Originally released for PC in 2018, PLAYMIND’s The Inner Friend was met with generally favorable reviews on Steam; at least enough to make it worthwhile for the team to bring the psychological horror game to consoles. Now available for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, The Inner Friend is a must-own for fans of unsettling situations, jump scares, and the mental health genre as a whole.
Dive Right In
The Inner Friend begins with an out-of-body type of experience, in which players are looking at themselves effectively dying on a bed, naked, surrounded by various drug substances. The kicker? The person on the bed has a massive hole where his face should be. Players dive into their subconscious by literally traveling through the face-hole, respawning again as a figure resembling a cracked, porcelain child with pieces of his body missing. Walking through an opening in the wall leads players to a wide-open void filled with various abstract structures, which players must enter in order to visit each level, wherein lies the mystery and terror.
Levels are made up of various childhood memories, though it’s suffice to say that said memories are less than pleasant. From a run-down school, to a deadly hair salon, to some sort of twisted hospital/mental asylum, there really isn’t a moment in The Inner Friend that didn’t make me incredibly anxious and on-edge, with jump scares being effective and well-placed. This is heightened in the levels that feature enemies who actually chase after you. I don’t think my routine haircuts will ever be the same after experiencing the genuine terror I felt being chased by the salon’s shear-carrying fungus monster, who clearly never learned the rule about running with scissors.
Solid Platforming
Puzzles such as memory games, simple mazes, and timing movements correctly in certain areas also play a big part in moving the story forward. The puzzles aren’t overly involved, being intuitive and straightforward enough to not frustrate players, but challenging enough to be enjoyable.
After every level completion, a piece of the playable avatar is added back to its incomplete body. There aren’t too many levels, though, taking players roughly an hour and a half to complete.
However, an additional cinematic can be unlocked after completing the game by going back through the levels and finding hidden memorabilia, which adds a level of replayability to the short base game.
The only real issue I ran into while playing was with the left joystick on my controller used for moving the player around (the right stick controlled the camera). From a standing stop, no matter which way I moved the stick, the character would run forward slightly, and then turn to run in the direction I had intended. This wasn’t a huge issue after I got used to it, but it did cause some headaches during the parts of the game when precise movements were required.
Put Yourself In The Shoes
Finally, besides the effectiveness of the game’s scares, the thing that resonated with me most about The Inner Friend was the story. The game is based. off of a personal struggle, but, truth be told, there’s not a ton of depth to the overall narrative. However, I think that adds to the point that the game is trying to drive home. I may not have encountered the childhood traumas that are portrayed in the story, but I certainly had struggles of my own and have dealt - or have yet to deal - with those issues to be my best self, which is the overarching theme of the game. Playing The Inner Friend was a cathartic experience as I thought about my own inner self as I played. And in fact, in some sort of spooky coincidence, I used to have a recurring nightmare as a child that is eerily similar to one of the levels in The Inner Friend. That is a tale for another day, but it certainly felt wild to experience it as a conscious adult.
The Inner Friend is a great game for jump scare enthusiasts and platforming/puzzle fans. Although the short overall narrative isn’t super deep, its message surrounding mental health is one that is more than capable of resonating with players.
A PlayStation 4 copy of The Inner Friend was provided to TheGamer for this review. The Inner Friend is available now for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
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