I'm glad to inform that Inside's dystopic orwellian nightmare is still an effective demonstration of what strong compelling imagery and setting can do for storytelling, acting as spiritual sequel to what was an otherwise meandering experience that indulged on the worst tendencies and trends of the indie "games are art" landscape, trimming out most of the unnecessary fat that would get in the way of the actual meat of the "fragile boy going through a hostile environment" concept.

Beyond the immediately noticeable vast improvement in texture, color, sound design and animation work Inside has over Limbo's amateurish monochrome and blurred style, the addition of depth to its massive and imposing backgrounds that juxtapose with the main protag's railroaded 2D axis manages to instill a sense of bleakness and insignificance unmatched in videogame settings, and utilizing its industrial and desolate landscapes as the core instrument to tell its story, the limited dimension allowed to the player is enough to raise intrigue and curiosity as Inside deliberately ofuscates and limits what you glimpse off its distant and alluring backgrounds.

Tying it all up, you have a seamless and intuitive gameplay experience that manages to rectify the lanky and awkward controls that bogged down Limbo and that instead focuses more on the strengths of the cinematic platformer genre, conveying narrative through the pure act of constant movement. Replaying it again, Inside proves to be a much more exasperating endeavour, as you are stopped dead on your tracks to solve puzzles more often than you would like. Fortunately, the fluid animations and perceptible interactivity keep a brisk pace going and utilize said puzzles to reinforce the themes and narrative of the game with a level of craftmanship that Limbo rarely ever managed to pull off.

These aspects alone put Inside on a pedestal far and above Limbo's artistic aspirations, but it's the finale that elevates it beyond what people ever expected it to achieve all the way back in 2016. The centerpiece of Inside and what the whole game builds towards to, the abrupt shift it takes in its last act is still one of the most incredible and well crafted turns I have ever seen a videogame pull off, feeling simultaneously alien and second nature to control and barrelling its way into a catharsis that recontextualizes what came before it and fills its final note with poignancy by the mere act of taking control away from you for a few secs, as you flick the analog sticks one last desperate time.

Much has already been said about Inside's meta commentary on the nature of player agency and the illusion of control, interpretations that are made evident with the unlocking of the secret ending and the decoding of the game's plot, and while I understand that could lead to some people eye rolling as we get yet another postmodern game using the nature of the medium to exploit these concepts, I think Inside manages to pull it off solely based on the strength of its thematic cohesiveness that brings it all together at the end. And its impressive how Inside is able to balance its prevasive and easily understood authoritarian imagery with more subtle and easy to miss nuances that turn a motionless chick in the background into a masterclass of foreshadowing and establish a simple hidden in plain sight diorama as the game's version of 1984's "boot on a human face".

Regardless, Inside's ability to keep its subtext hidden in its scenery is its biggest strength, running instead on tone and atmosphere alone, telling all you need to know from the first moment you take control of the boy in red, and allowing the player the decision to be invested or not in its world, one you will desperately want to get inside of.

I appreciate this game a lot because it tries hard to cut above its weight and throws everything at the wall to see what sticks. Has details that are completely unnecessary or remnants of old development time, loaded with bizarre sights and sounds, and is just an incredibly dark game as a whole.

It doesn't nail everything it does, and finds itself having a mixed bag in its difficulty for it. But hey, it's got more love and effort than you'd believe. Worth a look and worth digging into the development of this game, fascinating stuff!

Listen. This game isn't perfect, but it sure as hell deserves more love than it actually gets and less of the dragging through the mud that critics gave it upon its release 4 years ago. Yes, Dan controls a bit clunky and wobbly, but that clunky/wobbly weight never got in the way of trying to move or attack and more than not actually made it feel more like Dan had a weight to him as a shambling bag of bones in heavy armor. Never really had a hard time with the levels aside from Scarecrow Fields (Fuck that sudden level spike out of nowhere and the fact those Scarecrows take so long to hurt and do so much damage) since most levels aren't too long. Most of the time the longest a level can take is maybe 8-10 minutes with shorter levels being 3-5 minutes. Dying can be annoying, nut never felt defeating due to the short length. Its pretty amazing how much of a personality Sir Dan has. For a somewhat silent protagonist with half a jaw he's able to emote and get across his feelings very well. Props to the animation team on that. Soundtrack is also a nop. This is pretty much if Danny Elfman scored a Tim Burton game. I know it's a bit of cliche to compare this game to that, but I do mean it in the best way. It's also really reassuring that despite wanting to be the home of AAA Dramatic 50 hour stories, Sony seems to never give up on this series despite its unpopularity and failure to consistently reach a crowd, that they keep trying to make it work. I get it now because this game is great and it does deserve to be seen, played, and loved by way more people than it is. Who knows? Maybe with this rumored theatrical movie they could try their hand at yet a 4th version of the original game. Or, you know, maybe just finally make a new game so that 95% of the series isn't just the same game remade.