[h1]Inside[/h1]
☑ Loved it
☐ Liked it
☐ Not for me
[b]Weighted rating[/b] out of 5
[h3]4.12[/h3]
[h2]Summary[/h2]
Flee through a bleak world, solving environmental puzzles and evading capture.
[b]Best for:[/b] Fans of wordless storytelling, atmosphere, and puzzle-platformers that prioritize mood and environmental narrative.
[b]Skip if:[/b] You dislike narrative opaqueness, or need an explicit plot.
[h1]Review[/h1]
What did I just play? The game launches with no menu, no introduction, no UI elements. Just a boy on the screen who reacts to the controls, and I got moving. The controls themselves are super smooth and intuitive. No fuss, no need for hints; they were just where you expected them to be. The mysterious atmosphere that started this entire experience persisted, and the curiosity about what was going on pulled me back in between sessions. The game was never difficult, but it could be [i]a bit[/i] tricky at times when it came to the puzzles, mostly because of the vast areas.
The art's gorgeous, with muted, dystopian colors. The implementation of light and shadow is brilliant. Sound design is probably one of the best I've experienced, and together with the foreboding soundtrack it adds another layer to the immersive character. Character movements and physics felt refined. And the thoughtful details, like when swimming under the surface there is no UI indication that you're running out of air, just a subtle pulsating vibration on the Deck. Even the [spoiler]shock wave[/spoiler] mechanic felt equally simplistic, beautiful, and deadly. The level design introduced new mechanics at a great pace and mixed moments of urgency with more calm periods. It all just fits so well together.
And to add some meta properties that made this an even better experience: the game saved my location automatically and frequently, making it super easy to continue playing regardless of whether you died or are returning from a previous session. This makes the game feel like it's not punishing me for exploring and trying things out, which is the total opposite of what I can experience from other games at times. It was just... enjoyable!
Before I started the game I took a peek at a guide that said achievements can be obtained through the chapters after playing through, so I felt comfortable just going in blind without the worry that it'd cost me hours of my life having to backtrack. I appreciated that I could load any arbitrary chapter immediately upon completing said chapter instead of after finishing the full game. And that there were so many spawn points I never had to rerun an entire level if I wanted to pick up a secret I had missed.
Two minor gripes are that 1) some of the areas are quite vast, so I often felt uncertain if I'd gone too far or not far enough to solve the puzzle at hand, which resulted in some running back and forth; and 2) [spoiler]there is no real closure or explanation at the end for what is going on. The entire thing stays as mysterious as when it started.[/spoiler]
[b]INSIDE[/b] is a well-designed and well-executed game that puts the player experience front and center. Magnificent!
[h1]Grading[/h1]
[h3]Game Design & Game Play[/h3]
[b]Core Game Loop[/b]
☑ Magnetic
☐ Engaging
☐ Solid
☐ Repetitive
☐ Tedious
[b]Arc & Pacing[/b]
☐ Impeccable
☑ Well-judged
☐ Functional
☐ Uneven
☐ Ruinous
[b]Narrative & Thematic Coherence[/b]
☐ Masterful
☑ Compelling
☐ Serviceable
☐ Weak
☐ Incoherent
[b]Systems Breadth[/b]
☐ Vast
☐ Broad
☑ Adequate
☐ Sparse
☐ One-dimensional
[b]Systems Depth[/b]
☐ Emergent
☐ Deep
☑ Qualified
☐ Exhaustible
☐ One-dimensional
[h3]Sensory & Aesthetics[/h3]
[b]Art[/b]
☑ Breathtaking
☐ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Fair
☐ Poor
[b]Sound Design[/b]
☑ Seamless
☐ Immersive
☐ Fitting
☐ Muddy
☐ Grating
[b]Soundtrack[/b]
☐ Transcendent
☑ Captivating
☐ Pleasant
☐ Forgettable
☐ Annoying
[b]Controls & Interactions[/b]
☑ Intuitive
☐ Attentive
☐ Adequate
☐ Frustrating
☐ Unplayable
[h3]Longevity & Value[/h3]
[b]Longevity[/b]
☐ Enduring
☐ Substantial
☐ Adequate
☑ Meager
☐ Ephemeral
[b]Replayability Structures[/b]
☐ Bottomless
☐ Plentiful
☐ Adequate
☑ Low
☐ None
[b]Value Density[/b] (picked up for [b]2,06€[/b] @ -91% off)
☑ Exceptional
☐ Strong
☐ Proportional
☐ Vague
☐ Predatory
