and psychopathic nature, they do not attack each other, and instead work together to prevent the players from reaching their goals. There are differing levels of insanity between different types of Ex-Pop: some are completely detached from reality, with some somewhat aware of their suffering and even begging to be killed, with some somewhere in between.
In the case of the Prime Assets, they still retain the behavior of the occupations they once had. Such as Coyle acting as an aggressive and overbearing cop, and Mother Gooseberry still acting as if she's hosting a children's show. The Pusher does not use violence, and instead just sprays psychosis gas at his victims. The Screamer is the only Ex-Pop in the game that prefers to stay away from the Reagents, rather than pursue them.
Despite the non-violent methods of the Pusher and Screamers, they can still manage to kill Reagents that have lost all their health and are incapacitated. The Pusher can suffocate a player with the gas nozzle, while a Screamer will murder a player with sheer noise pollution. The Ex-Pop also appear to be completely immune to things that are fatal to the Reagents, such as extreme temperatures in the "Winter Kills" events, or deadly gas in the "Toxic Shock" event.
List of Ex-Pop[]
Prime Assets[]
- Mother Gooseberry - An overweight, dissociative woman with a split personality. Her main personality is a faux-caring and motherly that speaks as if the Reagents are children. Her alternate personality is manifested into a gruesome-looking puppet with a drill (being her primary weapon) in its mouth on her right hand. The puppet "speaks" in a more abusive, profane and abrasive tone of voice, even insulting Mother Gooseberry herself.
- Leland Coyle - A former police officer still taking the role of a cop in the trials, as well as being dressed as one. He walks around with an electric baton and constantly rants about laws and guilty nature.
- Franco Barbi - Abused as a child, and once a debt collector and assassin for the Louisiana mafia run by his father, he was exiled from the mob when he had an affair with his father's wife. His personality traits are that of a sadistic mobster mixed with that of a man-child.
Specialists[]
- Pusher - An individual wearing a gas mask. When they catch a Reagent, they will grab them and spray a mentally-altering gas into their face, causing them to undergo psychosis. This causes a hallucination of the "Skinner Man" to appear. They periodically enter and leave the trial, instead of permanently remaining.
- Screamer - A narcoleptic man that wears sound amplifying hardware. He will fall asleep in random locations, sometimes while standing up. If he is touched or disturbed, he will let out a powerful sound-amplified scream that will greatly slow down the Reagents' moving speed while blurring their vision, leaving them vulnerable to other threats. Throwing something at him will negate his scream, causing him to harmlessly relocate elsewhere. He is the only Ex-Pop that does not actively pursue the Reagents, but instead avoids them.
- Pouncer - A traumatized individual that resides in hiding spots around the trial. Once a Reagent gets close to her hiding spot, she will leap out and pounce on her victim, which the Reagent must fight off. Once she is pushed off, she will find a new hiding spot and repeat the process.
- Imposter - Only appearing in non-solo trials, they are disguised with the appearance of other Reagents, they are meant to create a false sense of security. Once they get near a Reagent, they violently stab them. They can be spotted by their aggressive breathing and misspelled username above their heads. The username will always copy that of a random player, but some characters will be different. Like the Pusher, Imposters periodically enter and leave the trial.
- Pitchers - They are soldiers-turned-pyromaniacs, throwing molotovs at the Reagents and creating an area of fire on the map for a few seconds, which can potentially trap a Reagent somewhere unless they choose to run through the fire and take damage. Getting too close to them will cause them to blow their fiery breath at the target.
Standard[]
- Grunts - The most generic and standard of the Ex-Pop. They take on no remarkable traits, other than carrying a machete or claw to attack players with. They can appear with standard tattered clothes, or "armor" similar to that of an umpire's uniform.
- Big Grunts - Much taller and stronger versions of standard grunts. They can knock down Reagents with just one hit, as well as pick them up with one hand before striking or throwing them. Their movement is much slower due to their size.
- Berserkers - A variant of the big grunts that is completely blinded, but is the largest and strongest of the Ex-Pop. Due to being blind, he does not actively patrol areas, but instead swings violently in place. He only moves toward areas where sounds are heard.
- Night Hunters - A grunt with night vision goggles permanently bolted to his head. While other Ex-Pop pursue enemies in the light and cannot see in the dark, the night hunter is the exact opposite. Once he is led to a lit area, it will overload his goggles and blind him, making avoiding him much easier.
Gallery[]
External Link[]
- Ex-Pop at the Outlast Wiki
[]
 Villains
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Murkoff Corporation The Variants Testament of the New Ezekiel The Scalled Experimental Population Central Intelligence Agency Others | ||