Review: INSIDE

G’day there guys and gals!

As little as six years ago, Indie Game Developers were mostly limited to the PC and free releases, very few making their way through to the consoles of the day. The successes of Braid, The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai and so many more open the doors to the developer world. One of the earliest big hits was LIMBO: a black and white sidescroll, puzzle platform title, where a young boy must traverse challenging and deadly obstacles to get back home. It was simple, but incredibly hard, focused and very well made.
Today, we have INSIDE, the spiritual successor of LIMBO from the same creators, Playdead. There is so much to say about this title, but I will summarise it as best I can.
INSIDE is a contrasted version of LIMBO, but ironically, so much more incredibly darker.

Players take control of a boy who, once more, ends up in a forest, running away from shadowy figures. Eventually, these turn out to be other humans, desperate to capture him. From here the boy must stay out of enemy hands and uncover the disturbing secrets of his dystopian society, from the forest to the depths of the buildings and corporation.
First and foremost, to those who are familiar to LIMBO will immediately feel welcomed by the quick and simple controls of the game, with most of it being controlled by your joystick and A. Players also interact with many objects in the world, such as torches, mind control helmets and balls, steam boxes, and submarines, as well as the standard destroyable objects. A quick glance at the control settings will aid those of you too nervous to continue, but trial by error is definitely the best way to learn, as are most platforming games.

Simply put, the gameplay is incredible, as INSIDE takes all the inspirations from the previous game and transforms them into new, refreshing ideas. Objects can now be handled from the middle or side, enemies are much more numerous and tactical and deaths are much, MUCH more brutal and elaborate. The game also shows much more, as the camera angles show off the background, depth of field and height differences more often. I must also give a special mention to the various enemies and NPCs of the game, as each was unique and terrifying. Dogs and wolves make an appearance and (due to my past experience of running from dogs) left me white knuckled. At one point I fell off my chair leaning, trying to get away, to watch this young boy have his throat ripped out and blood splashed my screen. I was horrified! Players can expect to be shot, strangled, drown and be drowned, electrocuted, captured and so on, all of which from humans, to electrocuting robots and water creatures. However, for the first time, we also experience the help of NPC characters, who I dub “Husks”, as they’re pale disfigured humans who will aid players reach new areas and survive death falls. Normal humans are almost a rarity outside your enemies, but they do appear now and then. But it does not stop there; stealth is also a new feature, as you must learn from your environment and act accordingly or hide from sight as best you can. Hiding from search lights, trying to escape a fast swimmer, desperately keeping wolves at bay, each enemy has their own tactic and downfall, so exploring and being observant will be your best friends.

It feels wrong to say this game is simple and effective, but does that make it bad? Absolutely not! The gameplay is highly interactive, as weathering affects your character (rain and water will wet you from the body part down, you’ll appear from swimming drenched and mud and flecks of sand will stick to you!), not to mention the brilliance in the setting and tone.
That brings me to the sound effects and musical score. The sounds are utterly divine, with each sound crisp, clear and sounding almost like it was against your ear, while the musical score will come and go, but it in itself is just as brilliant. The swell of escaping a devilish enemy, the slow, quiet plucks as the camera shows the city before you, every moment is literally breath-taking.
There isn’t any voice acting present in the game, although you do hear the odd groan or yell, but other than those few moments from NPCs, the game is absolutely silent aside from the sounds of the world and the musical score. The graphics too are faded and contrasted, but very beautiful in an odd way. The trees filled with green stand out from the greys, creams and dark shades of the buildings in the city. Ocean water and the sky almost sparkle after experiencing so much grey and white. LIMBO was simply a cast of the shades black and white, here the boy’s bright red shirt stands out among the faded colours of the world. And yet, what we see and discover, is so much darker.

Finally, I reach the storyline. Granted, I will admit, there is very, very little here. But what is there is almost like a 1000 puzzle piece board: all the pieces are there, but it’s up to you to put them together and figure out by the games’ end how the world works, what has happened to it and what your actions truly mean. To be perfectly honest, some of the endings’ clues left me confused, as to why some events occurred and yet didn’t to others, or how the ending left me with more questions than answers. But thinking back onto everything I had done, everything that happened to that poor boy, each piece of the puzzle slowly came together for me for the story, especially so after completing the secret ending; answering my queries, giving us horrifying clues to the world and creating so many more questions by its end.
And as I solved my questions, I was horrified, disgusted and appalled at this world. I was fully immersed its secrets, its lore and how it came to be.

The only real criticism I can give this title is the puzzles themselves. I found no glitches or issues while playing: load times were nothing after the initial game load (and loading chapters were very quick) and the game itself handled well. But the puzzles were sadly much too easy.

Often walking into a puzzle I found myself knowing exactly what I needed to do. Personally, I am terrible at platformer games – the original LIMBO took me a long time to complete – and anyone who has played a co-op game with me can agree. So when a level has a puzzle where I know exactly what I need to do and where to go was a huge shame. Admittedly, it was only my first interactions with new enemies or obstacles that stumped me for a while: steam boxes took me a while to master, reaching mind control helmets was my only obstacle most of the time and dogs and wolves, while terrifying me to fail plenty of times, were quick to outmaneuver. Overall this game took me only 5 hours to complete: 1000 gamerscore, all secrets unlocked and the secret ending seen. LIMBO’s challenges became complex as they went along; the physics puzzles were especially cruel and the timed ones will forever haunt me, especially the final few puzzles, and not to mention the much more difficult-to-find secrets. And although the ending in LIMBO takes a page from the Sopranos, the last few ending puzzles in INSIDE were…simple. Easier than the beginning ones. I didn’t die once during the ending, when I died over and over trying to fling myself through the other side in LIMBO. The ending and the game itself is tragic and leaves you on a “Wait, what happened?!” moment. But as the credits roll, the undeniable lack of satisfaction is there; I felt…weak. Powerless. We, as gamers, complete games for that sense of accomplishment, yet in INSIDE, like very few others, is bitter. The ending is great, do not get me wrong, but that initial feel is hard to shake, even days later.

Putting aside the lilliputian issues of the short gameplay time and the quick completion, I feel as if I must say this with my heart on my sleeve. Not since the Metro series have I been this invested in a game. Everything about this game clicks; the story, the setting, the music, the sound effects, the gameplay. Every. Little. Bit. Granted, there will be those who will not like this title, as the story is meant to be told, not for us to guess at, and there will be some who won’t like this. So I advise you to take this as a warning.

 In saying that, what more can I say about this title? It does not push the boundaries, it does not offer anything new. But to me, this game, this small game, isn’t a story in a sense, but a mirror; a mirror to our society, a mirror to how our world operates and what our world may very well be like in such a short amount of time.
That is why I like INSIDE, and that is why I find is so…exalted.

Even if you only play this game once, INSIDE is a definite must buy and deserves your attention. This is not just a game, it is an experience of one boy’s struggle against the only world he knows.

Out of 10, I give INSIDE a 9/10

INSIDE is out now for Xbox One and Windows for the standard price of $30