As a fan of text-less games, Inside sat well with me. I had a wonderful time playing this on the OLED Steam Deck with some decent headphones. Though misophonic at times, I found myself continually awed at the game's sound design. There were disturbingly organic sound interactions that combined with droning background notes in such a way that kept me feeling a slight disgust and intrigue that I can only imagine is exactly how the developers intended the player to be feel throughout the game.

The puzzles typically had a nice flow to them that kept me immersed in the weird environmental story telling. At worst, some puzzles required preemptive knowledge or trial & error to test out boundaries of mechanics in a very "video gamey" sort of way. This video-gameyness isn't necessarily a bad thing but can clash with the more immersive focus of how the game presents itself.

Whenever I considered how this type of game could evolve, my mind kept going to games like Another World/Out of This World. It was hard not to see this game as feature-stripped version of those types of games after I made this comparison.

With that said, Inside still holds its own and is a very nice experience through and through... I just can't agree with forcing the player to use the analog stick to move in a 2D side-scroller.

Silhouette Mirage gives player agency and player-controlled pacing in such a unique way that I haven't experienced in any other run'n'gun/shoot 'em up game. The mechanics of the game are equally straightforward and brain-bendy: face one direction to fire red bullets; face the other direction to fire blue bullets; red bullets beat blue enemies; blue bullets beat red enemies.

Its difficulty curve is deviously unfurled as you build comfort in its controls and learn the nuances of the continue system. You are naturally led to learn these nuances by seeking out all of the game's endings. You are motivated to seek out these endings due to the game's involved, Xenosagian, Sin&Punishmentesque narrative wrapped in an approachable Saturday morning cartoon veneer. The game is hilarious. And it makes no sense. What the heck is up with this game! It's pretty darn fun though.

"Maybe I can play through this area without losing as much health this time... Maybe I can fight this boss without using a continue... Maybe I should focus on reflecting more than attacking... I wonder if it's better to be right-facing blue rather than red here... "

These thoughts end up coming naturally in the subsequent playthroughs and help unpack the matryoshkian layers of difficulty to the point where a level of unasked-for mastery has now been obtained and a certain "why not" attitude has been taken upon in seeking out all that the game has to offer.

Also, the soundtrack is a real banger.