5 out of 5 stars

It’s hard to categorize Playdead’s Inside. It is an overall mix of platformer, horror, puzzle, and adventure, offering intense and perplexing gameplay. It’s even difficult to determine the game’s storyline, or how your character plays a part in it, leaving players to speculate the meaning behind it. You rarely see any other characters in Inside, but everyone you do see appears faceless, including your character.

You play as a seemingly lost child making his way through a run-down, highly fortified world. You venture through a city, mines, sewers, ocean, then finally a lab. In these locations you solve puzzles by swimming, climbing, and using objects to get past obstacles within the game. In these locations you receive chills as the eerie setting envelops you. Same thing with the soundtrack; it is a chilling and sinister tone that makes sure you’re prepared for anything that will surprise you. Also, the occasional jump scares play perfectly.

At first glance graphics might not look like much, but they’re actually very remarkable. You notice right away that the game puts you in a surreal environment of darkness and barely any color, the only color being the red shirt of the little boy you play as, and interactive objects. Even when your character dies, it is very graphic but visually intriguing.

Another bewildering occurrence is the weird zombie-looking race. They are lifeless, gray, sort of half-dead looking bodies that you’re actually able to control in some parts of the game to help you reach higher and farther places, as well as lifting, pushing, and pulling huge objects that are beneficial. Though they may look like hostile zombies, they do no harm whatsoever.

As for length, it only takes a couple hours to complete the game. You can’t put much in a game where you can only move left and right without it turning stale after a while. The ending at the lab times in just right to prepare you for its bizarre events. Though it may surprise you, about just as many questions were created rather than answered by the end.

Overall, Inside is an astounding, creepy, and brilliant game that will keep you on your toes with its unexpected events, eerie visuals and soundtrack, along with its vague, unsolved storyline.