When Playdead’s Inside released back in 2016 it launched with widespread critical acclaim. Inside is a puzzle platformer set in a dark yet beautiful world where danger could be lurking around any corner. The team at Playdead expanded upon many of the idea’s and mechanics that existed in their breakout debut game Limbo to create a challenging puzzle game that will leave you thinking about it long after the credits have rolled.
And best of all, if you haven’t had a chance to play the game yet, it has just launched on the Nintendo Switch which is the perfect platform for this type of game.
Much like Limbo, Inside begins with a cold opening. With the protagonist boy you play as waking up in a forest setting trying to evade being captured by an antagonistic organisation that really want’s to prevent you getting away, or completing whatever it is your goal in the game seems to be.
You’re given no premise, you don’t know what you’re trying to achieve. All you know is that you need to keep progressing further as you could be found and taken out at any point. This cold opening is incredibly effective at making you feel as lost and out of place as the boy.
Inside is a 2.5D platformer where your player character only travels on the left and right axis of the game world. There are also vertical climbing moments you’ll use to gain access to new area’s but you never travel away from the camera depth wise. Unlike limbo which used parallaxing effects to gain depth Inside has fully crafted 3D levels and while you can’t freely explore the depths of the area’s, the design of them crafts a beautiful yet terrifying world.
3D components play more into the game than they did in limbo. The transition to the unity engine has allowed for better world rendering and realistic lighting effects that play into many of Insides environmental storytelling and puzzles. The addition of realistic water rendering has opened up a world of new puzzles and area’s to explore below the surface, breaking up the area’s of the game well and keeping environments fresh.
Art direction of Inside is dark, simplistic and beautiful. Many of the environments retaining the monochromatic tones Limbo presented. But now with the upgraded lighting system and outdoor areas there are environments that pop with colour and breathe fresh life into the scene, usually temporarily before returning you to the harsh, cold factory landscapes. But the flashes of colour add so much to the tone and feel of the game and I’m glad Playdead decided to open up the colour palette a little more after finishing Limbo.
As 2.5D platformers in dark settings seem to have become Playdead’s signature, I think we should also add gritty, brutal death animations to that list as well. What were already gruesome in Limbo have returned here, but this time there is little to leave to the imagination as the game no longer relies on hiding details behind silhouettes. And you will be dying quite a lot. It’s how the game teaches you, letting you know you don’t quite have something in the puzzle figured out yet. This trial and error process is part and parcel of progressing in this game, and the many ways in which you can fail and die leaves you never feeling safe or comfortable when playing.
Inside can be completed in around 3-4 hours and it’s an incredibly fun journey. The pacing throughout is perfect, with no environment overstaying it’s welcome always giving you fresh things to look at as you continually progress further. It also doesn’t contain area’s that re-use repetitive puzzles to pad out the length of the game.
Inside, much like Limbo uses a very simple control scheme. You have your standard left, right, up and down movement a jump button and a button used to interact with objects, that’s it. But the team at Playdead have used these simple mechanics to create some incredible platforming puzzles. Further expanding on what was available in Limbo with a bunch of clever idea’s. One of my personal favourites was having to mimic the actions of the possessed drone like people that the organisation had captured while walking in a single file line, trying to blend in and not be spotted by the onlooking guards.
The puzzles themselves aren’t any more difficult than what were found in Limbo but the clever use of the 3D environments aided by the upgraded game tech made for puzzles that were more fun to play and were just as rewarding when you finally complete an area that had you stuck for a while.
The switch port is fantastic. I encountered no technical problems and spent most of my time playing in handheld mode which looked and performed beautifully. There did seem to be a slight graphical improvement when playing in docked mode on the big screen, but as there were no performance problems with handheld mode that’s how I decided to spend my time with it.
With Inside having more colour, and a lighter tone overall compared to Limbo it made for a better portable experience as I mentioned in my review of Limbo on the Switch that the game became hard to see if you were playing in well lit area’s such as on public transport. While there may be a few scenes like that in Inside, for the most part you’ll have no problems enjoying this one out and about.
Inside contains a very ambiguous ending that has sparked massive amounts of discussion that still continues to this day. A secret true ending is unlocked if you find and destroy all of the masterfully concealed glowing orbs in the game. These are found at the end of area’s hidden off the main path of the game and add to the replay value of Inside as you’ll likely miss quite a few during your first time through.
Final Thoughts
Inside offers a short but incredibly fun and thoughtful experience that will leave me thinking about it for a long time to come. It’s thoughtful puzzles and physics based platforming guide you on a fast paced journey which by the end may leave you with more questions than you started with. The port for the Nintendo Switch is fantastic and is my recommended platform to pick this up on if you are looking to jump into this game.
If you want to see more content like this and never miss one of our frequent gaming and anime giveaways come and Follow Ani-Game on Twitter.
9.5
- + Fantastic, thought provoking experience
- + Perfect pacing throughout the whole experience
- + Great puzzle and world design
- + Very well handled port
