The Devil Inside

The Good
Horrible creatures haunt the night, mutated freaks, psychotic legions of the undead and similar monsters are on the loose so who gets to eliminate these supernatural entities and keep us safe at night? The cops? S.T.A.R.S.? How about a TV show? That's right! In this game the undead are the chosen fodder for the world's highest rated reality-TV show: The Devil Inside.

In the show the guest hunter (in this case a freaky dude called Dave) gets to clean out the undead trash with a selection of firearms to keep the ratings up. To add to the mix this particular hunter hides within him a sultry demoness called Deva (get it? Dave/Deva... that's subtlety for you...) with her own agenda, and there's also a nosy reporter out to expose the whole show as a scam that gets caught by the monsters and more surprises in the middle.

While the game plays like your typical 3D action shooter, it does borrow some interesting elements from survival/horror games, most prominently the scary set pieces and great scripted sequences, as well as other touches such as light puzzle solving (i.e. find the battery for the elevator...) and inventory management.

Other than that, go around killing everything in sight be it with the weapons you find around as Dave or the various spells that you get with Deva when you collect your enemies soul's and offer them to your demonic lord via the various pentagram portals that populate the game world.

The gameplay also does a good job of introducing the game show element into the game flow, with a visible cameraman that tags along capturing the action (and who can get killed and replaced in seconds), plenty of camera options (with even a p.i.p. feature) as well as gameshow interludes hosted by a polygonal Lance Boyle complete with rating meters and dancing babes, and in between all the zombie blasting you can have!!

Other goodies include the aforementioned scripted sequences which really lift the game up, original enemies like a grandma zombie and pool-shooting demons as well as a dark and sarcastic sense of humor that makes the whole game much more enjoyable.

Oh yeah, and this game had the slow-mo panning deaths a la Matrix before Max Payne decided to build a game around it.

The Bad
While the textures are actually rather good, the overall graphic quality is not so hot, with lackluster lightning effects, and downright disappointing models (Deva looks like she was ripped from the original Jedi Knight).

Also, the level design is dull and predictable, the game is completely linear and simple, the pop-ish music works in the game show context but clashes to much with the main game, and it generally feels like it's missing some attitude (where's the excessive gore? the cursing? the gratuitous sex??), oh well...

The Bottom Line
Solid an unique action game which brings an original blend of action, cheesy horror, lots of self-parody, black humor and..... uh.... reality tv shows!

Not really a must-buy since it still falls under the "yet another action game with zombies" sub-genre, but still enjoyable enough. Great for action gamers looking for something that tries something new without being a complete revolution, fans of the genre won't be disappointed, and the rest of you should check it out if you see it on the bargain bin.