The Devil Inside

"More or less, Hubert Chardot is like the movie director's Akira Kurosawa: like him, whatever he touches, it becomes great."

When i saw the the devil inside package in my videogames local store for the first time, i was really surprised.I usually pay lot of attention on latest news and games release , but i really didn't find much stuff on this.The always present reviews in the sites i usually frequent, a few words on some message boards, like for any other game that can't live the hype of the biggest titles.In the local store that i mentioned before, the package was dusty, forgotten in a shelf.No reviews on Gamefaqs.

And that's just a big mistake, 'cause this survival horror is a great experience, and i hope i will be able to let you know why.

''The devil inside'' is a game by CRYO Interactive, but especially a game by Hubert Chardot.

He is the man that create the masterpiece that ''alone in the dark'' is.For the people who don't know what Alone in the dark is, i can say to you only one thing: it's the father of all the modern survival horrors, in terms of game's structure and story conception.
So you have to understand that a new survival horror made by this man have to be under your attention, just because of real genius like him.

STORYLINE 910

The storyline, more or less, is quite classic: you are a man, Dave Cooper, an ex cop, that have a mission to accomplish.you will be alone versus thousands of monsters, there is a evil creature that must be killed, and a girl that must be saved.But it's how it's realized that make it interesting:

The real great idea is that you are making this because you're participating to a famous TV show, called '' The Devil Inside '', directed by Jack T. Ripper, specialized in discovering evil places and making you investigate them.
This time it's the house of Shadow Gate, upper Hollywood, where the police just discovered that lots of paranormal entities came from there, and that entities caused lots of deaths.It seems that it's a big demon that filled the house with demons, calling them from the hell, from where he escaped. it's name is Harry Grimes, a serial killer died some time before...

So when the game starts you will find yourself in front of the gates of the garden's house, with a cameraman that will follow you for the entire game, a flying camera with the same role of the cameraman, and a connection with the show that is making the transmission ''live''.So in the same time you are trying to kill a zombie with a chainsaw, hundreds of people are watching you, screaming, and Jack T. Ripper will use also some bad humor on you, damn him!To understand what i am trying to say, just think to the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie ''The Running Man''.And at the same time, a cop squad will make his way inside the house to solve the mystery, but it's a miracle if they will live for 2 minutes.
Every loading screen is called by Jack T. Ripper like a spot, every closed door is underlined by an ''OOOOOooooohhhhh!!!'' made by the public, and the result is really incredible.

During the game you will also have to save the classic girl in danger, Angelina Axelrod: the funny thing is that this girl enters the house because is making a special for a transmission of the scientific channel, and want to prove that this house and all the monsters are just a fake, just a Jack 's trick, but..

Deeva:
Last but not least: you have a particular ability, a particular power: you will be able to transform yourself into a female devil, a pretty lady dressed with a black latex suit, called Deeva.She has the ability of use spells:when you kill monsters, you will free their souls, and Deeva is able to eat this souls.When you will find passages to hell in the house, you just have to sacrifice these souls to the hell's lord, Satan, and he will give you more spells to use.

GRAPHICS 910

The game is fully polygonal constructed, so it's completely in 3d, no pre-rendered screens like in the resident evil series.You will explore fully constructed rooms that are made really well, with intelligent structure of the house that make it quite believable, and high quality textures.

All the rooms are quite detailed, and at a resolution of 1024 x 768 the games looks great, as little particulars that let you appreciate even more the game, like great lightning effects and reflections of the character in some floors and mirrors.

Some tv fuzzes on the camera screen will let you feel the tv connection with the Jack's show studios.

AUDIO 710

The sound track is really what the game needs.It's nice to listen at an horror track when you feel the tension of exploring creepy rooms, and it's nice to listen to some fast guitars when you are in the middle of a chainsaw massacre of ten zombies.Is still more nice when the public of the show react to what are you doing in the game with screams or other stuff.
Anyway if it was made with more tracks....

GAMEPLAY 710

The gameplay it's a little up from the standard: If you liked the R Evil or AITD controls, there is no reason why you will not like this.If you liked Silent Hill controls you will be at home.As it's all in 3d, you will be able to turn with your mouse-look and have always a perfect control of your character, using the keyboard.If you have problem with anything, you can also change the camera view .The fact is that it's not innovative in any sense, but anyway it works perfectly.

All the enemies can be destroyed with Dave's weapons or with Deeva's spells, and you will be able to aim to your enemies with a laser-line that your weapon generate.
Anyway, like is better to use weapons, it's almost useless to use the spells, because the mana that Deeva use is quite hard to regenerate ( you just have to wait because it auto-regenerate with time) because it will be so slow that maybe will induct you to prefer to use bullets.Also the spells are quite limited for the amount of mana that the latest ones use:you will discover that mana will finish with just 3 or 4 shots.

More focused on action then fear and terror, the movements are quite well made, and you can do more or less whatever you want except jumping.
The key of the game is explore: explore every single piece of the house, to activate something that will let you go through new areas.Find a key, push an hidden button, solve an easy-style puzzle, and so on.But it creates an atmosphere too, and it's this that keep you interested in the exploration without feeling just like playing an action shooter, thanks also to the structure of the detailed rooms .

Shooting is not a problem, the camera will let you hit enemies with not so much troubles, but still in the most difficult moments, against 10 enemies, it can result frustrating, especially if you are using Deeva's spells.Anyway nothing too bad.Enemies are destroyed in every single parts of their body, with local shots, and an eventually Matrix-like Slow motion 360° effect that will let you see how the head of the enemy explodes.

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GOOD POINTS

+ The Tv show idea in a survival horror is great, and makes the game.Good job for H Chardot.
+ Lots of weapons let you entertain your massacre party, from machine-guns to chainsaws.
+ Enemies are really well made and characterized, and the Alone in the Dark inspiration is declared:
you will find books about story and monsters in the house with lot of cool comments.
+ Difficulty is well balanced: the game will never result frustrating, but is not so easy to finish it in a few try.
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BAD POINTS

-Deeva can be developed in terms of story and gameplay in a better way.
-The standard console length: 5-6 hours to finish the game.
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LONGEVITY 610

A ''bonus show'' that opens after you finished it let you prepare for a second coming, but it's changes from the first time through the game are unidentified, so it seems unuseful.Anyway the game can be cool for his action, so it's not impossible that you will enjoy some other killing-with-a-chainsaw.

STORYLINE 910
GRAPHICS 910
AUDIO 710
GAMEPLAY 710
LONGEVITY 610

OVERALL 910

LAST WORDS.

I suggest you To BUY the game, or maybe if are not sure rent it and it will convince you.The game is quite good, and if you take a look at the survival horrors on PC you will find that they are just a few and only a few of the few are really well made like this.

The standard REQUIREMENTS of the game are:

WIN 9598
Pentium 2 266
64 mb Ram
Video accelerated card with 4 mb of ram
Directx 7
Cd-rom 8x
100 mb hard-disk free space.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/30/01, Updated 06/30/01