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Inside limbo3/21/2023 Without the distraction of much skill-based challenges, the player is more able to focus on the feeling each step of the boy’s journey is designed to engender. With this deliberate design in each new puzzle and the detail in the environments, each scenario feels different from the last, like the boy is really pushing through this dystopian world rather than performing abstract tasks in front of a pretty backdrop. Most tasks are simple but surprising, discernible from a quick look around, the knowledge that even when faced with new kinds of objects, all you’ll ever be able to do is jump and grab, with a bit of experimentation. There are still a few puzzles that rely on timing, which are the most likely to frustrate, but here they feel less fiddly, and the forgiving checkpoints mean you get the boost of tension from whatever horrifying death your negligence provokes without having to go back too far. As a side note, I feel the same way about reservoir dogs and. Limbo is still great, but to me is more of a proof of concept for Inside. The visuals are much more striking and detailed, the puzzle to action/exploration ratio is a bit more balanced out, and the sightly shorter length suits the game more. That grab is used at various points to drag a pig across the floor, lift a trapdoor, pull a ladder away from a ledge, pry planks from a wall and yank a generator to life. In my opinion Inside is undeniably better. Like Limbo, Inside is basically a two-button game – aside from moving left or right, all the boy can do is jump (A on the Xbox One controller) and grab (X or B) – but rather than have you repeat similar actions, it requires you to use those limited tools in a variety of ways. The puzzles are generally less convoluted, which reflects a post- Journey trend away from challenge for challenge’s sake. Inside is at least more forgiving than its predecessor, which delighted in tricking the player by changing the rules. Inside is a two-button game – aside from moving left or right, all the boy can do is jump (A on the Xbox One controller) and grab (X or B). Sometimes, as in Limbo, you’ll only learn how to stay alive by first dying a horrible death, but when a scene resets, it interrupts the flow. One sharp counter to that naturalism is the high chance of repeated death and immediate resurrection, which is perhaps a discussion to be had about video games as a whole rather than just this one, but it’s particularly jarring in a psychological horror that can be experienced in one sitting. Meticulous animation and sound design make everything feel more naturalistic, despite the fact that nobody has any discernible facial features and the boy can only travel left or right. In an early sequence, the sound and subsequent sight of an approaching car triggers an acceleration in the boy’s step and breath, a beam of torchlight appears followed by an overhang with just enough time to hide beneath it, at which the boy curls up small and his breath subsides. Subtler signals teach you how to respond to threats. This time, the threat is human beings, not giant spiders.
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