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Inside is a 2.5D puzzle platformer originally released for the Xbox One in 2016. The near-future dystopian sci-fi setting contains strong elements of horror, and players should expect to experience numerous violent deaths. The game takes about four hours to finish, although a longer completionist run that involves accessing hidden areas will be rewarded with a secret ending.
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The actual endgame story developments are nothing even remotely resembling what I expected. Instead, Inside gradually transforms into a meditation on bioethics and subjectivity that’s all the more striking because of the player’s interaction with the story. I’m still not sure how to interpret the ending, but the path to get there involves one of the biggest ludonarrative surprises I’ve ever had the pleasure to encounter. I usually don’t have any patience for concerns over spoilers, but I’d recommend going into this game spoiler-free. The ending of Inside genuinely has to be experienced to be believed.
This isn’t quite a spoiler for Inside, but I was inspired to play the game again after restarting Ender Lilies, in which your player-character gradually becomes more of an eldritch horrorterror with each boss you defeat. I would say I love that particular trope, but it’s less of a “trope” than it is something that I’ve only ever seen in Ender Lilies. Inside comes close, though, and delightfully so.
( Read more... )
The actual endgame story developments are nothing even remotely resembling what I expected. Instead, Inside gradually transforms into a meditation on bioethics and subjectivity that’s all the more striking because of the player’s interaction with the story. I’m still not sure how to interpret the ending, but the path to get there involves one of the biggest ludonarrative surprises I’ve ever had the pleasure to encounter. I usually don’t have any patience for concerns over spoilers, but I’d recommend going into this game spoiler-free. The ending of Inside genuinely has to be experienced to be believed.
This isn’t quite a spoiler for Inside, but I was inspired to play the game again after restarting Ender Lilies, in which your player-character gradually becomes more of an eldritch horrorterror with each boss you defeat. I would say I love that particular trope, but it’s less of a “trope” than it is something that I’ve only ever seen in Ender Lilies. Inside comes close, though, and delightfully so.
