The Beast Inside Review (Rorack)
First person horror walking sim with puzzles. I had high expectations for this game, but it failed to deliver. It is not a horrible or broken game, it just has too many issues. There are things in this game that are done right. The graphics and how the world looks (most outdoor parts) are beautiful. The forest feels fresh and living. The game also runs smooth and I never had any technical problems. Some of the chase scenes are great with a good flow. Some of the puzzles had potential. The game has different endings and at least one of them is kind of funny (not sure if that was the intention ) and I kind of want to play again to see how crazy the other endings are.
There are multiple things that ruin this game for me. The biggest might be the constant amount of handholding. The devs did not trust the player to solve things by themselves (apart from some secret puzzles that are not relevant to the story). The main character instantly says out loud what you should be thinking about when you are faced with a puzzle. The whole game is infected with the "bright paint = interact" sickness. You are not supposed to think for yourself, just follow the paint. Most of the puzzles are super easy as well, so you don't even need the help. It is just annoying, but sadly a symptom of modern games. Devs seem scared of trusting the player to think for themselves.
I kind of wish they had made a seperate game with the code solving CIA agent, because it feels somewhat tacked on here.
Another problem is the characters. Humans in cutscenes are over-animated and look awkward. The voice-acting can be decent, but most of the time it is subpar and hammy. In one scene you go from shouting and then right as you go out the door the character talks in the most relaxed voice even if you are being stalked by an unknown creeper. It breaks the immersion. They don't act like you would expect people seeing a creepy dude on their property and the arguments between the husband and wife are too stupid considering everything going on.
Many of the things you have to do in this game feels like an attempt at extending the game artificially. You will bend so many white wooden planks you will get sick of it. You will get chased by various things, and some of these chases are good while most feel like you are just on a roller coaster following the line and nothing really happens. I have nothing against walking sims, but I don't like games that pretend to be something else.
The saddest issue is that the game isn't even that scary. The start of the game is very promising. There are some really great work done with lighting and shapes that look like something in the distance and then turns out to be nothing scary. Sadly, this ends fast. The game uses jump scares alot and they are very predictable so you don't even get spooked by them anymore. This was very disappointing. I expected a good horror game like Amnesia, which could be creepy in the slow parts and scary in the fast parts, but The Beast Inside failed to deliver. The majority of the chase scenes are Scooby Doo chases were you run and run and something happens and you run, but you are just following a very obvious path.
The story is serviceable, but also extremely predictable. It can be a bit silly at times, but I kind of like that it doesn't take itself too seriously. Other times the story feels very pretentious. It took me about 6 hours on normal mode to beat this game which isn't very long, but still felt like it dragged on towards the end. Multiple endings gives some replayability, but only if you actually care about the game.
TL;DR: Thinly veiled "horror" walking sim with "puzzles". Disappointing, I expected more after seeing the reviews for this game. If you really enjoy this type of game you might get something out of this game, but for most players I think it will be disappointing.