The Beast Inside (2019)

I've played a good number of games like this at this point. I'd describe most as essentially a walking sim with some kind of haunted house element that may require hiding from monsters or solving puzzles as the primary mechanic, Amnesia the Dark Descent being a major predecessor and inspiration for the genre. Usually there's not much in the way of combat to actually fight the monsters, you need to sneak or run past them. These are not really my favorite kind of horror games, but I do enjoy them for the ease and simplicity of the gameplay that lets you just enjoy an interesting horror story and hopefully get a few scares along the way without worrying about super challenging gameplay. For this genre, I think this game is one of the better ones I've played and manages to bring something extra I don't see in many of these kinds of games.

One of the most fun aspects of this game is that it delves into a lot of historical elements. I'd never play these games for education, but I do think an immersive setting makes them so much better. In The Beast Inside, you play as a CIA crytanalyst in the 1970s. Accordingly, many of the puzzles are based on breaking codes such as one segment with a full-on enigma machine. I'm not sure how accurate it was, but the puzzles at least felt really in-depth and had a solid degree of challenge. I really liked the puzzles but the fact it reinforced the character and setting was also neat. Further, much of the themes of the game involve paranoia and fear very at-home with the Cold War era US. However, I should note that there's some weird elements included as well. I'm not sure if you'd call it paranormal or sci-fi, but you have a like ghost detector gadget, the kind of thing there would be conspiracy theories about the CIA wielding. This is actually pretty important to the gameplay and you use it a good number of times, but it was definitely a bit of a shocker when the mostly grounded realistic narrative was suddenly like "let me just whip out my Phasmophobia device." It didn't take me out of the game too much since there's obvious supernatural forces at work here and the tone was thus set.

The aesthetics for this game I'd consider generally a major strength. It doesn't feel like a super high budget game, but the graphics were surprisingly very good and some of the areas are way bigger than I'd expect out of one of these. Some of those areas accordingly got a bit confusing given all the different ways I could go, but I ultimately appreciated the realistic freedom you have. I appreciated the lush and detailed environments that while often spooky, actually held a lot of nice natural ambience that helped to juxtapose with Adam's paranoia and fear that something more sinister was going on.

While not great, I found the story generally engaging. The twists were fairly predictable, to the point you're expecting a twist in a different direction simply because it couldn't be leading where it's obviously going, right? Still, I enjoyed the dark angle for the psychological horror through most of it and it was consistent with the tone of the narrative. It does probably lean a little too far into edgy for the sake of being edgy territory at times though.

Some other issues were that the story drags a bit here and there and it feels like the game could've been shortened, despite not being overly long. The fact this belabors the somewhat obvious plot direction is further annoying. The game also attempts to branch out in too many directions gameplay-wise in my opinion, including a segment where you get a gun and it goes full FPS, but only for a little bit, which was weird and just made that combat feel a little off. Though I will say, for a mechanic that isn't present for most of the game, I thought the FPS segment was decently well-done.

All in all, it's a pretty skippable game for most people. But if you like these kinds of horror games, I think this is a great pick.

For a game I didn't have any expectations from, I enjoyed it way too much. More than Soma or Vanishing of Ethan Carter.

Controls a little weird: to open a door, you need to “drag” it with your mouse. And the developers really went “all in” on that idea. Sometimes you need to drag open multiple drawers to find an item you’re looking for.

The gameplay is surprisingly varied. There’s a boss fight that reminds me of Alan Wake. There’s chasing of a spy.
Although the game is all-over the place. There are ghosts, which scare you, but otherwise harmless, and there are zombies, which can kill you, but can be blocked by doors. Most of the zombies are invincible. Sometimes you need to outrun them, sometimes to sneak past, sometimes beat them in QTE.
It's rough around the edges for sure. Sometimes your character gets stuck in geometry (not permanently, but you still feel it). And physics is a bit wonky. But it gets a lot things right, like giving you clues for puzzles if you struggle with them for more than a few minutes, or always guiding your eyes with light / color for the next objective. Candles, white boards or rusted sheets of iron are like signposts. Not as subtle as some other games, but still I rarely felt stuck for more than a couple of minutes.

The game is full of references. I already mentioned the chapter names are all nods to Lovecraft's novels and the portraits. At one point we learn that Hyde changed his family name to Stevenson.

But not only horror: there's a some of "Red Sparrow" being thrown around too. And I think to the Firewatch game as well.

Love how they have photos of Alan Poe and Lovecraft hanging around the house. Name of Chapter 8, “In the Mouth of Darkness” would make any Lovecraft fan smile, not just me. Other chapters are also references, but this was one of the most direct ones.