Inside Review
Played on Xbox One (base)
Developed by Playdead
Released 29th June 2016
Playdead's initial release of LIMBO was a huge success, earning praises left right and centre with a nice bonus of 1 million copies sold. As a result, Playdead used their 6-year gap between games to utilise the Danish Film Institute's 1-million-dollar funding to try to create a masterpiece. If this game landing a spot in multiple "Greatest games of all time" lists doesn’t tell you already, this game is indeed a masterpiece.
Story
The story of Inside is as fantastically enigmatic as LIMBO was. Its intriguing concepts, its odd circumstances, its spectacular presentation: every moment of it is great. All you know as the player is that you're a young boy once again, who this time escapes the authorities into an oppressive forest to suddenly find himself exploring desolate laboratories, bleak facilities and abandoned buildings, with narrative mystery scattered throughout. Like LIMBO, it generates an overarching enigma that requires thinking and debunking for years to come. However, unlike its predecessor, Inside is significantly better. The flaw within LIMBO’s story was its jarring pacing, but fortunately, this time the player receives consistent pacing consisting of perfection. It feels like this whole game is a build-up to the final act which is as bizarre as it is enjoyable to experience.
Gameplay
The gameplay of Inside can be summed up into this: a more polished LIMBO. I know the comparisons to LIMBO can be annoying but it's hard to avoid doing so. It consists of the same simplistic gameplay, as an agile young boy solving puzzles and doing basic platforming. However, this game boasts an ingenious mixture of puzzles and platforming that I love. An example of this is hopping over fences to avoid rabid dogs while opening a door. Precise timing and baiting of the AI's pathfinding are needed and it works perfectly - one of many cases of this condensed brilliance. Additionally, it also contains more forgiving checkpoints and puzzles than LIMBO, which make up for the occasional slip-ups in platforming. Of course, this game's final act isn't just a narrative and atmospheric treat, but one that is also an immense amount of fun; one that just lets the player enjoy themself more and more whilst still maintaining its basic puzzle-platforming structure.
Atmosphere
This game’s atmosphere is flawless. It is so dense that it's suffocating, and I love it. It's filled with shock, beauty and horror and it uses these 3 moods so effectively that it's incredibly commendable. Audibly, it can get eargasmic at points. The usage of ambience in creating haunting soundtracks is magnificent. In fact, the composer of Inside, Martin Stig Andersen, routed a bone through a human skull to record a sound that created a chill, sombre quality to complement the visuals on screen. The minuscule details of changing breathing patterns, depending on the location, to having large-scale puzzles react with visual/aural cues are pure artistry. The visuals of this game are also superb. The camera work made it seamlessly cinematic and fantastic all the way through, making sure the expertly crafted lighting worked wonders with the vast grey imagery. The overuse of such shades makes many moments more effective in introducing dread or making another colour pop right out of the screen - way better compared to the horridness that many other games produce with their use of the colour grey.
Story - 8/10
Gameplay - 8.5/10
Atmosphere - 11/10
Near Perfect
An example that video games can be as, if not more, artistic than movies or even paintings.
