Inmates

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A short psychological horror game set in a prison with minimal jump scares.

A decent game for getting into horror - a little warm up.
I guess everyone's different but I doubt you'll shit your pants or anything so don't worry!

There were a few puzzles - don't like them but they weren't too difficult or excessive here.
Your character walks incredibly slow.
You use matches for light but they're not needed much.
The game was also a bit buggy.

Overall, RECOMMENDED. But I'd wait for a sale.

I got pissed off at a puzzle where you have to flick four switches, and each switch also moves another switch, but due to how the level is designed you can't operate any of the switches and SEE the other switches to be able to tell what moving the switch actually does.

At that point I uninstalled the game, having collected roughly 50% of the achievements.

Short but awesome story and gameplay. So few jumpscares but really scared of me. Otherwise these footsteps made me nervous. Actually it was mine :D .

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[table]
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[th]MY RATING:[/th]
[th] 🌟 🌟 ✘ ✘ ✘ ✘ ✘ ✘ ✘ ✘ [/th]
[th]2 / 10[/th]
[/tr]
[/table]

Unfortunately, since there is still no way to rate a game neutrally, I had to take a few minutes after finishing the game to decide whether I should rate the game positively with few stars or rather negatively.
Due to the regular price I decided to leave a negative review because the game is definitely not worth $10. Luckily I only paid about $2 for it, which is just about okay for me and the experience. But the game is definitely not worth more.

The game looks very promising on the store page and the specified playing time of 3-4 hours would also be quite decent.
Unfortunately, in reality it looks a bit different and the game can't actually keep any of its promises such as Intense and mind-bending puzzles, suffocating setting, disturbing imagery or high-quality graphics.

It starts with the menu, which is absolutely spartan and offers almost no setting options.
Overall, the game is relatively dark. Actually too dark. The matches, which are lying around in sufficient quantities, only help to a limited extent because they burn for a very short time and also have an excessive glare effect, so that you hardly see anything else.

Furthermore, there is only one running speed which I would rather define as sneaking around with lousy movement.
The advertised interaction with the environment is actually limited to pushing open (cell) doors, collecting / reading pieces of paper with notes and matches throughout the game. I couldn't find any of the intense and tricky puzzles throughout the game either. On the contrary. They are relatively easy and simple.

Unfortunately, there weren't any moments of shock or horror that you actually expect in such a game.

It's really a pity, because the idea behind it isn't that bad or could be good if it weren't implemented so catastrophically badly. A little more love, especially for the details, would have been desirable.

With a playing time of approx. 1-1.5 hours you get through the monotonous and neither shocking nor disturbing game quite quickly and for someone who has already played a few (these) games, both the story and the ending are fast predictable.

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MY PROS AND CONS:

✅ hmm...nothing, unfortunately

❌ too expensive
❌ nothing disturbing
❌ predictable story
❌ boring and easy puzzles
❌ short playing time
❌ too dark

[hr][/hr] PLAYED WITH: ⌨️ 🖱 🎧
[hr][/hr]
⮩ VISIT ME IN MY LITTLE WORLD

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[url]https://store.steampowered.com/app/634120/[/url]

Beyond impressed on the story with Jonathan's nightmare unfolding into a series of memories. The puzzles are simple and require very little critical thinking skills. During the dream you are told what to do and direction is plenty. Not once did I feel stuck, but in the larger areas it was more time consuming to search for clues. The achievements can be unlocked 100% if you pay attention and complete the puzzles on the first play through. Rate 7/10 based on length, story and difficulty. The movement was a bit slow and the loading times were a bit long when transitioning from scenes. There is a lot of walking in this game and a few jump scares so it was mostly a horror environment with creepy and spooky sounds.

Had my doubts, but got surprised how good this game actually is

After finishing the game, I must admit, it was a well spend 3.5 hours of gameplay and sometimes aimlessly walking around, but it was FUN!

More of a big hearty "Meh" than an outright denunciation....but I still can't recommend this game. This is a walking simulator/psychological horror game, which ends up being very heavy on the walking, and very light on the horror, with a some twists that aren't really surprising in the slightest (I mean, if you can't figure out that this all takes place inside the protagonists own head, and he is mentally ill then you may be brain damaged/dead).

Positives:

-Atmosphere- There is a gloomy, menacing atmosphere in the game, and the graphics and sound effects enhance it remarkably. The prison feels awful and ominous, and you will (for at least awhile) feel like something or someone awful could be waiting around any corner.

Meh:

-Graphics- They're not bad at all, but neither are they exceptional in any real way, and the grainy filter/dim lighting that is all but omnipresent in the game means you can't really appreciate them.

-Music- Not awful, but not notable either.

-Voice Acting- Usually in these sorts of games I'm gritting my teeth as the amateur voice actors mangle every intonation and inflection, but these aren't terrible (nobody is winning an Oscar, mind you) even if they only rarely rise above the level of barely competent (the words that have been written for them to emote on the other hand....sheesh!).

Negatives:

-Plot/Dialogue- Hackneyed, more or less predictable, and just awful in some places ("Oh no, it's Roy!"). Most of the dialogue just falls flat or is bizzaro-land dumb, and the plot itself is conveyed with such clumsy, banal exposition, that even if it were incredibly original (it's not) you'd still cringe with how the information is delivered.

-Gameplay- Except for one chase sequence in a maze (almost at the conclusion), you will find yourself just wandering around picking up books (which you can't interact with beyond looking at the covers) solving very light puzzles (most of which are painfully obvious) and opening doors, which wouldn't be a bad thing (it is a walking simulator after all) except that it becomes painfully obvious that despite all the atmosphere of dread, you are in NO physical danger whatsoever, and a menacing atmosphere means nothing if there's no bite to it. Which, again, if this were just a pure simulator would be fine, but it's billed as a horror game, and there's not really any horror to it.

It's really just disappointing, because this had some potential, and it just squandered it with uninspired, toothless gameplay, and lackluster writing.

A short, plot-driven, mildly suspenseful adventure-lite game.

Pros:
* Creepy levels.
* Decent plotline w/ a twist.
* Decent music.

Cons:
* Not scary.
* VERY short.

Meh:
* No hide-and-seek or dying.

TL;DR: If you like spooky wandering w/ a handful of simple puzzles, 5/10 (7/10, if on sale for a few dollars); else, avoid.

So far, the game play experience is good, other than the screen is a bit blurry/smudgy.

I downloaded it since it uses the same game making engine as Shadow Corridor, but had received lots of spam and negative comments. So bought it at 80% off for 3 euros as I wanted to justify it that Inmates is not a bad game.

The atmosphere and BGM are good. One downside is that, there isn't an inventory to read notes again. The game has automatic save though('v'). Read the controls on the title screen option before entering to play(pretty basic arrows and 3 extra buttons). This game does gives me feel like living in a jail cell department(prison simulator?).

Game play:

It started off where the player is placed in a tower with a long spiral staircase, with cages of human beings hanging in the centre/pillar of the spiral. It did gave me some shivers from peaking down the staircase in this tower.

After that, player woke up in a prison cell and found that the door is opened and started visiting each jail cell on his floor.

Most of the time the objective here is just going into each confined room and check out what the previous roommates like to do in his spare time by looking at the writings on the wall in their cell(maths, space, cult, Bible, symbols etc.).

To some point, a small child suddenly appeared and ran across the jail cell corridor, which gave me some creeps. The child speaks too (''Dad, follow me(laughs).'').

I know most reviewers mentioned about Matches, after playing the game, I can now tell you that, the jail cell rooms and corridors are well lit up. So, far, maybe 1 room requires you(or maybe not) to light up one match. Plus, player can pick up Match boxes, containing about 3-5 match sticks per box, in 80% of the jail cells, there is plenty around without searching (20 in my pocket so far). Yes, the match stick lights for about 7 sec., but then again, the hall and most rooms are bright enough already.

I have yet to complete the playthrough (50 minutes in), I will continue this review afterwards.

It is a simulator of finding matchboxes in a jail. It is not worth its price even on sale.
Not scary, not interesting. Well, I cannot say anything good about it.
If you want nice creepy game - buy something else.

Positive sides:
- it has achievements;
- it has cards. Hmmm at least you can try to sell them but i dont think they can cover the price of game.

Negative sides:
- story is weak. Do you know stories which kids tell which one? Like "in dark-dark house was a dark-dark room, where was black-black coffin". In dirty-dirty jail was bible and altar for satan, were dead bodies and kid's drawings... boooo! Madness! You must be scared!
Meh, It is not even funny.

- audios. Squeaks and creaks does not make it scary. They are just disgusting sounds which just annoy you when you solve puzzles. As much that after hour of playing I even turned sound off.

- picture. On screenshots in shop it looks better than when u play it. Btw twinning and trembling picture does not make it scary, just annoys too.

- you cannot move faster. You cannot run, just walk. Especially that annoys at start when you need around 5 minutes just_walk. I even wanted to drop it even on that moment, but wanted to get some achieves.

I dont recommend it. It is weak and boring. It tries to scary you but fails like cheap "horrors".

I really do usually like these kinds of "Not very much is explained" kinds of games. You get to fill in a lot of the blanks on your own.

Unfortunately, this game really struck out hard due to some painful design decisions by the creator. The first, is the plodding and hamstrung pace at which you move through the world. There really isn't a reason for it, except to prolong the game. Then there was the painful and stilted voice "acting". Every word by every actor sounded fake, badly recorded in a room with a cheap headset mic, and the dialogue sounded off.

The constant and unnecessary sway of the view port was almost sickening. Every where you look the screen is slowly shaking back and forth.

One of the BIGGEST sins the game does is that it takes your camera control and lurches it about. In the 60 minutes I played (a fair bit of that loading between zones) my camera and view was snatched from where I was looking no less than 13 times. It frequently left me jarred and confused as to which way I was looking when it was done. One of the worst was very early on. I looked down at a rocking horse and had my view snatched 180 degrees behind me to see some painted drawing on a wall.

The inventory system is a joke. The "flashlight" match system is just awful. The light serves to blind you as much as light the environment. Often you find yourself using a match to view an area only to find two or so matches in a corner. While the early game has few locked doors and literally dozens of red herrings and odd vingets the rest of the game locks doors and closes areas off instead of fostering exploration.

I ran into only four real puzzles. None of them made sense in their placement or had any solid bearing on what I was doing. The switch puzzle was nothing more than flipping the same four switches over and over until they finally stayed set. Not one advanced the story, not one felt like it belonged. The Escher like room with the door was the WORST, all the symbols were so very nearly the same it took longer to figure out where they were on the dials than how to solve the puzzle by almost 10:1

I couldn't finish the game, I got too annoyed with the forced jump "scares" and the really crap voice acting. For a story driven game, your story HAS to work. This one really dosen't

Ambience/Soundtrack is "sorting algorithm earrape version 2 hours".
Graphics/Visuals are soapy.
Had a banging headache by the end of the game.

Some interesting demonology, cosmos and religious references in the form of book covers and wall drawings.
Soon, pretty much as you turn a corner you find that those assets are reused 10 times and over. Just like the rest of the game and it's environments.
You're in a prison for the majority of your time. There is 3 cell combos at most. The asset seems to be made in rows so cell variants always come in the same order.

Story is cliche, nothing particularly exciting. It isn't the worst but all has been done before.

Short,sweet and doesn't outstay it's welcome. Excellent walking psychological game with some really wonderful scenes and set pieces created by the developer. Highly recommended 8\10

Completed the game in 2 hours. The graphics are pretty dismal even at max settings with Unreal engine. I think if they had dropped the film grain look it may have made the graphics look a little better. This game is not scary at all. I've played a lot of horror games so something this tame does not phase me in the least. The story is very easy to figure out. I think I had it already within the first 10 minutes. The puzzles are extremely tame. There's very little challenge to them. I found very little reason to also use any matches. I used maybe 3 for the whole game but I didn't even need to. I finished the game with over 70 matches in my pocket. It was a pretty pointless item. There are also still some bugs in the game that can leave you partially locked into a room but there are workarounds for them. They were never fixed. If you want a "find the pages" game with a better story, great usage of the UE4 engine and a far better soundtrack pick up a copy of The Fidelio Incident. It's not horror but it does delve around the storyline of something like the tv show "Lost" a little.

Inmates... such a strange freakin' game! Lot's of "mind games" ;)

Visually speaking, the game ain't too bad! There were moments the ultrawide screen was working and other they weren't. It was a bit annoying but manageable. The game have puzzles to progress and unlock the story further. Telling you who you are and where and why you are in a prison would spoil the rest of the game and story! You better find out yourself!

So what is Inmates?

Inmates is a game that preys on the creepy factor of prisons, and their hostile, unpredictable incarcerated. Players become Jonathan, a man who has woken up in a seemingly abandoned prison with absolutely no recollection of how he got there. He soon discovers that his cell door isn't locked, and he leaves in hope of finding help and answers, but he also uncovers that he's not truly alone. Evil is lurking around the prison, and he must find a way to escape. The full plot isn't revealed until the very end, but gamers with even a little bit of horror background can probably hazard a guess as to what happened. The conclusion is very predictable.

It should be stated right off the hop that the second video on the store page is extremely misleading. Events happen in that trailer that never actually occur in the game itself, and it makes the title look far more exciting than it actually is. There isn't even a run button included, so expect to wander around the prison at a medium stride the entire time; a painpoint that becomes increasingly frustrating during all of the inevitiable backtracking that is needed. The estimated game length of 3-4 hours is also very wrong, as even exploring the environments completely will create for a maximum play time of about 2 hours.

Even though the idea behind Inmates is promising, the overall execution comes across as cliché and uninspired. It's a glorified key-finding simulator with some very basic puzzles thrown in. The majority of the game is spent exploring prison cells, some contain matches while others contain notes, some offer up both or neither, while three of them lock you in until you can solve the easy enigma inside. There are only a few scares that happen, and all of them are cheap and ineffective; half-naked guys whose heads shake around alot.

Additionally, this title does include game breaking bugs. About halfway in I decided to take a break and I closed up shop, when I went back a few hours later the game had jumped me forward in the story, and I missed one of the puzzles. While that isn't horrible, it also glitched out the door that I needed to open in order to progress any further at all. Taking a look at the forums, I see that numerous other people have also experienced this problem, but I also see that the developer has been helpful in the matter and has promised an update to fix this issue.

Don't be too fooled by the graphics in the screenshots and trailers on the store page, they're not as spectacular as they may seem. Most of the textures turn into mud up-close, including the ground, and overall the game is far too dark. Even using the matches that are laying around is counterproductive since they create a harsh glare that hinders visibility rather than helping at all. Their lifespan is also ridiculously short, but luckily there's a plethora of them laying around.

Inmates could be a much better game if some more love and polish went in to it. Still, the fact of the matter is that the horror world is oversaturated with key finding and basic puzzle solving to the point that games are almost guaranteed to fail if they include these elements; especially in tandem. If the story was salvagable, the shallow gameplay would be acceptable, but it's more of the same tried-and-true "amnesiac with a predictable plot twist" scenario. For what it's worth, the optimization is excellent, although the menu could use a bit of sprucing up as well. Once the bugs get ironed out, give it a shot for $5 or less, but the current asking price of $11.49 CAD is too steep.

Rating: 2.0/5.0 - It's not awful, but it's not great.

From the very first moments of Inmates, you are thrown into a topsy-turvy world in which all prisoners are issued with esoteric reading matter (running the gamut from quantum physics to demonology), children are imprisoned next-door to grown psychopaths (at least they're given toys), and matches - while in plentiful supply - only last about ten to fifteen seconds from the time you light them to the time they snuff themselves out.

Yessir, you're in for a wild and woolly - if somewhat short yet slow-moving - ride.

The voice acting is mediocre at best; the graphics a long, long way from anything to write home about; the technical performance a bit wonky considering how underwhelming the graphics are; and the character models ugly in the extreme (and not always in a DELIBERATE way). By comparison, the atmosphere is quite strong; the jump scares sufficiently effective and not overly crude; the mapping quite nice without being exceptionally imaginative; and the puzzles mildly distracting without ever being frustratingly difficult. The story is...actually, it's pretty good, and definitely one of the game's strongest suits. (Though you'll be mighty sick of the name "Roy" by the time it's over with, guaranteed!)

Look, I'm definitely recommending it, but I'm hardly GUSHING over it. It's a solid indie horror game/moody walking simulator (with one chase scene), and it's probably overpriced at ten dollars but worth picking up in a sale. If, you know, it's your kind of game to begin with. I've played much better, I've played much, MUCH worse, and there's not a great deal more I can say beyond that.

Oh, except that anyone with a particular grudge towards heaving breathing sound effects should avoid this game like the plague (it didn't bother me much personally, but it really does sound like your character is borderline asphyxiating for the entirety of the game's duration. Hey...it's "horror").

Verdict: 7.5/10.

(PS If you enjoyed this review, feel free to check out my two Curator pages: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/9284586-ReviewsJustfortheHELLofit/
http://store.steampowered.com/curator/10868048-Truly-Horrible-Horror-Games/?appid=398210
Cheers!)

A very strange game, very surreal and mind boggling. You collect matches for light ( obviously ), enter prison cells, solve easy -- mid puzzles, two very surreal puzzles and you get to walk around aimlessly, and collect matches for light. I did not get the purpose of the bibles, but hey, never mindDid I know what the purpose of this game was? NO. Did I enjoy not knowing my purpose? Yes. Would I reccomend this game? Yes.

As strange as it seems, if the developers were to do Inmates 2, I would buy it

Twelve achievements, 1.5 - 2.5 hours, depending on how thorough you choose to be. All in all 8.5/10

This is an excellent example of a game that would be a quite basic puzzle horror game with quite nice environments with a story that is alright but nothing special; but it is marred by constantly jarring transitions to short cutscenes & the worst movement speed I've ever had the displeasure of playing with, give me garbage stamina over this nonsense.
The Store Page indicates a 3-4 hour playtime, given how absurdly straightforward the puzzles are & how linear and obvious the game is about where you need to go that a good half to three quarters of the playtime is from lousy movement.

It's almost masterful how much the movement speed ruins a game that should just be kind of boring & turns it into one of the most unpleasant experiences on Steam, almost worth picking up (& then returning just to see it in action), starting out with a good 3 minute walk up a winding staircase set me on edge about what I was in for & it never recovered.

this is the worst game i ever paid $10 for. don't believe these guys who received the this game for FREE!
this game is not scary, it's very slow, too dark, and this is walking simulator, you cannot run. it's also very very ugly, these trailers and screenshots do not represent this game!

i personally refunded my $10 on steam. these reviewers that sold their soul for $10... really? it's horrible Lol.