Welcome to our review of The Inner Friend, a very spooky puzzle game with some unusual gameplay.
Led by a mysterious Shadow, face fears and nightmares inhabiting its materialized subconscious universe. Diving into a unique and eerie world, relive the Shadow’s childhood memories, collecting them to restore what was once its safe haven. Journey always deeper through the subconscious, unravel a rich but wordless story, and encounter gruesome beings, whom it is necessary to escape. Ultimately, however, you have to face them.
The Inner Friend features a rich visual environment, supported by an immersive soundscape and a cinematic soundtrack enhancing immersion and emotional moments. Movement, imagery, and music are the main ways for the player to interact with the Shadow, their guide throughout the descent. Dark, scary, and mysterious, the world of The Inner Friend is a surrealist representation of memories and fears.
Having won several prizes in the past, The Inner Friend sets the expectations high and I went in hoping for the best. Well, spoiler alert, I got something weird in return. Not a bad game, just little janky control and a complex game that can be described as a puzzle game with a kids’ approach.
So the main hub, so to speak, is a freefall where you are falling into a void and all-round you are structures where you need to basically land. Once you land, you get to find a kind of teleport into the puzzle. For reasons of keeping this short, I will explain the first two puzzles I had, just to showcase all the differences and the smarts behind em.
First off, I was in some sort of school, trying to find my way out. Throughout the entire school were red beams that seemed to kill you. Basically the entire time, you are escaping a maze. Once you finally hit the final chamber, that maze turns into another puzzle game.
Those aforementioned red beams are blocking your way, but for some reason, books cancel out their destructive powers and after some smart puzzling you get to escape that specific level. All while the game plays out and you learn some things about what is going on.
Next place I ended up in, a museum. I was perplexed by the sudden change of atmosphere. Where the school felt really eerie, the museum had this modern real feel to it. The puzzles here were more about hiding and seeking, which I loved as a kid. But in The Inner Friend, this game was darker. Getting spotted meant you went back to the beginning of the room you were in.
This game has some strange eerie feeling to it and I love just stopping and watching my character become complete again. This will make sense if you play it. Would I play it again? Yes, but I dislike the entire void to get into a level. It often felt useless to me. Also, I had some borked controls at times, but considering this is a big project coming from a smaller indie studio, I can look past this.
In conclusion, The Inner Friend is a bit of a hit and miss. I said WTF out loud several times during my gameplay, it got me to express the F word more than a few times as well. I just wish there was a little more context to what you do DURING the actual game. Luckily there is no real death?
