INSIDE Reviews
We went deep into the despair and desolation of Playdead's Inside and found it to be one of the finest examples of emergent narrative there are.
It’s a game that’s not only very enjoyable to play, but one with enough mystery to it that it keeps you thinking inside the moment and out.
INSIDE is an odyssey I recommend everyone, gamer or not, to undertake. When it’s all said and done, the game did feel a bit short, but every second is worth it. I haven’t felt so strongly towards an indie game story since Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, and that’s saying a lot. After experiencing a monotonous world of where specs of dust in pale moonlight beauty in comparison to flakes of flesh wafting in the sunlight, the credits made me sit in the sun, reflect on myself and the progress of our world. It’s hard to discover any true answers in our world, much like the mysteries still left unsolved in INSIDE’s world of scientific genocide, but it’s easy to understand the massive effort it took Playdead to splice together this masterpiece.
Playdead have taken everything that Limbo offered, and expanded it exponentially with Inside. Crafting a sublime 2D platformer with another unique art style, they take so many unexpected turns with the game that they may as well ship it with a sat nav. A game that starts you off as a boy in the wood will immediately draw comparisons to their 2010 debut, but the connective threads between Limbo and Inside are slowly pulled apart as the latter goes on and begins its descent into something all the more disturbing. A fantastic example of polishing a game until it’s done, Inside may only be around 4 hours long but it’s been well worth the 6 year wait.
If you own an Xbox One, this is definitely a game you need to play within its life cycle. There are no questions about that, and don’t argue. Preferably sooner rather than later, unless you don’t care if you have it spoiled (don’t let it be spoiled, trust me). Whatever your tastes in games are, this should be on your list of games you need to beat before you die.
Inside is a game that people will be discussing and talking about what exactly happened for many years.
After playing Limbo and how good that was I never thought INSIDE would top it, boy was I wrong and this might one of my favorite games this year.
It’s clear that a lot of time and effort went into what is presented to us as a game. The issue I keep coming back to is that none of it made any sense. None of it meant anything. If all of these disparate environments and puzzles could have been brought together along the way or at the end in a cohesive story, I would certainly give it a better score.
When it's not sending you into cardiac arrest, it's bending your mind with plot twists and challenging your reflexes and brain power with a series of platforming and puzzling challenges. In the end, lightning strikes twice for Playdead. Six years was worth the wait.
A must have for any gamer looking for something special
"To me, this game is a modern classic that truly showcases what a developer can achieve when they try to bring every aspect of a game together to form a cohesive piece of art. I would recommend it to fans of Limbo, Abzu and any Oddworld-type platformer. I am acutely aware, however, that this opinion will not be shared by everyone who plays"
Please, do yourself a favor and buy Inside right now before you get spoiled. From the beginning Inside is an unforgettable experience that every gamer has to play. What makes it even more unforgettable are the last gameplay moments, I’m still shocked about it. Developer Playdead has done impossible work, I’m still baffled that only 25 people can make a game like Inside, it’s simply mind-blowingly good.
Inside encapsulates everything right within the independent game genre, exuding a masterclass in game design with stellar animation and a muted colour palette that fit its macabre interior perfectly. Though some may be put off by its obtuseness, Inside is a unique title all gamers should eventually at least attempt to experience.
Inside is the kind of game that hooks you within the first minutes with a ‘Show Don’t Tell’ style of storytelling.
Inside is a really interesting, beautiful, gloomy, atmospheric game. It certainly gets our recommendation, as one of the rare high-quality logical platforms that you will surely enjoy in almost every aspect.
"Inside is a hauntingly oppressive 2D platforming masterpiece with a gorgeous artistic approach, incorporating moments of stealth, frantic chases with creative but not overly complex puzzles".
Inside is the 2016 indie GOTY front-runner, with the simplicity of its inviting controls, satisfying game flow, and enthralling yet ambiguous story that will have fans theorycrafting like they once did with Limbo.
A fantastic indie-exclusive that all fans of the developer, Limbo, and Xbox will enjoy. Inside is a short but compact fun-filled experience that never wastes your time. You will either love or loathe Insides ending, but the journey offers great value for a $20 dollar bill and provides an experience that will still be debatable among friends for the rest of 2016.
Inside manages to present an entire world, to evoke an entire universe, even without the use of any word, simply by concretizing the space around the protagonist.
Review in Italian | Read full review