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INSIDE (by the makers of LIMBO) would be what I'd call an "experience game", that is, it's less of a game than a full experience that has some interactive moments and puzzles, but not a game the same way, say, Stardew Valley is or Balatro is or The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening is, very much a "movie game" but something decidedly lower budget. Despite that, I liked it anyway because like a good movie, it does get the imagination starting up, and I do like the idea of a mysterious facility in the woods that you just happen to come across.

The problem with "movie games" is that there's some great moments but those don't add up to fun games. If you've ever played INSIDE (I'm not here to sell it to you) you'll probably remember the puzzle with the intense sound vibrations (great!) and despite the "body horror" theme of the game, the only time I felt true terror was when I had to jump onto a fence to escape a pack of dogs (that wasn't the scary part), it was when I climbed over the fence and pulling off the boards to my escape that the dogs found another way to me and there wasn't a way to escape them. Of course, once I figured it out, not so scary, but it was still a great bit, I've been trying to find something like it since.

There's a lot of somewhat contradictory things (if nothing for scale of the building itself) as to what exactly the plot is, but some of it adds to the atmosphere rather than the experience I got in Home which was "well, I guess I'm the murderer after all" and the game still has the audacity to tell me "Well, I don't know, were you?". Plus, I actually LIKED INSIDE, Home I softened up on only because it looks like the developer read a review of mine and updated it years after the fact.

I first played INSIDE sometime around July 2017 but I'm giving it a GOOD rating anyway.

FINAL RATING:   

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