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A genre-defining indie underdog, and one of the best horror experiences of the decade


★★★★★★★★★☆

The Beast Inside took me by an absolute surprise. I went into it knowing close to nothing about it (and consequently having ZERO expectations) and while playing it, I could not believe my eyes. See, I absolutely love a modern, first-person investigative horror genre. I always exalt Outlast as being one of the best horror games to ever scratch this particular itch of me and many others. However, I was never really able to find another title that would replicate its legendary atmosphere while also innovating on the genre as well and as uniquely as The Beast Inside. Many development studios have tried and many have failed. But not these guys, not Illusion Ray.

“You know where you would be if it wasn't for me? In that f*cking darkness! The old man would be p*ssing on your grave and all of f*cking Blackstone would still be full of human vermin.”
“Maybe, but that's not an excuse!”
“I don't need one. The choice is simple: you let the vermin spread and they will take over the world. Or you wipe them out, protecting the righteous few. They will call you a lunatic...So what?“
“It's time to accept the truth about myself, however terrifying it might be....“

The absolute uniqueness and eccentricity of The Beast Inside compared to any other games is difficult to describe. If I were to try, I would have call the game a blend of Frictional Games' titles, a bit of Outlast and a bit of Visage. The first point of comparison stands out in particular. While playing TBI, I could not help but to think of it as a love letter to both Amnesia: The Dark Descent and it's predecessor, Penumbra franchise. This is because of this game's main allure and the developers' absolutely genius idea - to create a duality of settings. The primary protagonist is an American CIA cryptanalyst going to his old family home for a retreat while the secondary playable character is a person who used to live at that same place in the mid 19th century. The constant switching of perspectives, jumping from 20th to 19th is what really helps sell the experience and is what initially evokes the similarities to Frictional Game's titles - basically you are switching from Amnesia to Penumbra, expect with less surreal insanity and more with mysterious modern horror elements akin to Outlast. While it may seem like an odd mix, Illusion Ray managed to take the best out of all of these games and spin-it into a whirlwind of events you won't be able to get enough of until the very end.
Game-play-wise, the game takes advantage of both distinct settings and assigns each of the a different mechanical role. In the 20th century story section, you deal much more with mystery-solving and constant uncertainty about what exactly is going on but always feel there is some kind of over-arching threat. It really pushes you to put your brain capabilities to the test but I have to praise devs yet again here - all puzzles are very logical and definitely doable without play-through, although it may take some time but the emotional and intellectual pay-off is absolutely worth the effort. In contrast, the 19th century part of the game goes much harder on the horror and jump-scares in order to really illustrate the Protagonist's fall into madness. And I have to say - I was surprised by how well all the animations along with audio-visual design were done, given the developers being small indie team with correspondingly small budget. Some of the are genuinely terrifying the narrative interconnection of these horror elements with the truly is a work of art.
There are, of course, some downsides, as you might expect. Even this masterpiece was not spared of its own issues, primary of which being the performance, which even after the years of updates has still not been ironed out, although it is definitely playable. Controls are also very wonky and at times even unresponsive. The controller implementation is not great either. The biggest problem I have with the game though has to be the lack of any New Game + mode or at least the ability to replay chapters. I expected this would be a given since the game has multiple endings but no - once you finish the game, you have to start fresh with no option of returning to a previous save point. That is a real shame as it would not have been that difficult to implement.
To summarize and give a little bit of a TL:DR: The Beast Inside is an unexpected surprising addition to the field of indie horrors which easily defeats its competition by ingenious and distinctive narrative approach and choice of setting. It is also incredibly well-paced, ensuring you will have a memorable and smooth experience from begging to end of this 10-12 hour journey packed with unforgettable content. I can not praise this game enough - you owe it to yourself to give it a shot and if you can look over it's budget-related annoyances, you'll be in for one of the best horror games of the past ten years.
Positives & Negatives


Positives
Negatives


+ Graphically, the game looks stunning - the developers really put Unreal Engine's capabilities to the test
- The performance was very much playable but also quite lacking - the game only lets you go up to 120 fps max (which is not that big of a deal) but even on a good machine, you will often struggle to keep that up due to poor optimization - this is particularly prominent in the chapter of the game with the fog outside


+ Masterful audio-visual design which fuels the unforgettable atmosphere the games strives to deliver
- Some animations were too lack-luster and unpolished (usually prominent in the 20th century character interactions)


+ Unique approach to the setting of the game - the duality of the different time periods creates a distinctive atmosphere and ensures you won't get bored of either
- Lack of New Game + or a chapter selector


+ One of the better horror stories of the current era - while the ending twist(s) may have been somewhat predictable, some of its delivery still took me by surprise the ending choices are really well-made
- There is still quite a few bugs and glitches present, although nothing game-breaking or too detracting from the experience


+ Well-written characters with surprisingly robust voice-acting that really helps to sell the emotions they try to convey



+ Though a minor thing, I especially appreciated the first-person animations and gesturing during cutscenes - too few FP games do this and it just adds so much to the delivery



+ Great soundtrack



+ Gameplay, despite being the traditional horror-adventure built on UE mechanically is actually very distinctive in the amount of different options you will go through, from Amnesia/Penumbra type of exploration to more modern examine-objects-closely mechanics. What was a really pleasant surprise to me, however, was the isolated (but long-enough) combat section - the developers really wanted to dabble in everything and surprisingly, unlike in many of similar games, it actually works!



+ Stellar level design - both the general environments of the map and the specific landmarks feel amazing to explore, which applies to both the interiors and the exteriors