Franco Barbi

Franco "Il Bambino" Barbi is a Prime Asset and one of the antagonists in The Outlast Trials. He is the outcast son of a Mafia Don who is a perverse gun-wielding man-child Armed with his trusted "Lupara," a sawed-off shotgun, Barbi is a mentally disturbed man-child and a notorious mafioso for the Martino Crime Family.

Due to his uncontrollable bloodlust, disturbing hobbies, and a twisted affair with his own stepmother, his father, Don Salvatore Barbi would completely disown him. Because of his disturbing nature, he gained the attention of the Murkoff Corporation, eventually making him one of the Prime Assets.

Franco Barbi is a Italian-american man in his mid to late 20s of a below average build and height. (4'5ft) and overweight, not ridiculously but he has pudge on him. His outfit consists of a dirty oversized white pinstripe suit, a purple dress shirt, and light blue bowtie, a common ensemble for gangsters of the time. He wears a brown ammunition bandolier around his upper torso that holds the buckshots for his shotgun. In contrast to this intimidating outfit, a pacifier dangles from said bandolier—its hue matching the color of his shirt—secured with a ribbon in the same shade as his bowtie. His skin is pale white, he has bulging blue eyes, and dirty blonde hair. Franco is mostly bald, with his remaining hair in disarray.

His eyes are bloodshot, indicative of hemorrhage, or brain damage. His teeth are yellowed and crooked and missing, having buck teeth and his top canines stick out to the sides. The most prominent feature of Franco's is his extremely large cranium, nearly double the size of an average man's. The deformations of his skull and face are the result of both a birth defect, and frequent physical abuse from his father[2]. The left side of Franco's skull is heavily mutilated from probable head trauma; visible sutures extend from the site of the injury toward his eye.

Despite his disability and sustaining injuries through both his field of work and domestic abuse, he remains in otherwise excellent health and physical condition. On top of ranged attacks, Franco's trigger-happy tendencies gains him the additional ability of being violently reactive to noise and sudden glimpses of Reagents. When Franco is alerted by noise within his vicinity or spots a Reagent while patrolling, he will immediately shoot at the direction of the sound or a Reagent that alerted him.

This makes Franco extremely dangerous for Reagents who are too careless while sneaking past him, as they could instantly receive a full blast from the Lupara if they are too close to Franco and accidentally put their teammates in jeopardy. As such, Reagents are advised to avoid stepping on broken glasses and minimize noises from walking, jumping, and running if Franco is nearby. Being both a former mobster and a man-child, Franco displays both of those traits in excess, in that he speaks like a threatening mobster while exhibiting traits of a child or baby, even bawling when things do not go his way. Franco seems to carry some misogynistic and Oedipal traits as well, as he has killed women he has had sex with, found arousal from being degraded by his stepmother, and has hidden inside a dead prostitute, mimicking an unborn baby.

During the limited-time "Bambino" trials, Franco will fetishize Mother Gooseberry, falling in love with her motherly-themed persona. He notably has a strong desire to see what kind of shoes she is wearing, calling back to his trampling encounters with Angelina and his apparent shoe fetish.

On the other hand, Franco despises Leland Coyle, heavily projecting his own deviancy onto his fellow Prime Asset and making remarks about how much vitriol he feels for law enforcement in general. Some of his comments also suggest a certain jealousy, such as for the fact that Coyle is much more sexually dominant, aggressive, and—perhaps most importantly—vital than he could ever be, courtesy of Franco's own taboo tastes as well as his inconsistent ability to perform.

Franco, ironically, has a very fragile ego despite his childlike persona. Most likely due to people mocking him about his erectile dysfunction, though well endowed. He will advertise himself as a baby, yet make excuses that he is "not crying" as "that's just water from his eyes." His fetishes are vocalized in his sarcastic, twisted threats to the Reagents, even saying how Franco wants to "crawl inside" them and/or "drink them," always obsessing over wombs and drinking breast milk. His childhood abuse and sexual impotence are deep insecurities for Franco, and he will fly into a rage when reminded of them.

There is a side of Franco that shows intelligence and craftsmanship, being able to craft his own ammunition out of human teeth and using tactics like a hunter. He is also known to collect nipples, further feeding into the childlike side of his persona.

Barbi's midface hypoplasia, enlarged cranium, and laboured breathing are features reminiscent of those seen in people born with Pfeiffer Syndrome Type One.