Man? Woman? Who gives a damn ... (s)he's a badass! Game Info Publisher Cryo Interactive Developer Gamesquad / Cryo Genre Action Origin Europe Number of Players 1 Release Winter '99 Minimum Requirements Win95/98 P200MHz 2MB graphics card What cha' doing up there, Michael? Oh, just hanging around. It appears the executioner likes gymnastics, but hates grass mats.

In Devil Inside, you assume the role of Dave Ackland, an ex-cop that is the star of a Los Angeles reality TV show early in the 21st century. He investigates weird and bizarre crimes that air on a TV show that's a cross between COPS and the X-Files. Fox would probably run it as World’s Funniest Supernatural Psychopathic Killers. A fairly left field premise for a game so far… and Dave has this one little secret. He is able to change into his delectable female double -- Deva (get it ... just switch the 'a' and 'e' in Dave and you get Deva ... brilliant!) -- a leather clad devil with supernatural powers [editor's note: oddly enough, this is also Tal's special power. His alter ego is Carol Alt -- get it ... Tal, Alt ... obviously we all need some sleep 'round here]. Not surprisingly, Cryo describes Devil Inside as being part of an eclectic stable of titles.

On the evening of Halloween, Dave and his team sneak into a house that is the site of some shocking murders for a special edition of the show. He soon realizes that the house is haunted with some strange and powerful evil presence and to escape he must solve the secret behind the crimes and lay to rest the evil spirits once and for all.

Meanwhile back at the studio the host of the show begins live coverage to a captive audience. This evening will be the highest rating show ever… but will it be the last ?

Devil Inside is an equal parts action/adventure game from the creator of the classic Alone in the Dark series Hubert Chardeu. From what little we know about the game and from what you can see in the screenshots this new game looks like it should continue in that vein, with eerie environments and supernatural creatures galore.

The two main characters, Dave and Deva, will have different weapons and abilities suited to different situations -- 7 different weapons and 8 psychic powers in total. With this arsenal they could have their work cut out for them as they fight their way through over 50 unique enemies.

From a technical point of view, a significant amount of development time has been spent on the character animations and the planning of camera positions -- a cause of concern for some players when the original Alone in the Dark was released.

The graphic engine that we see in the screenshots looks a bit dated which is also evident from looking at the current minimum specs -- 200Mhz CPU and 2MB graphic card supporting 65K colors. No mention of 3D hardware acceleration yet.

The game’s release has been shifted back from September to the end of the year, and Cryo is expecting to have a more feature rich engine by then. We should be getting our hands on a playable build around September so look for an updated preview then. The premise, look and heritage of the game seems promising -- hopefully Cryo and Gamesquad can deliver.

-- Arun "Rooney" Devidas