As a longtime Humble Bundle member, I now have hundreds and hundreds of games in my Steam library that I've never tried. I've decided that I will occasionally pick one of these games at random, and give it a shot, recording my experiences for posterity.
First up is The Beast Inside, a 2019 puzzle-based horror title from developer Illusion Ray Studio. Here's how the game is described on Steam:
"The Beast Inside is a unique, gripping twist on thriller and survival horror. Immerse in the story of long-buried secrets, personal tragedies, and madness. Play as two protagonists bounded by dark heritage. Combat the enemies, solve riddles and experience real terror in the 3D-scanned environment."
I played The Beast Inside for two 45-minute sessions. The first session was intriguing, full of atmospheric horror, gore, and jump scares. Popping back and forth in time between two protagonists, the game gets off to a rousing start. By setting up the setting in modern day (or, you know, the 1970s) and then putting the player 100 years in the past in the same setting, the game reveals some pretty strong hooks. Seeing places and objects in both time periods is fascinating, and The Beast Inside punctuates its initially strong narrative with some decent puzzles and even better jump scares. Check it out:
The second session reveals that The Beast Inside takes a strange turn. The 1970s protagonist is a code analyst working for the CIA, which brings some unwelcome video game-y mechanics into the game with the introduction of a "quantum scanner", which allows players to peer into the recent past. I thought the game was working just fine without this device, which felt overly modern and took me out of the game a bit. The preoccupation with Soviet agents also struck me as tonally strange.
I might keep going with The Beast Inside, but I'm unlikely to record any more of my sessions. I'm hoping that the game will pivot back into the 1800s setting, as I found it to be far more effective and interesting than the present day stuff. Either way, The Beast Inside is very nice looking (though that Emma is looking a little rough around the edges), and the narrative hooks might be strong enough to sustain the entire game.
The Beast Inside is now available on Steam for $24.99.
