The Inpatient Reviews
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.
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 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.
After a promising start The Inpatient turns out as a flop in almost all areas.
Review in German | Read full review
The Inpatient has a solid core that is coupled with a gimmick that detracts from it.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Inpatient's interesting premise and ideas cannot save a game plagued by a badly paced plot and a boring gameplay.
Review in Italian | Read full review
The Inpatient is a psychological horror that, while technically above standard, is devoid of anything noteworthy.
The Inpatient has very good moments of immersive horror and high production values. On the other hand a bad history, irrelevant characters, imprecise controls and almost nonexistent game mechanics leave us with a forgettable VR experience.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
The Inpatient is a nice adventure from the developers of the Until Dawn saga, that offers a great use of the voice commands and PlayStation Move controllers in order to deliver a thrilling story, with a dark atmosphere and a few great jump-scares. Despite that, the short duration and the expensive price are two disappointing flaws that you should consider before spending almost 40 bucks for a story that you can complete in 2-to-3 hours.
Review in Italian | Read full review
The Inpatient is one of the most disappointing games ever made. Even when detached from the excellent Until Dawn, on its own it's a shallow walking sim with glossy production values. This might be okay for a one and done play-through, if acquired for free, and even then it is hard to justify the cost of the time spent playing this husk of a game. This is at best a glorified and expensive demo reel for talented 3D artists and VR programmers - not really a game worth playing at all.
The Inpatient is a first-person horror game for PlayStation VR that takes place decades before the events of Until Dawn. Although the story takes place during an important time in which the origins of the enemy from the original game are explained, The Inpatient touches superficially on those events, focusing more on a psychological terror and in its own narrative - you are a patient in Blackwood Sanatorium, suffering from amnesia and blackouts, trying to understand how and why you are there. While the game has great graphics and good moments of horror and tension, sometimes it gets tedious and is relatively short, not justifying the high launch price.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Playing off the wonderful formula of Until Dawn, but polishing whatever rust was there, it succeeds in nearly every task it sets out to do. It is chilling without being cheesy. Horrifying without being overt. Disturbing without being grotesque.
A below average VR experience, with jump-scares reliant horror and an uninteresting story and plot choices. It might appeal to some Until Dawn fans, but there are far better VR experiences elsewhere.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
Unfortunately The Inpatient is not the game I had hoped for. The limited freedom of movement clouds the overall impression very much. Actually you don't get a game here, but rather an interactive movie. The dialogues seem to be very long, there are often long pauses between the sentences. And also the lame locomotion later in the game is unfortunately very annoying and artificially prolongs the already quite short pleasure with about 3 hours playing time. The Jumpscares are used too often in my opinion and the effect is unfortunately wearing off a bit. Nevertheless, the gaming experience, especially because of the great immersion, is fantastic and you start it again and again to reach all possible endings.
Review in German | Read full review
The replay value of this game lives as far as your sanity can take you.
The Inpatient is a very slow paced experience that ends when it really gets interesting. It's short play time and limited gameplay possibilities makes it a missed opportunity.
Review in German | Read full review