Was I full of shit when I originally gave this game a paltry 3 star rating and I rather glibly dismissed it as being largely boring? I absolutely was. This game is fucking amazing. What few gripes I do have with it are slight because this is seriously one of the most inventive, deeply original, and (for lack of a more apt descriptor) wonderfully weird games that i’ve ever played and I wouldn’t hesitate for a second to call it a masterpiece. The sheer leap in quality from Limbo to this game alone is nothing short of incredible. The levels are equally as tightly wound but far more creative and complex, managing to avoid feeling stiflingly linear while still remaining an incredibly focused and cohesively packaged experience, the mechanics feel weighty and smooth, aided by some fantastic controls and responsive animations, and the game features plenty of interesting and detailed environments that are consistently a treat to explore. The underwater levels are especially wondrous and they add a ton of flavor and tension to individual stretches of the game. From a technical and sensory standpoint the game is equally as outstanding too, sporting rich and captivating art direction, stark and beautiful visual storytelling, and a droning, atmospheric ambient score that’s coupled together brilliantly with the eerie and immersive sound design. All of these elements are just some of Inside’s many sumptuous delights. It also excels in regards to gameplay variety and it never once feels boring or uninspired. Nary a moment goes by here that’s not exciting or memorable in some way or another, the game masterfully blending and balancing platforming and puzzle solving, highly scripted but no less fun pseudo stealth sections, and equal parts engaging and thrilling action set pieces to great effect. The puzzles in particular deserve to be singled out for how surprisingly enjoyable they are. They’re unique, challenging, well wrought, and both immediately rewarding and immensely satisfying to solve, requiring genuine thought and skill from the player but never once feeling obtuse or oblique. The more trial and error driven gameplay segments from Limbo are still very much present here and they too are vastly improved over its predecessor. Not only are they utilized far less frequently throughout (on top of being generally less frustrating to play through due to very merciful checkpoints) but the game is so brilliantly designed and deftly paced otherwise that they are easy to discard as minor hiccups in the grand scheme of things. Bottom line? I had a total blast coming back to this game all these years later and it’s definitely much better than I had remembered it being when I first played it. It was frankly erroneous of me to have taken it for granted. It’s abundantly clear to me now that playdead studios are extremely talented game developers and I’m excited to see what they do next.