Fans of the Until Dawn series will be pleased to hear a third game has joined the franchise. Although Until Dawn: Rush of Blood is also a VR title, it seemed to rub a fair few players the long way. With The Inpatient, we now have a prequel to Until Dawn which offers a small reprieve. The game is not perfect, though, as it still falls short in a few aspects. The Inpatient is available for the PlayStation VR for $39.99. Waiting for a small sale might be the better option if you want to try this new installment.
When it comes to horror thriller games on the PlayStation. Until Dawn is in most people’s top five. The game has an incredible atmosphere and feels very creepy almost from beginning to end. When this experience received a VR installment in the form of Rush of Blood, there was a lot of initial excitement. Unfortunately, the game fell a bit flat in many different ways, leaving most players unsatisfied. With The Inpatient, developer Supermassive Games hopes to convince most PSVR owners. It is highly doubtful that will be the case, though.
As we have come to expect from the Until Dawn series, the atmosphere and visual flair of The Inpatient knows no equal. Everything looks, feels, and sounds as genuine as one would expect. In this game, you witness everything from a first-person perspective, which immediately adds to the immersion. Moving around in a wheelchair through the sanatorium is about as creepy as one would expect. This prequel predates Until Dawn by a few decades, though, which is something people will either love or hate. Prequels of video games rarely do well, but The Inpatient is off to a good start in this regard.
Once you get out of the wheelchair, you are left to your own devices in a cell. This also serves as a brief tutorial to get the hang of the game. It’s not the most conventional system, though, and it will irate a lot of players more often than not. Moving around in the game world requires a DS4 controller, and there is no option to run or sprint. It’s a walking simulator in VR and one that has a slower pace than your average garden snail. It also takes away from the experience as a whole, as any “scary moments” are simply not convincing whatsoever. For a horror title, the game falls woefully short in key areas very quickly.
With a story that lasts 3-4 hours, players get a decent amount of content. Keep in mind The Inpatient costs $40 and is a glorified jump-scare walking simulator for over half of the play time. There are some collectibles to pick up, which will provide some additional background to the overall story. It is very difficult to recommend this game to anyone, even if you are a fan of the Until Dawn series. While we love the non-VR games in the franchise, both SPVR installments have been rather disappointing so far. In fact, we would rather not see another installment unless the developers crank out something worthwhile.
For the price of $40, The Inpatient doesn't offer enough content or fun to its players. it is by far the worst installment in the Until Dawn franchise to date.