Inside was a perfectly unsettling and oppressive experience neatly packaged into a four or so hour game that I really wasn’t expecting to enjoy as much as I did. I’ve seen clips of the games early scenes floating around online but never fully understood what was going on nor did I bother to look into it.
So, I went into this game nearly entirely blind. A rare experience considering half the games I play I see so much of online before I get the chance to boot them up, but a welcome one for sure.
Without a word of dialogue, Inside creates a truly unique experience for its players, leaving us to wander around the world with almost no idea as to what’s truly going on. We embody the same curiosity and childlike confusion as the nameless boy we play as (something that makes even more sense considering the alternate ending where we find out we as the player are directly mind controlling him) sneaking through a facility seemingly conducting horrific human experiments on people, chopping off limbs, combining them ala human centipede (or I guess human blobfish may be more appropriate?), and killing them in any way possible with no regard.
The finale where the boy becomes one with the giant amalgamation of human flesh, then breaks free to wreak havoc on the scientists containing it is an insane turn of events. That, and the fact that the sound effects are these guttural groans of pain and the fleshy slapping of fat and skin against stone make for a truly horrifying scene.
The platforming is smooth and the controls are intuitive, with no need for a tutorial you’re really just dropped into this world and left to fend for yourself, just like the child himself.
It makes me want to try out Limbo by the same developers for sure.
Date of completion: 18/03/2026
Time to beat: 3hrs 30mins
Level of completion: Main story + all side content
Trophies/Gamerscore: 14/14 Steam Perfect