Black night. A very dark, very threatening forest. A young boy lost or simply driven by a naughty curiosity and a desire for adventure. This is the starting pitch of INSIDE. Three times nothing. And like in LIMBO, this emptiness on the right of the screen, which pushes you forward to sink a little further into the darkness. Playdead's new title requires no introduction or tutorial. We slip into it quite naturally, especially since it takes up the format and very simple handling of its illustrious elder. Very quickly, we realize that our young hero has entered a forbidden zone. Guards set off after him, he must avoid being seen, stay in the shadows, otherwise he is immediately killed. He must continue to move forward, without even really knowing why, as if the only possible escape was straight ahead, in the heart of this sinister and sprawling industrial complex that is emerging on the horizon. “Inside” therefore.
SILENT STORYTELLING
At no time does the game give you any explanation of what you are about to discover. On what you believe to discover. Like Mulder in The X-Files, you have to cling to inferences, observations, assumptions. Nothing concrete. Which does not mean that INSIDE does not tell anything. No, the details of his narration are there, all over the place. In the sets first, the scientific-industrial center in which you will dive finally being a character in its own right. The game is revealed in its abandoned halls, in its strange assembly lines, in its observation rooms and its underwater remains. The whole being served, it should really be underlined, by a very high-flying artistic direction. Where Playdead used a monochromatic style to make LIMBO a macabre title, it prefers minimalist visuals served by flat tints of dull colors to make INSIDE truly depressing. 
Undoubtedly, the graphic aspect of the game is a great success. It surprises with its technical quality, its environments between 2D and 3D, its sumptuous lighting, its discreet animations. From the largest decorative element to the smallest detail, everything contributes to the clever staging of each scene and the whole game at the same time. Just like LIMBO, INSIDE also plays on the depth of field, not hesitating to place elements in the foreground to give volume to the different scenes of the game, offering truly sumptuous framings. The soundtrack is in the same way a capital actor of the staging. All the more capital besides that INSIDE contains only very few musics and voices. While being very self-effacing most of the time, she manages to influence the gameplay experience, sometimes instilling unease or underscoring a threat, constantly participating in silent storytelling.Systems to activate, lever to operate are therefore still part of the game but INSIDE also introduces new ideas related to its background, such as this passage in the submarine or even this mental control module which allows the hero to control poor human puppets
As you will have understood, the main qualities of INSIDE are almost contemplative. But controller in hand, Playdead manages to improve the proposal which was that of LIMBO. Yes, again, the first title from the Danish studio inevitably comes to mind when it comes time to face the puzzles of INSIDE. The overall goal is to clear the passage so that our hero can progress ever deeper into the center. Systems to activate, lever to operate are therefore still part of the game but INSIDE also introduces new ideas related to its background, such as this passage in the submarine or even this mental control module which allows the hero to control poor human puppets. The perfect opportunity for a beautiful mise en abyme of the video game avatar, to be disembodied and deprived of self-will in the hands of the player. We let you discover it, but INSIDE questions all along about human nature...PERFECT ?
Where some puzzles in LIMBO were sometimes difficult to read or complicated to grasp due to clumsy exposure, those in INSIDE are much more consistent and will require less mental gymnastics to find the solutions. The level of difficulty may suffer slightly, but we remain on something substantially equivalent. The physics and animations have also been revised and there is much less rage during the platforming phases. It's hard to really blame INSIDE for anything in other words, except perhaps its lifespan (relatively short even for a very affordable price) and the very relative lack of variety in its puzzles. Some may also be disturbed by the scenario which deliberately leaves large areas of blur, but this is also what makes the charm of the experience.
