Inside
PlayStation 4
I will be referencing my previous review for Limbo during this review, since the two games go hand in hand with one another. If you want to check out my Limbo review, you can find it located >>here<<
Nostalgia Factor:
If you have read my Limbo review, you’ll know that I didn’t even become aware of either of these games’ existence until last year, when I read a preview for Inside in a Game Informer magazine. The premise of these games immediately intrigued me, and I made a mental note to myself to check them out. I finally got around to it this month, renting the Limbo/Inside collection disc for the PS4 through GameFly.
Limbo didn’t impress me too much, as evidenced by its C- score in my review. As a result, my hopes weren’t too high for its follow-up, Inside. While I can definitely say that Inside is better than its predecessor, I still have mixed feelings on the game. Read on for my full thoughts.
Story:
Much like Limbo, this game’s storyline is very much up to player interpretation. Inside places you in control of an unnamed boy. You’re in the middle of an eerie looking cornfield, on the run from mysterious agents with flashlights and guns that want you dead. Very quickly, this game becomes a life or death struggle for freedom as you try to escape. Things get weird fast. You run through an abandoned farm area, where there are dead pigs piled everywhere. The ones that are still living charge at you and try to attack you. Once you make it through the farm, the setting changes to an industrial environment, where human-like zombies are being herded through checkpoints for inspection. You hop into a submarine which takes you through an underwater area. Once you re-emerge, you pass through an open area, where some kind of powerful timed pulse blows you to smithereens if you don't properly take cover from it. You enter a lab where creatures are being experimented on. Things only get weirder and weirder the deeper into the game you get.
Eventually your character comes into contact with this big ugly blob creature, where he is absorbed into its core. The last few chapters of the game consist of you playing as the blob as you rush to escape the laboratory. The game ends with the blob busting through a window and rolling down a large hill, where it comes to rest at the bottom of said hill.
The End.
Wait, what?
Again, just like with Limbo, the game abruptly ends with no explanation whatsoever as to what you have just witnessed. Did I like the ending? No. I have stated multiple times on this blog that I don't like open-ended stories. I like clearly defined beginnings, middles, and ends.
That said, I found the world of this game to be much, much more interesting than that of Limbo's. All the weird post-apocalyptic shit you see, all the bizarre lab experiments, the creepy herd of "zombie" humans... the more I saw, the more I wanted to know what was going on. This game clearly has a story to tell. I just wish it actually told it.
Gameplay:
I have no problem with the way Inside handles. You run, you jump, you grab stuff. That's about it. This game is very easy to just pick up and play. The basic gist of the game is that you start on the left side of the screen and you make your way to the right. You have to jump over things, solve puzzles, and clear obstacles.
There are a wide variety of puzzles for you to clear, but none of them are too overly difficult. I did have to turn to help online for a few of these puzzles, but not too many of them. Puzzles range from very simple, like rolling a cart over to a ledge so you can jump on it and boost yourself over the ledge, to very difficult. One puzzle that stood out to me was when you have to use your mind control powers to steer a herd of zombies onto a giant scale. Once you've collected enough of them, a door opens and the game lets you move on.
Expect to die a lot as you play this game, but never does Inside feel as cheap or as frustrating as Limbo. There is definitely a learning curve to some of these puzzles, however, particularly the underwater ones. I did not care for those at all.
Graphics:
If you are looking at this game from an artistic standpoint, Inside looks really cool. The simplistic look of the game definitely gives it a very unique feel. It is not straight up black and white like Limbo, but the colors are pretty dull and muted throughout the whole game. The only bright color you really see is the color of your character's shirt. The graphics mesh well with the mood and the feel of the whole game. I couldn't help but feel on edge and slightly creeped out as I played it.
If you are looking at this game from the standpoint of "I need good graphics!! Everything has to look like Horizon Zero Dawn!!11!", then you are going to be disappointed with Inside. This game has a very simple, minimalist look to it. It's all about creating a spooky, eerie environment with as little outside context as possible. I almost feel like the game's graphics and its setting are a second character in the game, outside of the boy you control. The game may not look like much when you stack it up next to jaw-dropping games like the aforementioned Horizon Zero Dawn, but it has its own charm to it that cannot be denied.
Sound:
I can't say much about this game's music and sound effects, other than that they do their job. They really bring this bleak, unsettling world to life. Inside is all about atmosphere, and the sound effects definitely pull their weight in that area. This is another game you should play with headphones on, in the dark.
I may not have cared too much for Inside in the long run, but I can't deny that the atmosphere of the game is really freaking cool.
Overall:
I had a better time with Inside than I did with Limbo, but that still isn't saying much. Honestly, I am a bit disappointed in both of these games after reading all the rave reviews. I expected something earth-shattering and groundbreaking, and instead I got two relatively short and simple puzzle based platformers with weak to nonexistent storylines.
I can see why people like Inside, it just wasn't really my cup of tea. It's all in the game's atmosphere. Even I can admit that I was intrigued by all the creepy shit you see as you play the game. The problem is that the game raised all these questions and then didn't bother to address them.
I think I mentioned David Lynch in my Limbo review. Well, I am going to mention him again. Inside definitely seems like something that could have been created by him. It's dark, it's creepy, it's full of stuff that doesn't make any sense. The atmosphere is cool, and you have a relatively okay time as you play the game. But then, it abruptly ends on a less than satisfactory note, leaving you hanging as to what has been actually been going on the whole time you've been playing the game.
If you like that kind of thing, you'll love Inside. Heck, you'll probably sing this game's praises to the roof. Almost every review I've seen out there has been a positive one. I think I am the only person out there to say anything negative about this game. That whole style of storytelling is just not my thing, and I don't think it ever will be. You can speculate as to what this game means until the cow's come home, but that is all it will ever be is just speculation. Give me answers, dammit!
Did I like Inside? It was okay. Did I think it sucked? No. Did I have a blast playing it? No. Would I play it again? Maybe, someday, a long time from now. I really wanted to like Inside, but I simply found the whole thing to be very average. I think it is fitting that the final score will reflect that.
Final Score:
C
If you liked my Inside review, please check out some of my other game reviews:
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