Inner Voice Review: Follow the Whispers, Then the Mannequins
I played Inner Voice on PC: a slow, eerie horror game set in the town of Brightstone, full of whispers, mannequins and the voice inside your head.
You’re following the story of Booker, a man searching for answers through a truly terrible nightmare, with one goal in his mind: to find out what happened and to find his wife, Diana.
Inner Voice is a first-person horror adventure made by a solo developer under the name X Interactive and published by Dionous Games, and it came out on PC in April 2026. I played it on PC, and let me tell you, it does not waste any time. It starts off scary straight away, and you expect a jump scare with every single step you take.
Welcome to Brightstone
We’re talking about a horror game with quite an eerie atmosphere. You begin in the town of Brightstone, where you’re supposed to explore the buildings left and right. There’s no one there, and you do feel like monsters or ghosts are going to jump out from every corner.
Every building has a story to tell, from the people who lived in it to the state it’s in now. Mould and stains all across the walls. This place has been abandoned for a while.
The voice in your head
One of the best features of the game is that inner voice you can actually hear. The monologue you keep hearing, or better yet the narration, is nothing more than your inner voice telling you where you are. Learning about the history of the town you’re in while actually exploring it in the middle of the night feels quite different from all the other horror games out there.
A little tip: if you’re the kind of person who loves to get scared, simply lower the brightness at the very beginning of the game and you can turn this into a much more atmospheric horror game. We’re talking about those kinds of games that, although they scare you, you definitely want to take all the way.
Follow the whispers
Arriving at Brightstone, you’re supposed to follow the whispers, which makes everything 100 times scarier. Strange sounds from left and right. Pianos that play themselves and press all the keys at once, just to give you a bit of a jump scare. Radios playing on their own. Walking into rooms that go dark for a moment when you least expect it. Every single one of these scenes really sets up the entire environment. For people who love horror games and are fans of jump scares, this game certainly throws you into all of it from the very beginning.
Some really catchy details left and right are the lamps. Inside the houses there are lamps that shed light, but if you look at them from a distance, they look like the shapes of people. When you’re expecting someone to jump out from every single corner, you see that light and you can definitely freak out. It’s a nifty little detail, and we give a big kudos to the developer for actually putting it in the game.
Then follow the mannequins
As if following the whispers wasn’t enough, all of a sudden the game asks you to follow the mannequins. Everyone knows that mannequins are much scarier than whispers. And now you have to follow them. This game takes things to a whole new level.
Walking outside and seeing those mannequins pointing the way, you start thinking: should you follow them, or should you simply quit the game and save yourself a bit of sanity? Well, following them is the only option, and that’s what I did.
The shift in the music was a clear sign that something was changing. That dreadful mannequin running straight towards me and stopping at the very last moment was certainly not something I needed in the middle of the night, but it definitely got my blood pumping.
While playing, you’re never really sure what exactly is following you. You know there was an attack, and you know that no one lives in the village now, but you’re searching for life. That much you know. From the mannequins to the shadows that appear and start attacking you, or at least start running towards you, you never get a moment of silence.
Every house has a story
You get your first clue when you enter the house of Eleanor Graves. Something attacked her. Something with claws. This is when you realise that whatever might be hunting you, or haunting this place, is certainly not something you’ll be able to escape easily. Going from exploring the village to the mines is a courageous decision in itself.
The general idea is that something has attacked the village. Your character goes through every single one of the houses, and that voice inside his head narrates what happened to each of those families. You can see that we’re talking about different people with different lives who all ended up the same way. Something killed all of them, and it seems like you’re tasked with finding out what happened, or at least trying to find any life left around Brightstone.
Chapter by chapter
One of the best features of the game is that it’s split into chapters: Brightstone, the underground mansion, the village and the heart of the isle. You’re walking around still feeling like things are going to jump out of nowhere, and then you find yourself inside a little chapel, one might say, before everything goes dark and all you can hear are the voices of the people who died in there. Is it all in your head? Are those memories? Is someone showing you these things? The blood scattered across the walls and the floors is definitely there to tell you a story.
And suddenly you find yourself outside on the streets, wandering around buildings, this time in a city and not a village. And yet something tells you that this isn’t something you can escape from. You turn a corner and you see that mannequin again. Just enough to remind you that this is not a simple exploration game. This is a horror game, and you need to be ready at all times.
Now back to the forest, then the mines and then another mansion. Or is it the mansion you were in before? Those mannequins are everywhere again, only this time it’s different. This time these are scenes playing out in front of you. They’re drinking, they’re talking to each other, and things start getting more and more scary. Scenes of attack and danger, and erotic scenes you were not expecting. This place, these mannequins, they’re trying to tell you a story.
And then the mannequins turn into shadows. Shadows with eyes, looking everywhere but at you.
At the end, the game gives you a choice: to be free of your burdens or to stay on your path. And then, all of a sudden… well, you’ll have to play the game for that.
Who is Inner Voice for?
Inner Voice is great for those who like jump scares and who like to feel that everything around them might attack them. The eerie environment, the really interesting story and the excellent combination of sound effects, music and silence keep you on your toes the whole time.
There is quite a lot of exploration, though. So if you’re not a big fan of exploring and you want to be a bit more active in the story, this might not satisfy you as much.
My verdict: Crit
This game is definitely a Crit. If you love horror games, if you love jump scares, if you love a well-written story, then you definitely want to play this.
I received a free key for this review from the team behind Inner Voice. As always, the opinions are my own. You can find the game’s official press kit here.
Where to get it: Steam, GOG and the Epic Games Store
Follow Inner Voice: official website, X Interactive on Instagram, Dionous Games on X and the Dionous Games Discord
