I have looked forward to playing this game for a while. Back when PlayDead burst on the scene with Limbo as an Xbox 360 exclusive, I will admit I was a little jealous. And when the game hit PC after their exclusivity deal with Microsoft expired, I couldn’t wait to play it myself. Suffice it to say, I loved it. I thought it’s only real major issue was that it was too short and I wanted more when it was over. So when I found out this studio was releasing a new game, I was excited. But, by the time the game came out, I had reached the point where my backlog is actually big enough that unless I need the game in physical form on my shelf, I just don’t need to get the game at launch anymore… ever.
But that does not mean those games leave my radar, and this game joined my library earlier this year, and when I finished up with the absolutely terrible Serious Sam 2, I needed something that promised to be amazing to wash that taste away… yeah, I chose VERY well.
Story: On a rocky hillside, a young boy climbs down and begins making his way down a winding road. He is on foot, but he is not alone as it doesn’t take long till he sees ominous looking trucks and masked men patrolling the road. But that wont stop him, as for some reason, he just needs to get to what they are trying to keep people away from.
And with this very basic story, you are off and on your way. It will be up to you to figure out what the boy is trying to find and why, but you will find a lot of that up to your interpretation. The game has no voice work at all and offers no overt explanations to anything. You will have to figure it all out for yourself, but that is not a bad thing in this case. A big part of this game’s allure is how the environment tells the tail, but at the same time remains aloof about the details, leaving you to speculate. To explain too much more would be a disservice to those who want to play, but this is definitely a good example of a game where the plot defines the idea of “less is more.”
7/10
Graphics: If I had to pick a single word to describe this game’s look, it would be gloomy. When you start, you enter a very old and foreboding looking forest, and before long you reach open ground on a farm, greyed out with the grey and foggy skies, and it only gets more ominous as you proceed through your adventure. And while there is more then enough detail to show you where you are, there is nothing marking anything as a specific place or event, leaving it almost dream-(or nightmare in this case?)-like in presentation.
There is no interface at all in this game, and there is no need for one, as simplicity is the name of the game, and the overall look is foreboding, but intriguing and an absolute pleasure in it’s own messed up way to behold.
8/10
Sound: Like the graphics, I could probably sum up the entire audio department of this game with a single word as well: ambiance. You will barely hear any music in the entire game, nor will you hear a single word spoken. And with a generally silent cast to go with this, just about everything you hear is there because something is making that noise, be it barking of the dogs who want nothing more then to chew your face off, the gunfire of one of the guards popping a shot at you, or any number of other things.
And it all sounds absolutely spot on amplifying the mood of the moment as well as the dark-mystique of the whole game. Absolutely masterfully done.
9/10
Gameplay: The controls for INSIDE are incredibly simple. You have a jump button, a grab/hold/interact button, and use the analog stick on the controller of your choice to move around. And yet with this simple scheme which one would be tempted to compare to the original NES from 30 years ago, the game manages to make what you will do to complete it seamless and varied. In fact the game is one of the smoother playing titles I have seen in a while.
At it’s core the game is a side-scrolling puzzle game where literally every situation has a solution you need to find before continuing. Anything from the simple “make sure to jump that stick so you don't trip or the guard will catch you” to the traditional positioning things in the room around you to gain access to the next area you need to reach to even timing based puzzles where you have to manipulate not just where things are, but when they get there, this game is all puzzles with no random elements left to chance on the player trying to figure them out. The result of this is an incredibly smooth and machined experience for the player, but one that has almost no reason to play a second time, which will annoy some people as the game is also very short. I myself finished it in 3 hours.
However, if you are a completionist about it, there are things to find in this game where once you find them all, will completely change the ending, so these people will probably get more out of it scouring the game for any secret locations they might have missed the last time.
In the end, however, this is a small group of the people who play. Most will play it once, love it, and move on, with another small group who will complain it was over way too fast.
8/10
Bugs: This game had no real bugs to speak of that I ran into. At most I could say is if you are using Geforce Experience to stream or record it, it will minimize when you turn on your streaming and I do not know why, but… this isn’t so much an issue with the game as a strange and ultimately slightly annoying interaction between the game and a specific piece of streaming/recording software.
Overall: Inside is a brief but absolutely delightful experience for the gamer who enjoys puzzles and/or a mysterious air to figure out on their own. It sadly will not give you all the answers, but it will give you enough in the environment itself to be satisfying, and then it will be over. If you are looking for something to play between major titles for a day or two, there are few titles I could recommend as strongly. If you play for atmosphere or even just to let the world fill itself in to tell the tail as you play, again, you will find few as good at doing that as here. Yeah, it’s still a very short experience, but not quite so much as Playdead’s other title.
However, it is also brief and a game without any actual combat so if you are here for the action or expecting to get “your time for your money” you probably should look elsewhere. This game is not going to be your thing.
Score:
8/10
System Requirements:
- Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @2.4 Ghz or AMD FX 8120 @3.1 GHz
- 4 GB RAM
- NVidia GeForce 630 GT/650m or AMD Radeon HD6570
- 3 GB hard drive
- Windows 7 (64-bit OS required)
System Specs:
- AMD FX 8350 (8 cores) running at 4 Ghz
- 16 GB RAM
- NVidia GeForce 960 GTX with 4 GB VRAM
- Windows 10
Source: Steam
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