INSIDE Demo

Certain video games manage to capture the essence of the genre at its finest, while others try to copy the recipe over the years. Naturally, you can improve an idea over time with enough work, and it’s quite possible to create sometimes entirely different along the way. Hence, it’s not necessarily a bad thing to draw inspiration from something, as long as you improve on the concept with your own ideas.

INSIDE is a 2.5D platformer designed by the same developers that created Limbo, and that much is obvious from the first few minutes of gameplay. You can tell that the core mechanics when it comes to platforming, graphics and atmosphere are similar to Limbo, but at the same time INSIDE is a very different experience, especially when it comes to the story and the atmosphere.

As such, you play as a young boy running away from something, although the story is not entirely clear at first. Things get a lot easier to follow as you play along, and the atmosphere gets a lot thicker as well, not to mention disturbing. You actually have to sneak around during certain sections, so there’s a bit of stealth and survival involved in the gameplay as well.

Another thing that impresses about INSIDE is now smooth everything feels and looks, especially when it comes to how the character interacts with the environment. Each jump, slide and climb you perform feels natural, and it also depends on where you happen to be. On top of that, the puzzles require a bit of creativity on your behalf as well, and they can actually be incredibly clever.

The horror part makes its presence known at all times, although it’s obviously not about jump scares or silly things like that. Instead, the atmosphere is always pressing, not to mention the fact that the story gets darker and darker as you play along. The graphics reflect that, and it doesn’t even matter that you are looking at the game world from a 2.5D perspective.

In the end, INSIDE does everything right when it comes to puzzles, story and atmosphere, so it’s difficult not to recommend it to every fan of the genre. Hence, if you enjoyed Limbo and you want something even better, INSIDE is what happens when the developers perfect their craft.