The Beast Inside

I'm surprised no other reviews mention this, but: I found the game design to be VERY frustrating. I've played a few games like this, most recently Amnesia and Layers of Fear. I very rarely had to refer to a walkthrough to progress for those. I had to refer to a walkthrough like 10 times in the first hour for this one. Starting with the very first things you have to do, like putting the box on a particular desk (that is shining, except it looks like it's just sunlight, because it's right under a window with sunlight shining through), and if you put it on a different desk, the next audio line won't trigger when it should (when you find the attic locked). And on and on. Doing "story mode" doesn't affect this, because these aren't puzzles. Making basic progress is painful. Stuff that isn't intended to be a puzzle becomes one. I'll give it another try, but currently very frustrated with the poor design.

The Beast Inside has potential and I'm sure many find it ok. It looks good, the puzzles are mostly a-okay, it's atmospheric at times, and it was interesting enough for me to finish it (in about 8h). However, it's also pretty annoying. I could see what they were aiming at with the story, two main characters, horror elements and themes, but they all fell flat for me. The mystery is interesting, but doesn't seem to lead into anything partically rewarding. The main characters have very little in common (thematically or actually) and I don't really see the point for using two characters, storywise. The horror and sneaking bits don't work for me, they are mostly lame jumpscares and the sneaking mechanics seem off compared to any proper sneaking game. I think that this is an interesting little game, but also not very well thought out or executed. A shame really.

I love Shutter Island and a higher power knows that a game with pretty similar theme is win for me! 4.5/5 stars! Subtract 0.5 star due to bad frames in certain areas but rounding up overall is still a 5/5!

A fascinating game, full of sorprices.

So much stuff I'm having a blast.