Beyond The Evil Review – Sleep, Snoop, Repeat

The introduction to Beyond the Evil was a bit weird. You play P.I. Gary Nephew – already a great name, as it isn’t Nash Bastardface or Dirk Laserfist; it’s just… normal. Gary’s apartment isn’t, however, as if he were a remote computer engineer, venture capitalist, or YouTube influencer, as his loft residence has a built-in lift and a pool table. What’s with the ominous soundtrack, then?

That’s not the only thing, as the moment you don the badge, your first objective is to find his bed and go to sleep. After doing nothing! The phone then rings. I walk over to an old-school Nokia, but I can’t pick it up, though I can still hear distant ringing. Ah, I have a modern phone, but it’s just hidden. Now I need my car keys, and that’s the real challenge.

Aim…. Steady…. Click!

Beyond the Evil is a first-person psychological horror, and to be honest, it’s quite nice to see something like this on the Switch 2 that looks decent and not just crappy artefacts filling the space. However, there’s a rather shocking aspect, at least for these thumbs, in playing this on the Switch 2: aiming the pinpoint cursor with thumbsticks was hard work.

Though it looks the part, it’s pretty hard to navigate around the game with sticks, and I kind of wish I was playing this with a mouse. The usual elements are here: pick up a 3D object, spin it around and admire the artist’s modelling skills, find a few notes to fill in the gaps and uncover the mystery that you’ve been hired to do.

Again, with the weird, at times, Gary sounds like the voice artist who did Ryo in Shenmue, but the other ‘talent’ sounds either AI or phoned-in and makes The House of the Dead 2 acting seem Oscar-worthy. It’s this abrupt phone call from the very beginning that leads us into a murder scene, experimentation, shady stalkers, and blisters.

Walkabout

The blisters from the tedium of walking in Beyond the Evil are more on par with a walking simulator. I shouldn’t have to explain myself, but I will. There’s nothing wrong with walking simulators, but they are notoriously restrictive, and that’s the case with Beyond the Evil. Inventory space is limited, the puzzles are quite linear, and chapters are very much on rails.

It’s not terrible, but there are so many games like this, and we need challenging puzzles, a compelling narrative, or something memorable – even if it’s a gimmick. Regrettably, there’s nothing here that makes QUByte Interactive’s latest title stand out among the crowd, but it does look pretty.

I don’t know if that’s enough for you to want to seek out Beyond the Evil, but I’d check out some gameplay videos and other write-ups in addition to mine, as I’m sure you’ll do anyway. If it wasn’t for the relatively short playtime, I’d say that the wrestling with Joy-Cons would have put me off playing this on console and maybe looking at the Steam version instead.