Recent reviews by Sh. Fred

Sick game!

Yeah, ♥♥♥♥ Marty Stratton!

Disclaimer; I finished the game in one sitting, without looking anything up and it's now almost 2 AM and I have work at 7 in the morning, so it's been quite a night!

Overall verdict: A decent game that overstays its welcome.

The puzzles with the exception of 1 or 2 timing-based ones, pretty much solve themselves.
I would like to say the story seems decent, except there is none.

Much like Limbo, a lot is left to interpretation, except the problem with Inside is that it is too ambitious.
There are various themes of adulthood, losing of self, the great chain, capitalism, loss of innocence and in general, society throughout the entire game.

The issue is that at some point it loses its focus and you lose track of what it wants to be.
And then once you go back and put pieces together, you realize that the story started at a crazy point, with lots of questions and no answers, and as it goes on, there are only more questions added and by the very end, you have exactly 0 answers!

While it was just barely cohesive in the sense of its themes, it loses all of that past a certain point towards the last third of the game, where a sort of "transition happens".

What made Limbo work - despite what a lot of people here seem to be implying against for some reason!? - was that it never lost its cohesion.
You start with a lot of questions but by the end, you can have a general answer for yourself as to what just happened.

It's not trying to convey a message or social commentary on anything, it's very very straight forward.
And the ending for Limbo simply just works, where the ending for Inside is one big floppy mess which if you play through, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Where Limbo had the sense of rising tension towards the end and by the time you finally make it, your heart is about to explode, it ends with a certain bitter-sweet cathartic end that puts things into perspective.

With Inside, you start the game in a lot of mystery, keep going and get more and more curious, then past the midpoint you start to feel the strain but still want to push through the end, and when something very very horrific happens towards the end, you can not wait to just finish and get it over with, and once you DO reach the very end, you just sit there, mashing your buttons and asking "wait, that was IT!?"

Another key thing is the players ability to integrate into the environment.

Part of what made Limbo so great was that it didn’t ever make sense until the last few seconds.
You never walk through the environment and say “oh, yeah, I get it, that’s normal!”
It never stops being messed up and it continues to be shocking.

With Inside, it works the same way during the first half.
Nothing makes sense and you proceed through with the same sense of curiosity, looking for answers.
But then it starts losing its focus as time goes on and it only gets worse towards the ending.

Unlike Limbo, nothing ever starts making sense and it won’t by the time it ends either.
The result is that you’re now accustomed to the absurdity and therefore, desensitized to it, to the point that you stop questioning it.

There is no logic; never was and never will be, unless you go with a literal Limbo logic which just doesn’t work here.

You could make it work if you introduced it right as the very “watery transition” happens, marking everything before that point the twisted unsolved reality while eveything after is the beyond, but it’s still just lazy and not fleshed out.


In regards to the game play, I'd say it's mechanically MILES ahead of Limbo in just about every way.
The physics of everything is designed so unique that even by the time you finish the game, you'll still continue to be surprised by a new physics-based mechanic that you just discovered.

Although what Limbo had going for it was its simplicity.
Enough that I can come back to it after 4 years and play through every bit like it was yesterday that I played it, and it all just works the way you expect it to, the way you know it should!


Here's what I think; towards the last third of the game at the beach with the giant door, I get a sense of overwhelming excitement and an anxious expectation of the unknown; of what awaited me behind that door and how things could end.

It would've been the perfect ending to the game; beyond the great gate, the overwhelming sound of inexplicable horror, something unfathomable, vague yet not unfamiliar, something primal!

And my expectation was subsequently not met as the game goes on for a while, and I mean A WHILE after that and there are so many changes in the theme and atmosphere that all that sense of excitement and anxiety I had were long gone by the time it ended.

I suppose they didn't want to end it like Limbo, with a fantastic build-up and a big bang.
Rather it ends with a big meaty flap, right when you don't expect it, and it's... meaningless!
Just like us, here, now, me writing this at 2 AM on an exhausted brain and you who just read all of this... for what?

Yeah, just go play it!

Get the f*ck outta my sight before I demolish you!

All the time, progress, money spent, achievements, rewards, loot... all gone.

Welcome to:



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SPOILERS:

The Man does beat the Jonkler, but loses to paparazzi in the end.

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Makes the face!

I wish I hadn't refunded it back then...

I bought it, there!
Where is my medal!?

I... umm... what!?