Rating
The Inner Friend
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 and scary, mysterious at times, the world of The Inner Fri...
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The Inner Friend Reviews
Professional reviews from gaming critics
Traversing a terrifying, multi-dimensional modern art exhibit for 2 hours can get tedious, but it never stops piquing your curiosity.
Lots of us have great memories of our childhood. Drinking from the hose, staying up past curfew, playing in the summer sun. All of these activities and more encapsulated my childhood. What happens when we look back at our youth through the eyes of a nightmare? PLAYMIND’s game The Inner Friend left me asking that question. Or, rather, that’s what I believe the game was trying to convey. This game lets the player decipher the narrative themselves, not telling its story outright—maybe it could do more to help you find the final answer to the questions you’ll ask. Regardless, the sad truth is that...
Going into the game not really knowing what to expect, The Inner Friend proved to be a pleasant surprise. With an intriguing concept, open story, immersive environments and dynamic yet silent characters, you’ll be hard-pressed to find anything else as unique. If you can look past the few technical issues – which can hopefully be ironed out with a patch – you’ll find a worthwhile story about overcoming loneliness and self-doubt, cherishing your friendships and rediscovering who you are.
Horror games aren’t always just about jump scares and gore. They can have deep, underlying messages about our darkest fears and deepest traumas. The Inner Friend digs deep, dredging up a past that may have been best forgotten.
The Inner Friend is a game with interesting ambitions that doesn't quite gel together into a cohesive whole. While elements of the game (music and creature design) are quite stellar, other areas (puzzles, controls) suffer enough to hold the game back from what it could have been. The Inner Friend is still worth a look as an interesting experiment, just go in forewarned about the parts that don't work so well.
The Inner Friend isn’t a bad game, but it never really rises above mediocrity. As a result, it's difficult to recommend unless the narrative premise attracts you. There are some moments of greatness amidst an interesting take on trauma and the idea of replaying unresolved memories from one’s past, but the overall feel is distinctly average.
An interesting journey through the emotions in our memories.