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‘Inside’ is a spiritual successor to Playdead’s hugely successful ‘Limbo’; a game which I loved. Before I sat down to play “Inside”, I worried whether or not it could match the quality of its predecessor – within the first five minutes of gameplay I had been in awe, terror, shock and relief. The game commands your attention, and it never lets it wane, throughout its duration (about three hours) you will go through an emotional ringer.

Rest assured that ‘Inside’ is not as good as ‘Limbo’…Inside,…it’s better.

At its core, ‘Inside’ is a simple side scrolling platformer/puzzle game – but the reality is that the game is much more than this. There is a tale being told here, a mysterious and often shocking one; where the working class are no longer seen as human, but as a commodity to be used by the proletariat in any way, they seem fit. When you fail in your attempt to escape this way of living you will see extreme violence being delivered to your child character – ‘Inside’ holds nothing back in it depiction of oppression and while it shocks, it certainly delivers its message. This is helped by the fantastic graphical and aural presentation. The graphics and animation of the boy is utterly sensational, and it makes his deaths decidedly hard to watch – especially when the beautiful score is well cued and pulls at your emotions. Fantastic!

The Dystopian view of the near future is well realised, the backdrops and the actions of NPCs will continually add more backstory and make you ask questions of everything – as a Sci-Fi world, it is one of the most developed available in gaming. It is also loaded with political allusions that seem fitting with the climate 2016 continues to present to us. It feels like its warning us against our political malaise.

The gameplay cycle of ‘Inside’ is incredibly fulfilling. Furthermore, every level has a well-thought-out puzzle that will test your gaming skills much more than it will test your mental capacity. I never got stuck during my playtime here; in fact, aside from one puzzle (which I won’t ruin, but it’s brilliant). I knew the solution almost as quickly as I saw the puzzle. This was little disappointing, while I don’t enjoy getting stuck in games, I do enjoy being challenged and at rarely did I feel challenged. In fact, there are quite a few puzzles that require trial-and-error solving– and while I enjoy puzzles and gameplay of this nature a whole lot, I am fully aware that I am in the minority. As Your enjoyment will definitely depend on your feelings towards these two facts (puzzles and trial-and-error).

While being robbed of that feeling of beating a puzzle is certainly a negative – this is countered by the fact that everyone who starts the game WILL see its fantastic ending. And you do want to see that! Throughout the last couple of months, I have beaten ‘Inside’ countless times and seen everything it has to offer – for me; it is not only one of the best games of 2016 – but it is one of the finest games of the current generation. If you own a machine capable of running this game, you owe it to yourself to play it!

Pros

+ The art style looks great beyond belief

+ The storytelling is incredibly subtle, and the pacing is perfect

+ The sound design is stunning

Cons

– The trial-and-error gameplay will not satisfy everyone

– The game can be shocking and unsettling for some

– The puzzles are simple and require very little thought

Gameplay: 4/5

Graphics: 5/5

Sound: 5/5

Controls: 5/5

Replay Value: 3/5

Verdict: 5/5

In overall, Playdead´s ‘Inside’ is not just one of the best games of 2016. It’s also one of the finest games of this generation. So if you have any interest in either art or narratives in games, then you owe it to yourself to play ‘Inside’.

Title: Inside

Developer: Playdead

Format: PS4

Genre: Puzzle-platformer/adventure

Resolution: 1080p

Release date: 2016-10-31

Difficulty: Normal

Spent time: +3 hours

Average grade internationally: 90.67% Metacritic.com

PEGI age rating: 6+

Price: 19,99 USD via PSN

Credit:

Robin Ek – Editor



Chris Petticrew

The Gaming Ground

Twitter: @Mr_Luvva_Luvva

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Tags: Indie games, Inside, Limbo, Playdead, PS4, PS4 review