Game Reviews: Inside

If Limbo was the initial blueprint for PlayDead’s narrative-driven platformers, then I would argue inside is the refined product. After running through the game’s meticulous levels and immersing myself in it’s grim and dystopian world I can only think of the utmost positive things to say about it. Like Psyconaughts 2 earlier this year, Inside has changed my perspective on how platformers can truly be more than just their gameplay and I love that!

Developed and published by the studio themselves, Inside serves as PlayDeads second video game release. It came out in 2016 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC, following with mobile and Mac ports a few years later.  It’s really impressive that despite only developing two games at this point that the studio has been able to deliver some of the most talked-about experiences the industry has had in the past decade. I think that’s what PlayDead excel at, they take their time and hone their craft and produce games that are more than just games. They’re metatextual stories with so much to explore and discuss and they ask you to come to your own conclusions. Inside in a lot of ways might just be my favourite platforming experience because of that.

The story of Inside follows (Similar to Limbo) a young boy, who wakes up from a nap out in the woods. As he ventures towards what appears to be his village, he see’s a strange military unit shoving villagers into a truck and driving them away. For some reason the boy finds himself following along the truck until he ends up in this ginormous compound. Inside the compound the boy soon discovers inhumane experiments are being performed on the people the corporation bring here. Your goal is to venture deeper and learn what other secrets lie deep in the heart of this place and hopefully put a stop to it. 

Believe it or not, that paragraph is a streamlined, non-spoiler description of the narrative of Inside. I think to divulge any more of what Inside has to offer is to rob you of some of the most striking and thought-provoking elements of this game. Inside’s story is told visually, both through the background and foreground. Your place in this story is integral and as you venture deeper into this world you see the scale of the darkness layered all around it. That core mystery that drives you to venture further into the facility and see what the secret project truly is, it’s a captivating drive and its payoff while I found initially confusing and hard to comprehend, I’ve come to appreciate on reflection.  I’m a big fan of progressive storytelling and what I like about how Inside does it is it never has to say a word for you to get where it’s going. The world is distinct enough and events play out clear enough for you to see the narrative being woven out for you to untangle. There are some moments in this game that really work to unnerve you, but then there’s also moments which work to surprise you; it’s a narrative experience that works in all the best ways in conjunction with its gameplay.

Inside’s gameplay follows pretty much the same core functionality you had in Limbo. The boy you play only has three controls, move, jump and interact. This simplistic control scheme is integral to keep the gameplay accessible and add little distraction to the core progress of the game’s experience as you venture further.  That’s not to say there’s no challenge behind the game’s offerings however. When the game isn’t trying to outline its dystopian story to you, it’s asking you to be smart and consider the puzzles you find yourself in. These puzzles never felt overtly difficult either, they are laid out and presented to you in a clever fashion and give you just enough of a hint to work out how to overcome it. As you progress further into the facility, the story and puzzles continue to meld to help you progress. What I love about the puzzles is even if you fail at them repeatedly, the game’s charitable checkpoint system will boot you right back into it for you to tackle it one more time. Often enough in these games, repeat failures present you with the best indication of where the solution lies, and this concept Inside is fully aware of. One other element of the game’s functionality I want to praise is its variety. Inside’s narrative is tied to this as you explore the facility, new challenges and gameplay mechanics become the focus and you never feel the game being repetitive because of this. Some of the later sections of the game are probably my most favourite because they change up the core navigation but they never lose sight of that core blueprint that makes the game so simple, yet so clever at the same time.

The final piece of this multi-layered pie is found in it’s visuals and audio. This is the one part where the game shifts away from its similarities with Limbo. Inside fully utilises a 2.5D style to give the player a full impression of the world as they platform their way through it.  All the visual cues used in the design of these environments help to fully realise their identity and give the player a sense of scale and tone easily. As the game is monochromatic, light is used as a key element to help add a sense of atmosphere into each level you’re in. Often at times we see light as a positive element, something to lead us on, but in Limbo it can be deceitful, overt lights are often at the use of the complex and in some cases, you’re avoiding it. Colour too is an important element of the game’s visual scope, because there’s such a major lack of it.  Items and controls you can interact with are either coloured or illuminated to give the player a smart nod that this may be useful to the current situation they’re in.  I also want to go ahead and praise the camera work in the game as well. The game uses the camera in a smart fashion when it wants the player to pick up on the backdrop or focus on the main elements by panning inwards or outwards. This is only ever done in key moments but it’s just another addition to this game’s fantastic mixture that makes its narrative feel consistently relevant in everything you do.  The games audio and soundtrack are the final piece of this element too. Sound is just as important an element in this game’s world as it’s visuals. Like with the camera, sound is used sparingly to apply relevance onto key sequences, it’s got a really eerie yet sombre aura to it. 

Inside despite it’s dark and depressing world, is filled to the brim with positives; which is quite ironic. It’s a game which achieves everything it sets out to do on a visual and functional level. The developers at PlayDead know their craft and they have honed it to perfection at this point. If Inside is only this team’s second game, I cannot wait for what the future holds for this developer and their games, in whatever case I will be there on day one to play them.