In 2016, Playdead released INSIDE for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows. It involves a young boy navigating a scary, dystopian setting, avoiding dangers and puzzling out puzzles. It is the successor to LIMBO, with similar 2.5D gameplay.

Gameplay

The player controls an unnamed boy who walks, runs, swims, climbs, and uses objects to progress through the game. The boy can control bodies to complete certain puzzles. The boy may be killed in several ways, including being shot with a tranquilizer dart, eaten by dogs, ensnared by security machines, blasted by shockwaves, or drowned. The deaths are shown realistically and frequently are gruesome.

The game is dark, with color highlighting the player and certain parts of the environment to highlight the game’s surrealness. The game is mostly silent, aside from musical cues, the boy’s vocals, dogs barking, equipment and sound effects.

Story

The boy slides down a steep slope made of rocks. While sprinting through the woods, he runs into masked guards with torches, cars with spotlights and vicious guard dogs. He manages to evade the guards and then dashes across the street, where a blockade of vehicles and guards has been formed, to an agricultural farm where worms are making the pigs run wild. The boy utilizes the farm animals and accessories to get away to an apparently abandoned city where a throng of zombie-like people are being steered through mind control. Beyond that city is an expansive factory consisting of flooded chambers, a shock wave antechamber and a laboratory where researchers carry out underwater tests on cadavers.

How long is INSIDE?

When it comes to the primary goals, Inside lasts for approximately 3 and a half hours. However, if you’re a dedicated gamer who aims to explore every aspect of the game, it may take you about 4 and a half hours to achieve 100% completion.

Reception

INSIDE was widely praised and it won numerous awards. Comparative reviews identified it as an advancement on LIMBO, lauding its artistic direction, mood and interactivity. It was compared to LIMBOfavorably and numerous sources have listed it as one of the best video games of all time.