The Inpatient Reviews
Despite providing some interesting backstory for the Until Dawn universe, my enjoyment of The Inpatient is held back by dull characters and inconsistent scares.
A rare prequel that actually enhances its predecessor, The Inpatient takes a subtle but effective approach to psychological horror in VR.
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.
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.
Interesting yet limited VR game that puts you inside of an inmate on Blackwood Sanitorium, to experience a cinematic story that you can alter, but with little to none interactivity.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
The Inpatient is technically impressive and sometimes scary, but it´s rythm is too slow, and you can finish the main story within a couple of hours. It has different endings and collectibles, but we felt no urge to go back to the game once finished.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
The Inpatient is one of the best horror games that Virtual Reality has nowadays. Supermassive Games has created a great example of how to create an immersive story and has brought it to life for PlayStation VR. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-ldb4'); });
Review in Spanish | Read full review
The Inpatient is perhaps the first big disappointment of this 2018, at least for VR enthusiasts. Great graphics and sound, but everything else leaves something to be desired.
Review in Italian | Read full review
One of the most technically impressive PlayStation VR games so far but a disappointingly drab and unfocused prequel to Until Dawn, that takes itself far too seriously.
The Inpatient is a much quieter game than Until Dawn. It adopts a straight-faced tone, opting for psychological horror rather than grisly thrills. There's nothing wrong with that approach, but coming off the last game, it took some adjusting. I couldn't help but wish it was more, well, exciting. It's a technical marvel, but at times the experience feels hollow and uneventful. In the end, even though I'm glad to return to this universe, The Inpatient comes across as a bit of a missed opportunity.
There's two sides to The Inpatient: the first two thirds are tense, intriguing, and gives games like Resident Evil 7 a run for their money, but then the final third is ponderous, dialogue heavy, and has very little in the way of scares. With a play time of three to four hours it's a decent length for a VR game and does have replay value with it's alternate story paths. Despite it's flaws, The Inpatient is still much better than many of the VR horror games available, so it's worth checking out if you have an expensive fancy hat from Sony.
Supermassive Games' virtual reality thriller fails to make the most of both its intriguing premise and its chosen medium
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.
PlayStation 4's prequel to horror adventure Until Dawn is a bleak tale of psychological stress that quickly becomes a haunted house fairground ride
Though The Inpatient shines in a few areas, it falls short of what made Until Dawn one of finest horror games of this generation.
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.
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
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'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.