Inside The Gear

There are plenty of puzzle games that revolve around the use of various objects along with some more or less accurate physics and Inside The Gear is one of them. It’s an atmospheric puzzle platformer in which you will have the apparent simple task of placing a wheel on a platform, and of course, it’s not easy.

Puzzle games that rely on physics are generally flat when it comes to a mood or atmosphere but with Inside The Gear that’s not the case. It’s built using some pretty good graphics and the environment makes you feel as if you’re part of a gigantic mechanical world that runs like clockwork independently of you.

Visually, the game is appealing, there’s no question about it and along with the sound effects, it tends to pull you into the atmosphere. The effect is even more so if you’re into puzzle games of this sort.

Probably the most important aspect of the game, the animations for the mechanisms which you create are excellent. Everything works smooth and glitch free.

Throughout the game you get a cube and one or more boards which you can move and rotate in a 2D plane in order to create the mechanism that will propel or guide the wheel to its destination. In a lot of cases things look simple but the physics effects are very well tuned and you can easily overdo a toss or any other action.

It does take you a couple of minutes to figure out what to do and a few more to actually be able to do it. Controls are very simple and intuitive, but in some cases you will feel that they need a bit more fine-tuning. At times you need to move an object just a little to the left or to the right but a simple press of the direction key tends to give you more than you would prefer.

On a closing note, Inside The Gear might not deliver the most original idea for a puzzle game, we’ve all seen similar titles. This one however, combines a really good atmosphere, with good looks and best of all, it provides a series of really challenging puzzles to solve.