"Inside" Review

I was writing my review of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided when I remembered that Inside had recently come out for the PS4. With that in mind, I decided to go ahead and download and play Inside. Then, the same night I started, I finished. I'm not surprised by that at all, given that it is an indie game, but given that it is a shorter game than Mankind Divided, I figured I would go ahead and write this review and finish the Mankind Divided review afterwards.
Inside comes to us from Playdead studios, the studio behind the incredibly popular indie game, Limbo. Now, I, like many people, played Limbo back in the day. However, I never finished it. It was an intriguing concept, to be sure, but after a few hours the puzzles started being too science fictiony and the intrigue was lost for me. Inside, however, looked far more interesting to me.
Was I correct? Does Inside succeed where Limbo did not? Let us find out.
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In Inside, you play as a little boy in what seems to be some kind of totalitarian dictatorship run by scientists. The game is completely wordless, and when I say completely, I mean completely. You don't even get button tutorials. If you want, you can open the pause menu and have a look at the controls, but for the entirety of the game, there isn't a single word on the screen or being spoken.
That being said, like Limbo, Inside doesn't really have much of a story. Throughout the course of the game, you have unofficial objectives. After all, even with no words it is impossible not to somehow communicate that you need to open a door in order to proceed. However, that is really as much story as there is; it is just the moment-to-moment perils. That may sound like a complaint, but it really isn't. Games like this aren't about the story, they are about the atmosphere and immersion.
That is one area in which Inside excels. I turned the game on and a few hours later I realized that I had not so much as taken my eyes from the screen. This is due in large part to the game's stunning art style. Unlike Limbo, this game has a full 3D style to it. Most of the time, the little boy is a tiny part of what you see, and this gives the game the chance to show off its world. At any given moment you can see far into the background, and when you are in a courtyard cloaked in a deep gray fog or in an industrial area littered with cramped, tiny apartments, it is easy to find yourself truly feeling the oppression of the game's world. The heavy dystopian atmosphere is ever-present, and if you are anything like me, you'll find that it seeps into your soul.
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While I'm on the subject of oppression, I feel the need to point out that this is definitely not a game for people who are easily bothered. If you are the kind of person who is really sensitive, you may not want to play Inside. The fact of the matter is that Inside is deeply disturbing. It has been a long time since I have played something that disturbed me in quite the way that Inside does. Let me put it to you this way: I actually found myself grimacing and whispering "oh geez" under my breath a number of times. It isn't so much that horrible things happen on screen at all times, but the implications are heavy enough to elicit that kind of reaction. Throughout the game there is this ongoing implication of truly dehumanizing slavery and brutal, morally bankrupt experiments in the interest of science. The amount of times you have the opportunity to be negatively effected is akin to the amount of times I have used italics in this review thus far, in other words.
There are also disturbing moments that are much less subtle, but they are no less impactful. You will die a lot in this game, and when you die, you have to watch the little boy die in whatever way is warranted. Deaths such as falling from too high are not pleasant to watch, but they are at least not gruesome. However, most deaths are not caused by falling. You can be shot (accompanied by a frighteningly realistic recoil from the boy as the bullet hits), you can drown (accompanied by pained gurgles before death), and you can even be blown up (accompanied by blood and limbs flying off). There is one death that is by far more disturbing than the others, though. I don't typically like giving things like this away, but it actually nauseated me the first time it happened, so I feel that it is my duty to report it so that if you haven't yet purchased the game, you at least know it ahead of time. If knowing what it is like to die a certain way is going to ruin the game for you, skip to the next section. Even if that is the case, just ask yourself how easily you are disturbed. If you find that your answer compels you to know things like this ahead of time, then please put your need to not have things spoiled away and just read.
The most disturbing death in the game is death by dog. You can either be killed by one dog or by many, and in both instances it is disturbing, but as bad as the multi-dog death is, it is nothing compared to the single-dog death. Essentially, the dictatorship (or whatever) guards sometimes have attack dogs with them. If you are pursued by a single dog and it catches you, it will leap on the boy and bite him. Then there is a single cry from the boy (and I do mean cry, like as a child might cry out after falling down and skinning his knee), you watch the boy frailly try to inch away, and then you hear a *snap* as the dog breaks the boy's neck with its jaws. You watch his head go limp as the dog bites down. Now, this is in the same visual style as the rest of the game, so it is a small part of the screen, but in moments like these you are definitely watching the boy, so I wouldn't count on the relatively small size of the action to save you from the horror. Having now written down the death, I realize that in written form the disturbing nature of the death isn't done justice. There is a level of detail in this particular death that is really effective. I physically flinched as a result of it and felt sick to my stomach, as I have said.
One more note on this before I move on: you will not avoid it. You will be killed by a single dog at some point during this game, and it is very likely that you will experience this multiple times, because this game is centered around trial and error. So, please, if having to watch these things is going to seriously impact you, do not play Inside.
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As I mentioned at the start of this review, Limbo lost its intrigue when its puzzles started to be too weird and science fictiony. Thankfully, the puzzles in Inside are consistently good. Throughout the course of the game, puzzles are just challenging enough to force you to spend a fair amount of time solving them, but never so challenging that they halt the pacing. I never needed to look solutions up, and every single time I figured out the solution, I truly felt like I had accomplished something. It is the best way to handle puzzles, and Inside should be commended for that.
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Now, before I conclude, there is unfortunately a negative that I need to discuss: the last 30 minutes of the game. For all but the last 30 minutes of the game, Inside makes a name for itself by way of an oppressive atmosphere, subtle world building, and thought-provoking puzzles. However, once these last 30 minutes start there is a vital change in the game's formula and all of a sudden the subtle, oppressive atmosphere is gone in favor of rampant destruction and over-the-top disturbing content. The game ends on this note and it makes absolutely no sense. The last 30 minutes of this game are like an entirely different, significantly lower quality game, and it really takes away from the experience. Other reviewers have praised the game's ending as being thought-provoking, and I am glad that they enjoyed it. I, however, did not.
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This review, with the exception of my discussion of the disturbing content, has been fairly vague, and that is a conscious choice. Inside is best experienced knowing as little beforehand as possible, so I wanted to give you an idea of the quality without giving too much away. Ultimately, Inside would have absolutely gotten a perfect score from me because it is just that good. I completed the game a day ago and I still find my thoughts returning to it. However, the horrible finale keeps it from true masterpiece status.

So, let us review:
Horrible last 30 minutes -0.8

The final verdict for Inside is...
9.2/10 - Fantastic
Excellent work, Playdead studios, excellent work.