Survival horrorPsychological horrorHorrorHorror puzzleMystery and detective horror
The Beast Inside
Rate itA codebreaker, a diary from the 1860s and a family nightmare that crosses a century.
- Platforms
- PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch
- Stores
- Steam, GOG
- Price
- Paid
- Rated
- Very Positive on Steam (83% of 12,203 reviews); Metacritic 74; OpenCritic 68; 4.04 of 5 on PlayStation Store (1,250 ratings); 3.8 of 5 on GOG (154 reviews)
- Length
- about 8 hours
- Players
- 1
- Controls
- Keyboard and mouse or controller; full controller support on Steam.
- Made by
- Illusion Ray
- Released
- 2019
On GOG: one of the GOG horror games.
No. 24 of the horror games set in mines
What frightens In 1979 a CIA codebreaker moves to a quiet country house with his pregnant wife and finds the diary of Nicolas Hyde, who lived there in the 19th century. Both men face a top-hatted horror, a masked butcher, ghosts, bloody messages on the walls and a family past in the forests and mines of Blackstone.
Content: gore, blood, violence, abuse, strong language.
The Beast Inside is a first-person survival horror thriller from Illusion Ray. You play two men in different centuries bound by a dark heritage: Adam, a CIA cryptanalyst who moves to the countryside in 1979 and cracks Soviet codes, and Nicolas Hyde, whose 19th-century diary Adam finds in the attic. Stealth, code puzzles and a revolver for the worst moments carry you through Blackstone. It came to PC in 2019, PlayStation and Xbox in 2022 and Switch in 2024.
About The Beast Inside
The Beast Inside was made by Illusion Ray and released on Steam in October 2019, with a Metacritic score of 74. PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series versions followed in November 2022, and a Switch version in October 2024. Its makers call it a twist on thriller and survival horror, built with photogrammetry, 3D-scanned objects and motion capture.
In Boston in 1979, Adam, a CIA cryptanalyst, leaves the city with his pregnant wife Emma for a house he inherited in the woodland, to work on a military code that may change the course of the Cold War. In the attic he finds the diary of Nicolas Hyde, son of the first owner of Hyde's mansion, and once opened it carries the nightmares of the past into Adam's time.
You play both men, in two stories that run side by side and only meet near the end. Nicolas explores Blackstone, the semi-open domain of the Hyde family with its forests and pyrite mines, trying to uncover what happened in his childhood. Adam's chapters move from carrying boxes and painting walls to cracking Soviet codes with a cipher tool while being hunted. Along the way there are sections of sneaking and evading, coded lockboxes holding lore documents, a cave system with miners to slip past, and a revolver for the worst moments; a top-hatted figure, a masked butcher, ghosts and bloody messages on the walls wait in the dark. Its makers say you decide how the story ends.
The store pages warn of strong language, violence, gore and abuse, and it is rated Mature 17+ and PEGI 18. It suits players who like story-led horror with a mystery to unravel and puzzles to work out on paper.
How to play The Beast Inside
- Buy it on Steam or GOG for Windows, or on PlayStation, Xbox or Switch.
- Play Adam in 1979 and Nicolas in the 19th century, switching as the story goes.
- Explore the house, the Blackstone woods and the mines, collect clues and solve the mysteries.
- Use Adam's cipher tool to crack coded messages and open locked boxes.
- Sneak past threats and use the revolver when there is no other way out.
- Your choices decide how the story ends.
Screenshots
Tips
- Read the diary and every note; the two stories explain each other.
- Keep pen and paper nearby for the cipher puzzles.
- Look out for locked boxes in each chapter; find the clue nearby to crack their code and get the lore inside.
- Choices in Nicolas's chapters change parts of Adam's story, so think before you act.
Questions
Who do you play in The Beast Inside?
Two men: Adam, a CIA codebreaker in 1979, and Nicolas Hyde, who lived in the same house in the 19th century.
Is it gory?
Yes. The store page warns of violence, gore and abuse.
Does it have more than one ending?
Its makers say you decide how the story will end.
How long is The Beast Inside?
About 8 hours for the main story, 10 hours with side content and around 12 and a half hours to complete everything, per HowLongToBeat figures shown on GOG.
What platforms is it on?
Windows PC on Steam and GOG, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.
Ratings and reviews
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