The Beast Inside is based around the premise of a young man returning to his family home with his wife. Intending to make a living out in this rustic farmhouse, the game begins with the arrival of the couple at the estate.
The demo is a pre-alpha and so is far from finished (with a project late 2019 release) although this isn’t to say the game is broken or overly buggy with the graphics and build quality feeling quite tight (although I did swap to using keyboard and mouse as the gamepad controls aren’t 100% implemented yet).
The opening of the game feels portentous; we drive down to the dilapidated rural estate through the winding, empty roads, an old well and park up near the surrounding, silent forest with an oddly unsettling outhouse section off to the right. It feels like the start of an enjoyable horror b-movie.
Whilst the mechanics seem fine, especially in the physics department, (there’s a real sense of weight to all the items) the storytelling felt stunted and it was hard to work out if it was supposed to be so fractured or if it’s due to the early design phase, so I won’t judge that here.
After the relatively basic opening chapter, which introduces you to the house and characters, the second chapter focuses more on exploration and eeriness, opening up the story of the house and family far more.
Summary
I like the premise of The Beast Inside, its genre horror vibe and simple setup feels like it could be tasty slow-burner if handled properly.
My concerns would be that the atmosphere and tone would be bogged down by constant exposition and backstory, or that there’s a danger in these sorts of games to rely on jump-scares and over-plotting.
Judging from the pacing of the first couple of chapters, though, The Beast Inside feels like it’s heading in the right direction for my personal tastes, a slow, deliberate unveiling of an unsettling truth and so I ’m really looking forward to the finished product.
Right, I’m off to throw a load of books out of a window.
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