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Upon launching the game, two words greet you: “PLAYDEADS INSIDE”. Those are the only two words you see in the entire game. INSIDE sells on its vagueness and mystery, shown by one of the only two trailers showing the main character walking, jumping and scaffolding through the vast world, reaching his destination: a large window, crowded by men in business suits peering curiously at whatever the camera can’t see.
INSIDE is a puzzle-platformer about a boy making his way to…something. That is the premise of the game, but its execution is what makes it intriguing. Subtly is key in INSIDE; the boy’s sudden panting in clutch situations, character animations which portray emotion beautifully, the game building its scale. Every aspect of it had tons of passion put into it, so much so that I can explain without spoiling the brilliant ending.
INSIDE’s gameplay doesn’t stray too far from it’s predecessor, LIMBO; platforming with ICO-like physics, jumps, and puzzle-solving throughout. Having not played LIMBO, I cannot fairly compare the two, but nonetheless, the gameplay is very well-done for the short, one-shot experience it is.
INSIDE is a game that sells on it’s mystery. As such, it’s a very story-driven experience, but not in a way that defeats the purpose of being a video game. In fact, it blends the gameplay and storytelling beautifully. With so little going on visually and no cutscenes or loading screens from beginning to end, the way you experience the story is purely through gameplay. That sounds obvious, but in a regular game, it’s “get to this area, defeat this many enemies, expositional cutscene, more gameplay, expositional cutscene.” In most cases, the gameplay is contextual to the cutscenes predecessing or follow that section, but with INSIDE, gameplay is context.
The puzzles aren’t necessarily mind-boggling fun, but they aren’t a chore, either. There’s your typical block-pushing and object-fetching, but blocks with propellers or mini submarines that can jump out of water spice up the gameplay just enough so it’s not overwhelming while being juxtaposed against the game’s dreary setting.
On top of this, INSIDE accomplishes something many puzzle games don’t: every puzzle feels like a part of the world. You never say “oh, wow, what a COINCIDENCE that this block JUST HAPPENS to be here.” Puzzle mechanics work in tandem with the environment, rather than making the puzzles and having the environment forcibly adapt. Puzzles aesthetically matching the game world and keeping the atmosphere alive is a crowning achievement for any puzzle game.
The game’s design is astounding from top to bottom. It goes for a minimalist, bleak art style, but is never an eyesore. The graphics look almost polygonal, as many textures in the game are flat, dull colors that lighting adds depth to. No one in the game has a face, either, creating a sense of anonymity in the characters. These aspects create a sense of emptiness and dreariness to the entire world of INSIDE.
One of the most incredible subtleties in this game is what the player can pick up from the character animations. In the beginning section, the boy has to hide from guards searching a forested area. You can tell from the guards, how they move, how they search, that they’re not looking for you; they’re trying to make sure that you aren’t there.
These brilliant portrayals of emotion through body language stay strong throughout the game. One section has you falling into a line of people walking in a line, but they almost look like zombies. Some are stomping, dragging their arms, while others are stumbling, barely able to keep their heads up.
The boy character, while in the line, attempts to walk very robotically in order to match the consciously absent individuals, but when the line stops, he keeps his head up, scrunched near his shoulders, constantly taking slow, scared peeks at the camera observing him.
A lot of these animations, especially the ones with the line of people, add a weird quirk to the game. Within the depressing and disturbing world are these lively, almost humorous animations that make it seem like a black comedy about dystopian societies.
The story of INSIDE may not be much on paper, but again, execution is key, and one of the most flawlessly executed parts of this game is the world building.Moving from one section to the next, a forest into a testing site, an ocean into a facility, feels natural and connected. As absolutely humongous as the world is, everything feels like it’s not just pasted together; there’s never any hard cuts in the environments, all the sections blend into each other seamlessly.
Not only does INSIDE establish its world amazingly, but it establishes the scale just as well. One section in particular comes to mind, where the boy jumps into the mini submarine, and sinks into the bottom of an ocean-like tank, where the submarine’s flashlight shines onto the outer shell of a dome that seems to spread out for miles. There are domes within buildings within domes; INSIDE keeps pushing the limit of how stunningly gigantic its world is.
The sound design is yet another one of INSIDE’s strong points. Sounds of footsteps through soil and on concrete, guns firing, sounds unknown to this planet; it all sounds disturbingly real. The most disturbing thing that the sound design of INSIDE amplifies is the boy’s actions. His breathing gets fast and panicky whenever he’s on the verge of death. When he’s swimming, he makes spastic gurgling sounds to alert the player that he’s drowning. Getting mauled by a dog lets the player hear the sounds of bones snapping. It goes to show that one of the most brutal and horrifying things in the game is the most human.
The music is droning, dark, and can only be described as “surreal ambiance.” Not much else can be said besides that for the few times it plays; it only serves to add to the sense of uneasiness and darkness of the whole game rather than a thematic soundtrack.
INSIDE is a short experience that thrives on its mystery and abstractness, creating one of the most suspenseful and breathtaking games this year.
Upon launching the game, two words greet you: “PLAYDEADS INSIDE”. Those are the only two words you see in the entire game. INSIDE sells on its vagueness and mystery, shown by one of the only two trailers showing the main character walking, jumping and scaffolding through the vast world, reaching his destination: a large window, crowded by men in business suits peering curiously at whatever the camera can’t see.
INSIDE is a puzzle-platformer about a boy making his way to…something. That is the premise of the game, but its execution is what makes it intriguing. Subtly is key in INSIDE; the boy’s sudden panting in clutch situations, character animations which portray emotion beautifully, the game building its scale. Every aspect of it had tons of passion put into it, so much so that I can explain without spoiling the brilliant ending.
INSIDE’s gameplay doesn’t stray too far from it’s predecessor, LIMBO; platforming with ICO-like physics, jumps, and puzzle-solving throughout. Having not played LIMBO, I cannot fairly compare the two, but nonetheless, the gameplay is very well-done for the short, one-shot experience it is.
INSIDE is a game that sells on it’s mystery. As such, it’s a very story-driven experience, but not in a way that defeats the purpose of being a video game. In fact, it blends the gameplay and storytelling beautifully. With so little going on visually and no cutscenes or loading screens from beginning to end, the way you experience the story is purely through gameplay. That sounds obvious, but in a regular game, it’s “get to this area, defeat this many enemies, expositional cutscene, more gameplay, expositional cutscene.” In most cases, the gameplay is contextual to the cutscenes predecessing or follow that section, but with INSIDE, gameplay is context.
The puzzles aren’t necessarily mind-boggling fun, but they aren’t a chore, either. There’s your typical block-pushing and object-fetching, but blocks with propellers or mini submarines that can jump out of water spice up the gameplay just enough so it’s not overwhelming while being juxtaposed against the game’s dreary setting.
On top of this, INSIDE accomplishes something many puzzle games don’t: every puzzle feels like a part of the world. You never say “oh, wow, what a COINCIDENCE that this block JUST HAPPENS to be here.” Puzzle mechanics work in tandem with the environment, rather than making the puzzles and having the environment forcibly adapt. Puzzles aesthetically matching the game world and keeping the atmosphere alive is a crowning achievement for any puzzle game.
The game’s design is astounding from top to bottom. It goes for a minimalist, bleak art style, but is never an eyesore. The graphics look almost polygonal, as many textures in the game are flat, dull colors that lighting adds depth to. No one in the game has a face, either, creating a sense of anonymity in the characters. These aspects create a sense of emptiness and dreariness to the entire world of INSIDE.
One of the most incredible subtleties in this game is what the player can pick up from the character animations. In the beginning section, the boy has to hide from guards searching a forested area. You can tell from the guards, how they move, how they search, that they’re not looking for you; they’re trying to make sure that you aren’t there.
These brilliant portrayals of emotion through body language stay strong throughout the game. One section has you falling into a line of people walking in a line, but they almost look like zombies. Some are stomping, dragging their arms, while others are stumbling, barely able to keep their heads up.
The boy character, while in the line, attempts to walk very robotically in order to match the consciously absent individuals, but when the line stops, he keeps his head up, scrunched near his shoulders, constantly taking slow, scared peeks at the camera observing him.
A lot of these animations, especially the ones with the line of people, add a weird quirk to the game. Within the depressing and disturbing world are these lively, almost humorous animations that make it seem like a black comedy about dystopian societies.
The story of INSIDE may not be much on paper, but again, execution is key, and one of the most flawlessly executed parts of this game is the world building.Moving from one section to the next, a forest into a testing site, an ocean into a facility, feels natural and connected. As absolutely humongous as the world is, everything feels like it’s not just pasted together; there’s never any hard cuts in the environments, all the sections blend into each other seamlessly.
Not only does INSIDE establish its world amazingly, but it establishes the scale just as well. One section in particular comes to mind, where the boy jumps into the mini submarine, and sinks into the bottom of an ocean-like tank, where the submarine’s flashlight shines onto the outer shell of a dome that seems to spread out for miles. There are domes within buildings within domes; INSIDE keeps pushing the limit of how stunningly gigantic its world is.
The sound design is yet another one of INSIDE’s strong points. Sounds of footsteps through soil and on concrete, guns firing, sounds unknown to this planet; it all sounds disturbingly real. The most disturbing thing that the sound design of INSIDE amplifies is the boy’s actions. His breathing gets fast and panicky whenever he’s on the verge of death. When he’s swimming, he makes spastic gurgling sounds to alert the player that he’s drowning. Getting mauled by a dog lets the player hear the sounds of bones snapping. It goes to show that one of the most brutal and horrifying things in the game is the most human.
The music is droning, dark, and can only be described as “surreal ambiance.” Not much else can be said besides that for the few times it plays; it only serves to add to the sense of uneasiness and darkness of the whole game rather than a thematic soundtrack.
INSIDE is a short experience that thrives on its mystery and abstractness, creating one of the most suspenseful and breathtaking games this year.