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Inside, Part One
Sep. 25th, 2016 05:41 pmWhen people write about Playdead's new game Inside, they tend to say things like, "It's incredible, but I can't describe it without spoiling it."
Inside is good, but I don't think it's all that, and I'm going to "spoil" it. Granted, I've only gotten perhaps a quarter of the way through the story, so I won't be spoiling much.
Your player-character is a ten-year-old boy who begins the game in the woods, where he has escaped some sort of shadowy human farming facility. He's being chased by masked men with guns and attack dogs, and he will be killed instantly if he's spotted. The player's goal is therefore to move the boy constantly to the right side of the screen while evading capture.
After the boy leaves the woods, he emerges onto a farm covered in dead pigs, many of which are infested with wormlike parasites. It's here that the game introduces its central puzzle mechanic, which involves using a headset to control braindead adult humans. After the boy makes his way from the farm into a decaying city, it becomes apparent that these braindead humans are being tested and possibly marketed by normal humans.
I can see this story turning out in two ways. The first is that the boy is a host for the same parasite that killed the pigs; and, if he escapes into civilization, the parasite will spread and the world will be doomed. The second is that the boy is being controlled just as he controls the braindead adults; and, after he accomplishes his mission, he will be unplugged.
Unlike Limbo, which was more abstract and fantasy-themed, Inside is grittier and more apocalypse-themed. Ironically, Inside's realistic stylizations render it less creepy and darkly atmospheric than Limbo. The blank-faced human zombies aren't as scary as I think they're supposed to be, and the boy's various deaths feel rote and mundane.
Speaking of these deaths, Inside's major weakness is that, if the player dies at any point during a puzzle sequence, she has to start over at the beginning of the set piece, not from the point of death. The reason I quit the game last night is because I kept dying at the end of a puzzle sequence that takes about five minutes to complete. Repeatedly playing the same five minutes only to fail at the end was not fun, and it broke the game's mood and sense of flow.
Because Inside privileges a trial-and-error style of puzzle solving, and since the game harshly punishes errors, I think I'm going to minimize my future frustration by using a walkthrough.
Inside is good, but I don't think it's all that, and I'm going to "spoil" it. Granted, I've only gotten perhaps a quarter of the way through the story, so I won't be spoiling much.
Your player-character is a ten-year-old boy who begins the game in the woods, where he has escaped some sort of shadowy human farming facility. He's being chased by masked men with guns and attack dogs, and he will be killed instantly if he's spotted. The player's goal is therefore to move the boy constantly to the right side of the screen while evading capture.
After the boy leaves the woods, he emerges onto a farm covered in dead pigs, many of which are infested with wormlike parasites. It's here that the game introduces its central puzzle mechanic, which involves using a headset to control braindead adult humans. After the boy makes his way from the farm into a decaying city, it becomes apparent that these braindead humans are being tested and possibly marketed by normal humans.
I can see this story turning out in two ways. The first is that the boy is a host for the same parasite that killed the pigs; and, if he escapes into civilization, the parasite will spread and the world will be doomed. The second is that the boy is being controlled just as he controls the braindead adults; and, after he accomplishes his mission, he will be unplugged.
Unlike Limbo, which was more abstract and fantasy-themed, Inside is grittier and more apocalypse-themed. Ironically, Inside's realistic stylizations render it less creepy and darkly atmospheric than Limbo. The blank-faced human zombies aren't as scary as I think they're supposed to be, and the boy's various deaths feel rote and mundane.
Speaking of these deaths, Inside's major weakness is that, if the player dies at any point during a puzzle sequence, she has to start over at the beginning of the set piece, not from the point of death. The reason I quit the game last night is because I kept dying at the end of a puzzle sequence that takes about five minutes to complete. Repeatedly playing the same five minutes only to fail at the end was not fun, and it broke the game's mood and sense of flow.
Because Inside privileges a trial-and-error style of puzzle solving, and since the game harshly punishes errors, I think I'm going to minimize my future frustration by using a walkthrough.
