The Inpatient Reviews
The Inpatient's short duration and lack of entertainment value doesn't warrant its forty dollar price tag. For fans of Until Dawn, it does a decent job of filling in important information prior to the events of the original game. For everyone else, it's a dull experience that never quite feels like it's going anywhere worthwhile. Horror and VR are a natural fit, but with The Inpatient, it's clear that the pairing doesn't always work quite the way it should.
For my first playthrough I'd had a few tall glasses of water and the experience of stepping into the sanatorium was akin to actually visiting a real place rather than simply strapping on a headset; I felt like I was an actual presence within this world and, coupled with the voice commands, I found myself fully inhabiting my character. Subsequent playthroughs inevitably lost that sense of wonder but, in terms of narrative resolution, I found that my decisions led to a far more satisfying outcome than my first time through.
Another confident entry in the Until Dawn universe placing you "IN" the patient by implementing clever techniques while leaving other areas with lingering symptoms
While The Inpatient tries, it manages to be little other than extremely boring. Long scenes of walking slowly while having exposition dumped on you does not make for an entertaining narrative.
The Inpatient has a great premise and concept but unfortunately falls flat. Everything that it tries to do has been done better by either its own predecessor or its competition. For someone just getting into virtual reality, it offers a great little" haunted house" experience, but ultimately lacks the substance to please anyone else.
The Inpatient has a solid core that is coupled with a gimmick that detracts from it.
After a promising start The Inpatient turns out as a flop in almost all areas.
Review in German | Read full review
The Inpatient is one of PSVR's best. It's a shining example of presence and engagement. The visuals impress and it uses a ton of clever tricks to fully immerse the player in the experience of living out Blackwood Sanatorium's final days, making me feel like I was actually there. There are fun Easter eggs for those who have played Until Dawn, but The Inpatient can still be enjoyed without. The overall plot does fall flat in the final act as the scares give way to a less-than-exciting conclusion, but the branching possibilities means that even after two playthroughs, untold stories of the sanatorium still await me.
The Inpatient is an interesting VR experience. It's immersive, absorbing and sometimes very creepy and effective, but it also feels like only half the game it could have been. With more real interaction and more for the player to see and do, we might have had a new highlight in the PSVR line-up. As it is, it's another intriguing but short-lived experience, which hints at a richer, more ambitious tale of terror than the one it ultimately delivers.
The Inpatient is a fittingly terrifying visit to the sanitorium that set Until Dawn in motion and does a good job pivoting from campy slasher tropes to more psychological horror. Its choices lack the same punch though, and despite its shorter runtime, The Inpatient does a worse job of convincing you to play through it multiple times. Despite that, it's captivating world and solid opening remain engrossing, even if its upended near its closure.
Despite some visual qualities, an elaborate atmosphere and some good jump-scares, The Inpatient is too short and ultimately disappointing in terms of gameplay and story.
Review in French | Read full review
Despite being developed for the same team that made Until Dawn, The Inpatient lacks of a thrilling story and nice motion controllers that can turn it into a memorable experience for the PlayStation VR.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
The Inpatient's strong opening is undone by a rushed finale, and while the various plot permutations add replayability, they come at the cost of a fulfilling narrative. As a PlayStation VR experience, this is a fine-looking spook-'em-up with some neat innovations that help create a tactile world, but the story is far too fragmented and, frankly, flat to do justice to the universe it's inspired by.
An entertaining if ultimately shallow instalment in the Until Dawn series, being the most visually stunning PSVR title to date isn't quite enough for The Inpatient to overcome its sluggish pace and reductive game design.
The Inpatient is a boring VR adventure with rough graphics, slow plot, strange controls, weak direction and a terrible localization that violates the logical connections of the game.
Review in Russian | Read full review
Supermassive Games has aimed for something truly ambitious in the horror sector with The Inpatient. While there are some fine ideas in play, this brief psychological experience could've used a little bit more time in therapy.
Though The Inpatient shines in a few areas, it falls short of what made Until Dawn one of finest horror games of this generation.
PlayStation 4's prequel to horror adventure Until Dawn is a bleak tale of psychological stress that quickly becomes a haunted house fairground ride
Supermassive Games' virtual reality thriller fails to make the most of both its intriguing premise and its chosen medium
Despite an incredible opening hour, the second half of the game really falls off a cliff, and never quite recovers. If you have PSVR and like Until Dawn, it's a no-brainer, but it's not the "more Until Dawn" we all really want.