Worse still, it takes quite a while to become scary the opening level, set outside the mansion itself, is quite weak and unfocused.īut the biggest problem are the controls: they're a bit more rubbish than is necessary. For starters, beneath the postmodern glitz, it's essentially a simple arcade-style game, albeit one with puzzles and inventories to worry about. We've already mentioned The Blair Witch Project, but it's worth mentioning again, because it shares something of the same kind of spookiness. It's hard to convey why in words, but it adds to the chill-factor considerably (particularly when, say, you're creeping up a narrow staircase with a gun in your hand hearing the sound of a groaning zombie coming ever closer, and the picture starts breaking up). The programmers have cleverly included little touches that make it all leel' just like a real live TV show - bursts of static, clumsy zooms, moments where the character breaks out of the frame. The game itself is a bizarre blend of Tomb Raider, MDK, and Resident Evil with one very peculiar addition - the team of cameramen that constantly shadow your every move. Lest we forget, the original AITD allowed you to play as a man or a woman this time round you're both.Īnyhow, Dave's the star turn on a show called Devil Inside, a kind of televisual cross between The Cook Report and The Blair Witch Project The idea is that Dave leaps headfirst into ultra-violent paranormal crime scenes, with the resultant frights and fights introduced and MCed live on air by a cheesy host (named, unhilariously, Jack T Ripper). He is also blessed with the ability to transform himself into an occult dominatrix named Deva, for reasons beyond the realm of normal human understanding. The unlikely premise sees you controlling a future-world cable TV reporter called Dave, whose haircut makes him faintly reminiscent of whatsername out of the Swedish band Aqua.
Sadly, the AITD sequels suffered from an increased reliance on vaguely sinister whimsy as opposed to the raw, there-goes-my-underwear unpleasantness of the original, which went straight for the jugular by keeping the premise simple (you wander into a haunted house and very, very bad things start to happen almost immediately).Īpart from causing grown men to relieve themselves in front of their monitors, AITD also 'inspired' the original Resident Evil, in much the same way Star Wars inspired Battlestar Galactica.Īnyway, The Devil Inside revisits some of Chabrot's favourite territory - the increasingly sinister haunted mansion - and does it in a most intriguing way. The Devil Inside plopped out of the mind of Hubert Chabrot, creator of the infamous horror 'em up Alone in the Dark, one of the creepiest games this reviewer has ever played.
0 kommentar(er)
