This Week I Have Been Mostly Playing…
Inside on Nintendo Switch
I'm as guilty as anyone who dives into the comfort of a game sequel that barely changes anything. That ease of knowing the controls and going through the motions albeit in a new setting is one I come back to again and again. Don't get me wrong, I want franchises to push on and do new things. But it's much easier to pick up something like Halo Infinite than learn the intricacies of Dragon Quest XI.
With all that in mind how much should they actually change a tried and test formula? Well it's been answered to a degree by Playdead’s brilliant game Inside. I have been replaying it over the weekend, the second time really emphasising the well worked retread.
But enough of that. Let's go back to basically the founding of my adult gaming tastes and the Xbox 360s XBLA, Microsoft way to push new Indie titles in a digital format in the early 2010's. Yes I know now that we are drowning in indie titles on consoles now but back then it was all very new and exciting. In hindsight I lucked out with the stone cold classics I picked up and played to death. Super Meat Boy being the absolute standout but the other was Limbo.
I actually picked this up on New Years Eve and did not leave to go to a party until I completed it. Then proceeded to get very drunk and not shut up about this ridiculously amazing game. Limbo is Noir 2D Platformer where you play as a small boy with a big head trying to survive in a hostile world where everything is trying to kill you. The visuals are gorgeous and set the template for arty 2D platformers.
After years of development Inside was the follow up game, where you play as a small boy with a slightly smaller head trying to survive in a hostile world. But wait! It's in colour!! Actually that's really unfair and takes me back to my very first point. It's the same formula but so much better. Limbo was set in this fairy tale world with the first half being the absolute gold standard. Spiders, feral boys, rolling rocks. There was a lot out there to get you. But then it kind of lost its way in the second half with a bizarre ending.
Inside keeps the platforming and puzzle formula, adds a splash of colour and turns up the atmosphere to about a billion. The world building is brilliant, you traipse through the dark woods and clamber over barbed wire all the while being hunted by ‘them’. A flash of car lights and the barks of angry dogs send the fear up another notch. This world is incredible and scary in equal measure.
It’s the kind I imagine George Orwell conjured up when writing 1984. A hugely oppressive world with danger at every turn with no idea who you can trust. This game totally does that. Even the dead pigs strewn around the farm evoke Animal Farm. Granted the story telling isn't even in the same continent but it still does more than enough to draw the player in.
There’s a lot of very cool stuff here, deaths are as brutal as in Limbo. In fact the dogs ripping you apart take it to a new level, genuinely harrowing to see a young boy set up upon. The game saves often and restarts from deaths are quick. The puzzles are pretty nice, leaning heavily on physics but still satisfying. Oh I even enjoy the water sections! Underwater swimming is pretty quick, flowing very nicely and feels a natural addition. Just be ready for what's down there!
I can’t even talk about the ending. There is an argument to say that with the game being released in 2016 I should be well within my rights to ‘spoil’ it now. But fuck it, it’s too damn good to ruin for the one or two people have yet to get around to it. It’s totally not what you expect but it's a hell of a ride. You will be done in a few hours but be thinking about it for days!
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