Although its main focus is exploration and atmosphere, Interior Worlds plays like a much more tactile horror experience than similar games, like Anemoiapolis – a game that plays with its liminal spaces and only sometimes dips into outright horror.
In a lot of ways, Anemoiapolis is more of a journey through the void; traversing arbitrary, dreamlike spaces; alien, empty architecture that is only formally human in lack of intent and/or purpose. Interior Worlds instead feels like a haunted house. Its environments take inspiration from popular “liminal space” images, although there is a presence lurking within these corridors that imbues these worlds with a dark undercurrent.
Both games are comparable in length, although the most significant difference is the “entity” that inhabits each. Players will encounter the shadowy “entity” of Interior Worlds frequently, either stalking from a distance, scuttling into the many tunnels it leaves behind, or remaining idle before vanishing into thin air. Interior Worlds nails its atmosphere; in contrast to Anemoiapolis’ alien spaces, Interior Worlds’ levels feel as if they’re real, lived-in places. The absence of life feels much more threatening. It’s as if everyone had disappeared suddenly. There are clues, moments of environmental storytelling, but never a complete picture.
There’s only one instance in Anemoiapolis where the player is implicitly threatened – a brief chase sequence through a bathroom maze – but we never see what’s chasing us. We’re only running from what we assume might be there. We catch glimpses of a shadowy entity in the sprawling, underground malls thereafter, but rarely. Its presence is much less apparent, which makes its brief appearances all the more unsettling.
Interior Worlds has an objective. Its shadow monster man has a quota. Anemoiapolis is a lot more confusing and mazelike, letting players get lost in the myriad spaces (and even waste time in neverending mini-golf). It’s apples and oranges. The only connective tissue is that original promise of exploring virtually-rendered, 3D liminal spaces. Both succeed in different ways, but neither captures the soul of exploring these alien spaces between worlds.
In a lot of ways, Anemoiapolis is more of a journey through the void; traversing arbitrary, dreamlike spaces; alien, empty architecture that is only formally human in lack of intent and/or purpose. Interior Worlds instead feels like a haunted house. Its environments take inspiration from popular “liminal space” images, although there is a presence lurking within these corridors that imbues these worlds with a dark undercurrent.
Both games are comparable in length, although the most significant difference is the “entity” that inhabits each. Players will encounter the shadowy “entity” of Interior Worlds frequently, either stalking from a distance, scuttling into the many tunnels it leaves behind, or remaining idle before vanishing into thin air. Interior Worlds nails its atmosphere; in contrast to Anemoiapolis’ alien spaces, Interior Worlds’ levels feel as if they’re real, lived-in places. The absence of life feels much more threatening. It’s as if everyone had disappeared suddenly. There are clues, moments of environmental storytelling, but never a complete picture.
There’s only one instance in Anemoiapolis where the player is implicitly threatened – a brief chase sequence through a bathroom maze – but we never see what’s chasing us. We’re only running from what we assume might be there. We catch glimpses of a shadowy entity in the sprawling, underground malls thereafter, but rarely. Its presence is much less apparent, which makes its brief appearances all the more unsettling.
Interior Worlds has an objective. Its shadow monster man has a quota. Anemoiapolis is a lot more confusing and mazelike, letting players get lost in the myriad spaces (and even waste time in neverending mini-golf). It’s apples and oranges. The only connective tissue is that original promise of exploring virtually-rendered, 3D liminal spaces. Both succeed in different ways, but neither captures the soul of exploring these alien spaces between worlds.