The Diet co*ke of Evil
Developed and published by JanduSoft. A small company more known for their published works such as Ellen - The Game than their own titles. The Evil Inside is a short, indie title that best represents, if I shall charitably put it, a homage to popular horror experience: PT.
We explore a short first person psychological horror narrative through the family home of Mark, stuck within a loop aided by supernatural forces. Mark’s objective is to find out the truth behind his Mother’s murder through the use of puzzle finding and obtaining Ouija board pieces.
A plot with this premise severely lacked direction, this could have been impactful to the protagonist but lacked depth or meaning. Movement and monologues being delivered as if it was just another checklist of busy work to do.
The information I had picked up about the plot was cryptic but with enough experience testing games within the genre, I immediately felt disappointed filling in the blanks going “So I live in modern day Oregan, my name is Mark, I have connections to the spirit world and I’m looking into the murder of my Mother…I know exactly where this is going”.
This level of eye rolling started with the opening cutscene, it filled me with dread at how the horror was introduced, lacking the build up for organic moments. It felt crammed into the scene just to prove a point that this was meant to be a serious, super spooky game.
I often missed these “intense moments” when the cheap jump scares occurred, I was either; looking in the opposite direction due to the unchangeable high sensitivity when they popped up, or the lighting was so low, I couldn’t make out what I should be looking at. There was a co*cktail of horror tropes stuffed within. Such as the hallmark of a psychotic clown, it was tonally ajar. From here on out, I shall be dipping into the plot and spoilers will be ahead.
I did experience one moment of genuine anxiety within one of the earlier loops. Having to go inside the baby’s room, in the cot, facing away from you wriggling as the mobile about played out it’s tune. As someone who’s not particular maternal, I was half expecting the longer and longer that the scene played out. The baby’s head was going to roll around like a slinky down the stairs. Thankfully. It was an empty stint where nothing really happens, but it was the only feeling extracted throughout the experience.
From what I gathered about the story, in short: you murdered your Mother and your father took the blame. Absolute shocker that…I didn’t understand why though, neither was there any pay off from the revelation. It seemed a convenient tie-in to wrap up the plot.
The Evil Inside was a short lived experience, all 10 loops taking me approximately an hour to get through the story and obtain all achievements. The puzzle and exploration confined to a small section of the house which didn’t leave much room for a trial and error approach, the general concept felt that if you could pick it up, it was to progress the plot. On a side note, one extremely positive thing I found was despite how small the studio developing this was. There were several translations available to play Evil Inside.
The Brief:
The real horror is how awful of a copy Evil Inside is of PT. With alternative clones such as Visage, Evil Inside ranks at the bottom of the chain with nothing new to bring to the table. The cheap jump scares and lack of imagination only empowers the shoddy work released onto live stores and pushed out. Thankfully, the consumer has the option not to purchase this, failing to receive a recommendation.
- £10.74/$12.99/€12.99. All prices I feel egregious for value.
- 1.39GB download
- 1.0 TA Ratio with no current Walkthrough Guide on the site at the time of reviewing. YouTube guides are available with an estimated time of approximately 30 minutes to complete the 24 achievements listed.
2.0
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