Dim the lights and put on your headphones - it's time to go exorcising!

As a member of a team of exorcists, your job is to clear a haunted house of the evil possessing it. The task is simple—gather all of the required items and perform an exorcism to abolish the evil permeating the house. Since the items in question are directly related to the haunting, this means you'll need to gain entry into the house as well as do your best to avoid any possessed inhabitants actively trying to kill you.

In the first (and currently only) map, this involves chasing after spirit-infused dolls and throwing bunny plushies at them to pacify them before burning them on an altar set up in the yard, all while avoiding encounters with the possessed man of the house. You can only carry one item at a time (presumably keeping a hand free for self-defense), so it's a lot of running back and forth with bunnies, dolls, and fuel.

Hunting through a Mansion in the Dark

As you wander the mansion, your way is lit by a flashlight on your head, giving you a dim view of your surroundings with a narrow field of vision. Although there is currently just the one map, the visual assets of the mansion all have the same general feel to them. It can make navigating the mansion a confusing task, especially since item and key spawns are randomized as well as which rooms are unlocked at game start. The directionally challenged may find it difficult to learn the mansion layout and could end up getting turned around a lot.

It's important to pay attention to your surroundings as you search the mansion, since, not only do you need to look out for door keys and batteries for your taser, but you also need to watch out for traps being set by the man of the house. There are tripwire sound traps attached to a speaker with an indicator light which is green when active and red when dormant (this could give some disadvantage to colorblind players, but they are easy enough to overlook anyway that it won't be much of one) in addition to bear traps being constantly strewn about the place by the possessed man.

The experience is enhanced by the game's audio, which is one of its strong points. This is no quiet night out at the mansion. Even while hanging around outside, the wind is blowing and insects buzz about the place. You'll feel the difference once you get inside, as the sound of the wind is cut off only to be replaced by the noises of the not-so-quiet spirits haunting the place and the pulsing heart of the man possessed. These sounds are especially important because they clue you in on the locations of the dolls and of your foe.

Exorcist Team, Go!

Although the game can be played solo, it was made for co-op and there are some features in co-op that are crucial to your survival. In solo mode, all it takes is to be caught once without a charged taser and it's game over. In co-op you have more options.

Once you've been caught in co-op mode, you go into a near-death state. The entire map changes to shades of gray and there are highlighted objects throughout. Those objects are medical kits and your fellow exorcists can use one of those kits to bring you back to the realm of the living. Moving toward the nearest kit can ensure that someone will be able to revive you if they can get to you, but it can sometimes be difficult to tell if the kit is behind a locked door or on another floor. Fortunately, once you're down, you are also highlighted to all members of your team (whether up and about or in the same near-death state you are), so it's easy for everyone to tell if anyone has fallen and to know roughly where to go in order to help them.

Unpolished, Yet Fun

This game is still in early access, so you can expect there to be a few rough spots and glitches here and there. And, since the servers aren't incredibly populated, it might be difficult to team up with others to play if you don't have enough friends willing to join you for a game.

It's clear from the game menu that there are plans in the works for additional maps and levels of difficulty. However, as the game just released to early access on April 14^th and is expected to remain in early access for at least a year, it's uncertain how soon any new content might become available.

Quick Reference:

Inout is a co-op horror game for 1–4 players, currently in early access.

Best played in darkness and with a group of friends.

Strengths:

• Great atmospheric sound.

Weaknesses:

• Limited content.

• Lightly populated lobbies.