'The Beast Inside' Preview
“A narrative-driven horror experience, with photorealistic graphics that utilize the full potential of Unreal Engine 4. providing a beautiful setting that allows players to uncover the dark mysteries of the past.” This is how The Beast Inside advertises itself; a game created by Movie Games, a Polish publisher and developer and Illusion Ray, a company that merges moviemaking with the game industry experience. Don’t worry if you haven’t heard of the title before as it is currently running a Kickstarter campaign with a demo available for backers.
Having a soft spot for narrative-driven games and being a fan of the horror genre as well, it was obvious for me to jump on the opportunity to try the demo of a game that promised so much. The latter offers the first two chapters of the game.
After a nightmarish vision of what looks like a torture room, we are sent shortly back in time to a week earlier. Adam and his wife are seen moving in their new home in the woods. Once there, you are given control of Adam to move some boxes up into the attic where he stumbles upon the diary of the previous tenant, Nicolas, who lived some hundred years ago.
As Adam reads through the diary entries, the scene changes and you are now put in control of Nicolas. After you’ve helped him light up candles for the evening, Nicolas notices someone in front of his house and decides to check who it is at this late hour. However the uninvited guest is nowhere to be found and Nicolas decides to check in the yard and the house fearing it might not be a well wisher. But as he gets back inside, someone or something attacks Nicolas, and now there is a trail of blood on the floor! As Nicolas carries on to uncover this mystery he comes across something horrific…
And that concludes the 40 minutes or so demo. The preview does not develop much on it but actual plot is obviously more detailed according to the devs:
Coming from an unknown indie developer, The Beast Inside is quite impressive. It lives up to its “photorealistic graphics” with stunning environments and character rendering. All of the screenshots in this article are those that I have taken the demo during my playthrough.
The voice acting is also professionally executed as is the music score that kept me on edge. To fuel the survival horror aspect, the demo included limited resources like matchsticks and lamp oil that gradually use up and of course I was always unarmed!
The whole thing screams "Resident Evil 7 clone" though. From the graphics to the semi-open setting to the mini puzzles to the first-person view, the inspiration of the game are evident. However that does not mean that it will necessarily end up as a copycat as its plot seems significantly different and the feature of shifting you between two characters centuries apart is an interesting addition. That said, I did enjoy the demo and the horror vibe that it permeates.
However, what I played of The Beast Inside is just that: a demo. Kickstarter is full of promising projects that eventually failed to deliver. Let’s hope that this project will differ and indeed live up to the expectations.
The Beast Inside is scheduled for a March 2019 release on Steam should it hit its $46k+ goal by April 1. The PS4, Xbox One and even VR versions are part of the stretch goals.
The Beast Inside Kickstarter campaign
