reviews). William R. Trotter of PC Gamer US wrote that "The Beast Within sets a new standard — within the graphic adventure genre, at any rate — for interactive entertainment". In Computer Gaming World, Johnny L. Wilson similarly declared it "a graphic adventure benchmark". Critic Philip Jong of Adventure Classic Gaming gave the game 5 out of 5 stars, saying that it "is an epic interactive adventure that triumphs in both gameplay and storytelling. It masterfully blends fantasy and a touch of real life history to add an unparalleled degree of realism to an adventure game. With this title, Sierra On-Line sets the standards for developing strong female leading roles; Jensen should be praised for her development of an intelligent female role model". A Next Generation critic likewise praised the character of Grace, as well as Joanne Takahashi's "appropriately sardonic" performance in the role. He compared the game favorably to Sierra's Phantasmagoria (which uses the same engine), citing the greater amount of gameplay content and better scenery, and rated it one of the overall best graphic adventures due to its "detailed and evolved storyline with an easy to use yet sophisticated graphic system". Maximum commented that "The Beast Within is one of the few [interactive movies] which manage to grasp the attention of the player, largely due to the interesting plot that runs throughout. Graphically the game is pretty smart too, the digitised actors working well with the computer-generated [scenery] on which they're super-imposed". Awards The Beast Within won Computer Gaming Worlds 1995 "Game of the Year" award, and was named the best computer adventure game of 1995 by Computer Games Strategy Plus, and the best of 1996 by GameSpot and PC Gamer US. It also won GameSpot's "Best Story" prize. Hailing it as "one of the best adventure games ever", the editors of PC Gamer US wrote: "If it had been just a movie, The Beast Within would easily beat 99 percent of what passes for horror on the big screen these days". The staff of Computer Gaming World called it "the continuation of a brilliant tradition—the graphic adventure as art". The Beast Within was a finalist for the Computer Game Developers Conference's 1996 "Best Adventure Game/RPG", "Best Script, Story or Interactive Writing" and "Best Use of Video" Spotlight Awards. However, these prizes went respectively to The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, You Don't Know Jack XL and Wing Commander