r/OutlastTrials•
Bean_two

Sex + extreme violence = Dopamine(?)

Discussion

I occasionally play with a friend and he likes to ask questions along the lines of "Why are we doing specifically this?" (i.e. why are we killing the judge this violently? also why do so many dudes have their cocks out?) and I realized that I don't truly know! I'm no stranger to extreme media and some of my favorite pieces of such are ones you can read into (Martyrs, Coonskin, Antichrist) but ain't no stranger to some two dimensional extreme splatter shows (Inside, Guinea pig 2, August Underground). I never expected to get this invested in the games story and it's almost frustrating how certain things are kept vague lol. A common sentiment I've seen is that the violence is so horrible because it's desensitizing us Reagents (and players in a meta way) to be able to do what's expected of us more effectively, but the sex seems to be giving me mixed messages, are we supposed to be repulsed by the actual breasts on the nuns and fetish outfits on the corpses we pull keys out of? Is it trying some kinda pavlovian response thing equating horrible things to arousal? Some of the sexual things are manifestations of the Primes traumas/proclivities so maybe not totally intentional on Murkoffs part but it's still being left in the trials between "clean ups/resets" maybe they're trying to inflict sexual trauma by proxy? I know not everything in the trials is supposed to be taken literally, going back to the example with the judge, it's more of a very blunt lesson on how to circumvent the law and show us what people who oppose us deserve (right?)

TL;DR: curious about what all the sexual content is trying to accomplish, whether it be some weird form of excitement or repulsion [this video gave me plenty things to consider](https://youtu.be/AVNJz5piQe8?si=5ftHcgxo2c1xFIfg) but I'd love to hear others takes on this

Posted Apr 8, 2026, 2:50 AM UTC

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