Richard Trager


 * "Hey, you're that little shit priest's guy aren't you? His... witness or whatever. You must be exhausted. Lets take a break, huh, buddy? The old two martini lunch, have a little confab."


 * ―Richard Trager



Doctor Richard "Rick" Trager is an insane Variant who experiments on patients in order to gain more knowledge about biology. He is the tertiary antagonist of Outlast.

Background This document shows that Trager was a former executive of the Murkoff Corporation Research Development at Mount Massive Asylum before he became an experimenting surgeon. He wears glasses, a machine-monocle, a bloodstained apron and a torn up surgeon's mask. He also appears to have an accessory on his left arm made from a patient's drip. This drip could be used by him as a blood transport to survive. Trager was also a close friend with Jeremy Blaire, as Waylon finds a note which proves that they were friends and used to play golf.

Characteristics
Doctor Trager, much like the rest of the asylum's inhabitants, is a sadistic and mass-murdering psychopath, but his psyche and mental ability appears to operate in a highly functional way that proves he still has a grasp of reality, even if only slight. Because of this, he is more than capable of thinking, planning, and other things such as tricking Miles into entering the dumbwaiter so he can gain access to him (it is possible that that's how Trager lures his victims).

Additionally, he is capable of both intelligent and coherent speech (much like Eddie Gluskin), speaking to Miles in a friendly tone and addressing him almost mockingly, as "buddy." He either enjoys pretending to be a surgeon or has been driven to believe that he actually is one, and has a habit of collecting body parts from his "patients", e.g. a tongue because he was "tired of licking his own stamps", and Miles' ring and index fingers because he desired to sell them.

Outlast
After Miles hears a voice and climbs into the dumbwaiter to escape his pursuers, he meets Trager. Despite initially sounding like an ally, Trager beats Miles until he is unable to walk, picks him up, and straps him into a wheelchair.

After rolling him down a hallway, Trager taunts Miles by offering him a chance to escape the asylum by walking out the exit door. Miles is unable to do so due to the wheelchair restraints, so Trager pretends that Miles wants to stay, taking him up an elevator and down a few more hallways. Along the way, Miles sees the bodies of other victims who had been captured. They finally arrive at a makeshift operating room; a bathroom covered in gore with a table that has various sharp tools on it. Trager takes the camcorder and sets it down on the sink before washing his hands. He then has a short talk with Miles about Father Martin and his religious viewpoints before taking a large pair of bone shears and cutting off two of Miles' fingers. Trager leaves the room for a short while, giving Miles the chance to escape.

Miles breaks out of the wheelchair restraints and navigates through other "operating rooms" where a patient talks to him and reveals that he is an executive like Trager. The patient then starts to shout Trager's name and he finally appears to investigate. Trager kills the patient before going back to the operating room to check on Miles, which reveals that he has escaped his confines, Trager then scours the place to find Miles.

After Miles retrieves the key and uses it to start the manually-operated elevator, Trager breaks into it from the floor bellow in an attempt to get to Miles, but Miles struggles and pushes him out. Trager's upper torso is still inside the elevator as it begins to move, and he is crushed to death in the process. Miles then escapes through a hatch in the elevator ceiling.

Outlast: Whistleblower
While Waylon passes through the Male Ward, Trager can be seen lying dead on the ground after Murkoff's Tactical Division had pulled out his body from the elevator shaft, who they mistake for one of the asylum's victims after seeing his distorted, skinless body and presuming that he was molested.

Trivia

 * The last name 'Trager' could be a reference to the Trager Approach.
 * Richard's email address is r.trager@murkoffcorp.lu, as revealed in a document that Miles can acquire.
 * It is possible to stop Trager from murdering the Variant by distracting him. If done so, Trager will chase Miles instead of impaling the patient with his shears, however, this will prevent the player from acquiring the "Dr. Rick Trager" note.
 * Trager's walking animation is bugged, causing him to move faster than his legs should carry him. This makes him appear to nearly float as he walks throughout the Male Ward.
 * There's a bug in which Trager will not appear to see Miles if the player activates a checkpoint, and returns to where Trager is.
 * In the game's configuration and on the soundtrack, Richard is dubbed as "Surgeon".