Polish-based development studio Illusion Ray first released The Beast Inside in October 2019 and brought it to handheld consoles a couple of years later. The Beast Inside is now being released on Nintendo Switch, and this review will cover how the game runs on the Switch. If you are looking for a more in-depth review, you can find that “here,” which, funnily enough, I also covered.

I was keen to jump into this title as it’s something I enjoyed on the Xbox Series X and was a little disappointed with the longer loading screens, which is not the end of the world but would have liked to jump into the game a little quicker. The graphics let the title down on the Switch and the controls needed work but will go into more detail about them later. I was surprised the puzzles were easy enough to do on the Switch which was something I was concerned about but regardless was enjoyable.

I would have liked to see a little tutorial or even some on-screen prompts for the controls on this title. I was button-mashing like an idiot trying to open doors and pick up the boxes at the start of the game with basic movement stuff being self-explanatory.

It would have been cool for the developers to add a couple of touch-screen controls to this title like pressing the door handle and swinging it open. Once I got a little more used to the controls everything seemed to work well apart from the slightest feeling of delay in the movement controls. However, that could also be me being used to playing on Xbox.

I didn’t notice any difference in the audio on this game, and I was not expecting to hear any because I can’t see why it would be changed simply by porting the game to another console. I hate the audio on the Switch at the best of times, which one could describe as tinny, so I used my wireless earbuds and got involved in the game, which was quite enjoyable from just lying in bed and playing.

I was a little disappointed with the graphics in this title and how far back they have been pulled for the Switch compared to the Xbox Series X. I’m well aware it’s nowhere near as powerful but it felt like it had been wound back too far and lost the great looking parts of the game.

I’ve played a few titles on the Switch and feel like the developers could have done more work to make this game look graphically better on this console.

The game genre needs spooky lighting and darkness to paint the scene and make the player sit on the edge of their seat. The cutscenes had even been wound back which was super surprising and made me want to go back to the Series X to watch them as they had that level of creepiness at times. I was scared to even put the game on the TV knowing how it looked on the handheld and once I did it didn’t stay there for long.

I’m hoping the developers can do a little more work with this title and beef up the graphics to add that thriller aspect back to the game and not something that looks like it belongs on the PlayStation 2. The game is great with great puzzles and a great storyline but the graphics let this version of the title down. I would love to see some touch-screen controls implemented and maybe fine-tune the controls more.

Written by: Hayden Nelson