Things I Played: Inside - A New Type Of Dystopia
I don't often feel the need to buy games at launch but I made an exception this week for INSIDE, a game I’ve been hugely excited about ever since it was announced back at E3 2014. I'm sure that gives an indication of how long its been in development but I feel it's worth mentioning for anyone who's not aware. Its taken the developers Playdead a MASSIVE six years to finish it. Bloody hell guys.
If you played (or saw somebody else playing) their previous game LIMBO then I rest easy making comparisons between them. They're both puzzle-platformers. They both rely on a minimalist style. And they both subject the player to violent gameplay provoking subtle elements of fear, shock and horror. In other words, Inside is a type of spiritual successor. Oh yeah, and they both have capitalised titles, for a reason I'm yet to figure out.
If you played (or saw somebody else playing) their previous game LIMBO then I rest easy making comparisons between them. They're both puzzle-platformers. They both rely on a minimalist style. And they both subject the player to violent gameplay provoking subtle elements of fear, shock and horror. In other words, Inside is a type of spiritual successor. Oh yeah, and they both have capitalised titles, for a reason I'm yet to figure out.
Unlike LIMBO though, INSIDE is set in a grizzly dystopian world. It's a story-driven game that tells a simple tale about a young boy trying to escape. Unfortunately, this is complicated by the fact everything is out to kill him; not just guards and dogs, but also robotic security cameras and strange fish-person things.
The gameplay is tight with plenty of platforming goodness but it's the experience of INSIDE that makes it most interesting of all. It has a unique atmosphere that conjures up a sense of eerie dread. The level-design moves deeper and deeper into the maze-like facility. This is perfectly rendered by shadows of grey and blue give it an impressionistic quality. The grinding soundtrack also provides a weighty feeling of oppression throughout.
This all lends expertly to the mystery. M,ake no mistake this game is very ambiguous. I was often asking questions like: Who are we? Where are we? What's going on? Who's in charge here? Is the world still right? And the ending... bloody hell that's weird. Without mentioning anything specific, there's a lot of Inception-esque layers going on. I'm yet to figure it all out.
That's all for now but I do want to mention that I really, really, really enjoyed it. While it's a surreal game that probably won't appeal to everyone but there's very little like it. It's the gaming equivalent of a Lars Von Trier movie (lazy Danish comparison).
//
That's all for now but I do want to mention that I really, really, really enjoyed it. While it's a surreal game that probably won't appeal to everyone but there's very little like it. It's the gaming equivalent of a Lars Von Trier movie (lazy Danish comparison).
//
