Limbo / Inside

[Ronnie]

Both releasing next week on Switch

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-06-20-limbo-inside-launch-on-nintendo-switch-next-week

Limbo is great, but Inside is a masterpiece. Easily one of the best games to come out of the last few years.

Edited June 20, 2018 by Ronnie

[ArtMediocre]

I can see myself double dipping Inside if it's not too expensive. Best game I played all 2016(?), and if you haven't played it, shame on you. 

[Fused King]

Inside is coming too! Wow!

Really digging NIntendo's eShop offerings at the moment. I basically browsed through a year's worth of eShop content yesterday, and had to stop several times saying 'wait, ... is also on here!?!'

Still. could do with some more horror games though.

[MindFreak]

Haven't tried Inside so will pick that up when I have the time again. 

[Sméagol]

Why lump the two together?

Anyway, I played Inside very recently, as in last month (never played Limbo). I bought it quite a while ago in a Steam sale, after hearing great things about it, and it seemed up my alley, but I was disappointed by it. First of all: the atmosphere is awesome. I like the minimalist artstyle. But that's pretty much about it for me personally. The story is vague. There's not much to it anyway, there's nothing in the form of dialogue, but let me get back to that. Platforming-wise.. Well there's nothing much to that as well. I blasted to it in less than 4 hours, and that's even with the ocasional lengthy detour to find some collectible. If it weren't for those, you can really run towards the end in very limited time, with only the occasional "puzzle" blocking your way. There's no challenge in that area. So you have a vague story, and boring gameplay, which leaves you just with the incredible atmosphere, which for me is not enough.

The collectibles are the only thing adding replay value, but personally I had no desire to go back and collect the rest of them (I found some, but missed a lot). To the game's credit, it does offer a convenient way of finding those by offering a level select. Again, having no desire to go back for them, I just Googled what they did, which is unlocking an alternate ending, which sheds some more light to the story. It makes it somewhat more interesting, but it's still incredibly simple. There's no explicit worldbuilding, there's no backstory being told, so you still don't know anything apart from what you're seeing on screen.

The sad thing is I'm getting the same vibe from Little Nightmares, which is why I haven't gotten back to that yet.

Edited June 21, 2018 by Sméagol

[Ronnie]

2 hours ago, Sméagol said:

Why lump the two together?

They're the exact same style of game, from the same developer, releasing on the same day, and because I think it makes more sense to have one thread to talk about both.

2 hours ago, Sméagol said:

The story is vague. There's not much to it anyway, there's nothing in the form of dialogue, but let me get back to that. Platforming-wise.. Well there's nothing much to that as well. I blasted to it in less than 4 hours, and that's even with the ocasional lengthy detour to find some collectible. If it weren't for those, you can really run towards the end in very limited time, with only the occasional "puzzle" blocking your way. There's no challenge in that area. So you have a vague story, and boring gameplay, which leaves you just with the incredible atmosphere, which for me is not enough.

Not every game needs to hold your hand through a deep narrative-based storyline. This game is designed to keep things vague and have you use your own imagination. The sense of mystery without explanation or context is what creates the incredible atmosphere. Nor does every game where you jump around need complex platforming challenges. Inside is about puzzle-solving using platforming. It's not a platformer with puzzle solving added in.

As for no dialogue, so what? A real shame you found the gameplay boring though, but the many, many awards and perfect scores this game got from critics suggests it's anything but to a lot of people.

Edit: also, what's wrong with a 4 hour game? Not every game needs to be 10+ hours

Edited June 21, 2018 by Ronnie

[Ganepark32]

Limbo is up for pre-order on the eShop now, available for £8.99 next week in the 28th. No sign of Inside though. Wonder if they're going to stagger the releases to give both a better chance of sales in the Switch, especially as Limbo has been out the longest and is most likely to have been played by more people. Could be that they both drop at the same time but just odd that only one is up to pre-order, with the tag line that it's from the creators of Inside.

Anyway, both are great games but I do think I preferred Inside to Limbo. Need to play through it again but not sure I'll double dip.

Edited June 21, 2018 by Ganepark32

[dan-likes-trees]

On 6/20/2018 at 2:05 PM, Ronnie said:

Both releasing next week on Switch

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-06-20-limbo-inside-launch-on-nintendo-switch-next-week

Limbo is great, but Inside is a masterpiece. Easily one of the best games to come out of the last few years.

Agreed wit dat. Some of the sound design and art direction (particularly the lighting) is really extraordinary, unlike anything I've ever played - masterpiece is the word.

[Sméagol]

3 hours ago, Ronnie said:

They're the exact same style of game, from the same developer, releasing on the same day, and because I think it makes more sense to have one thread to talk about both.

So practically the same game then. You just convinced me not to give Limbo a second thought.

3 hours ago, Ronnie said:

Not every game needs to hold your hand through a deep narrative-based storyline. This game is designed to keep things vague and have you use your own imagination.

It doesn't feel like designed to me. It just feels like they didn't bother to include a real story. Ambiguous elements are fine, but the story in this game is practically non-existant. What people theorise about this game, is interesting, but even that's just very little actual story. I bet you can't fill a paragraph about it, even with all the stuff you imagine. I also don't want to imagine stuff when consuming entertainment like this, I can do that just fine without them. When I play a game or watch a film that has a story, I want to be told that story. Not do all the work for them.

That said, not every game needs a story. You don't play Mario for the story. But this game doesn't provide any meaningful gameplay in return, that's the problem. I would have no problem with the vague story if I actually did something in those 3+ hours I played.

3 hours ago, Ronnie said:

Nor does every game where you jump around need complex platforming challenges. Inside is about puzzle-solving using platforming. It's not a platformer with puzzle solving added in.

You see, that's the main problem. The game also isn't about puzzle solving. It has an interesting mechanic (the control thing), but fails to do anything actually clever with it. It's incredibly under-utilised. The far majority of the puzzles, are so glaringly obvious, they're not worth mentioning. In fact, I barely remember any puzzle solving at all. I can only remember one puzzle, which actually had me think for a minute. Other than that, I just remember running from left to right a lot. The "puzzles" were just hindrances. Artificial padding. You know what you have to do, so you're going through the motions. Collect the followers, hit the switch, continue. That's just busy-work. I'm not exaggerating if I say that if they had created this as an auto-runner instead, with frequent loading screens, the game would have felt pretty much the same to me.

3 hours ago, Ronnie said:

Edit: also, what's wrong with a 4 hour game? Not every game needs to be 10+ hours

Nothing in itself, it depends on what they're asking for it. But I like to backtrack and explore some. And admittedly, I didn't do enough of that in this game. But ignore the collectibles, and you're looking at a game that's closer to two hours. The collectibles are actually the only meaningful gameplay element in the game, so if I had put more effort in that first time around, I would have gotten more out of the game.

As a game, it just fails. It would have made more sense as an animated short film.

Edited June 21, 2018 by Sméagol

[MindFreak]

@Sméagol

Limbo is challenging so if you think that Inside needed more challenge, I think you would like Limbo. It's more of a puzzle game in fact and some of the puzzles are really hard and rewarding. I haven't played Inside, though, so can't compare them.

[dan-likes-trees]

On 6/21/2018 at 7:33 PM, Sméagol said:

So practically the same game then. You just convinced me not to give Limbo a second thought.

It doesn't feel like designed to me. It just feels like they didn't bother to include a real story. Ambiguous elements are fine, but the story in this game is practically non-existant. What people theorise about this game, is interesting, but even that's just very little actual story. I bet you can't fill a paragraph about it, even with all the stuff you imagine. I also don't want to imagine stuff when consuming entertainment like this, I can do that just fine without them. When I play a game or watch a film that has a story, I want to be told that story. Not do all the work for them.

That said, not every game needs a story. You don't play Mario for the story. But this game doesn't provide any meaningful gameplay in return, that's the problem. I would have no problem with the vague story if I actually did something in those 3+ hours I played.

You see, that's the main problem. The game also isn't about puzzle solving. It has an interesting mechanic (the control thing), but fails to do anything actually clever with it. It's incredibly under-utilised. The far majority of the puzzles, are so glaringly obvious, they're not worth mentioning. In fact, I barely remember any puzzle solving at all. I can only remember one puzzle, which actually had me think for a minute. Other than that, I just remember running from left to right a lot. The "puzzles" were just hindrances. Artificial padding. You know what you have to do, so you're going through the motions. Collect the followers, hit the switch, continue. That's just busy-work. I'm not exaggerating if I say that if they had created this as an auto-runner instead, with frequent loading screens, the game would have felt pretty much the same to me.

Nothing in itself, it depends on what they're asking for it. But I like to backtrack and explore some. And admittedly, I didn't do enough of that in this game. But ignore the collectibles, and you're looking at a game that's closer to two hours. The collectibles are actually the only meaningful gameplay element in the game, so if I had put more effort in that first time around, I would have gotten more out of the game.

As a game, it just fails. It would have made more sense as an animated short film.

Regardless of whether you think it offers meaningful gameplay, what it absoloutely does offer in spades is pretty exceptional atmosphere and art. It’s more akin to a experiential art installation than a platformer - maybe that’s not to your tastes but that type of experiential design is a totally valid thing for a game to focus on - it’s also something that videogames do uniquely well.

To me the other part of the enjoyment is that it’s kind of an adventure game - there’s definitely a sense of progression as you descend further through the environment, and as Ronnie implies, the enjoyment is in moving through the environments and interpreting them. Similar to BotW, which is more about the act of exploring than any narrative, or Journey, which is similarly abstract, short, and designed around the experience rather than complex puzzles or gameplay (and also is gr8).

Quote

When I play a game or watch a film that has a story, I want to be told that story. Not do all the work for them.

Each to their own & fair enough - definitely not the game for you. But it would be a right old bore if all game designers felt they had to stick to strict ideas of standard western storytelling - the more varied games coming out are the better in general for the industry as a whole. A lot of the most memorable games of the last decade have been a bit mental in structure and mechanics!

 

[darksnowman]

On 18/02/2022 at 11:13 AM, Ronnie said:

Inside is a special game, seems like it's been years since we last heard from Playdead about their next game 

 

On 20/02/2022 at 1:43 PM, BowserBasher said:

I loved both of those games, if you can call them games, I'd put them more as an interactive experience. But yeah great atmospheric games and great prices.

 

On 20/02/2022 at 2:54 PM, MindFreak said:

Limbo is more of a game with actual puzzles and challenges, I enjoyed that. Inside was more of an interactive show where you more or less just push right. It didn't really click with me.

Dragging these posts in here from the eShop thread. Looks like they could be clipped into quotes for the box. 

Inside is a special game.
- @Ronnie

More of an interactive experience. Great atmosphere.
- @BowserBasher

An interactive show.
- @MindFreak

 

Not sure how it was for everyone else who's played Inside, but I went into it knowing nothing other than what the eShop told me: award-winning adventure puzzle game. So artsy-fartsy and leisurely, then. Cool! I'm down for that (especially as it was on sale).

Not cool. I was weirded out from the word go. As is the norm with these indie games, you expect load times. With the amount of time Inside spent churning away on the title screen, I was beginning to think I was being Eternal Darknessed. Alas, it wasn't an insanity effect and the game got there in the end. Then you are just thrown in. No press start to play, no file select screen, no opening text crawl and absolutely no opening cutscene. Tilt the stick and the boy comes tumbling in from stage left and the game is afoot.

Interesting.

From there, you head right through the forest at night (remember I had no idea what I was getting into except award-winning action puzzler, and the game provided no story setup, context, tutorial or anything). Cars appeared on the road behind. People got out and approached the boy. They grabbed him and killed him. People were waiting in the forest with torches. They grabbed the boy and killed him. People shot and killed the boy from other cars on the road. They sicced dogs on the boy to chase and kill him. Witnessing this boy be remorselessly killed by adults and dogs really freaked me out. Not knowing who he was played into it, not knowing who they were played into it, not knowing why he was wanted dead--not captured--played into it. The graphics and sound underlined it. It gave me the chills from that opening forest area all the way to the end.  

The controls are move, jump and interact with the pattern of play being to head right which is basically broken up with some stealth and puzzling in the form of finding things to stand on, buttons to press, etc, to overcome whatever roadblocks are in your way so that ultimately as @MindFreak said, you can keep pressing right. You die a lot but it is not difficult or frustrating... just chilling. All the time I was wondering what was going on and when I would get this boy to safety. I wasn't really any the wiser by the end but that takes nothing away from the game whatsoever. At the end, I was like where next? Is that it? Could this be the end? Then the credits started appearing on screen and I sat in reflection of everything that the boy had gone through to get there. What an experience. 

Just needed d-pad controls! 

Limbo looks more action-oriented going by the vid on the eShop and after what Inside delivered, I'm more than up for whatever direction they've gone in with it.

[darksnowman]

Limbo was good stuff. Just a lot of dying and retrying but well worth the sale 89p I paid for it.

Where I found Inside to be disturbing and unsettling, Limbo didn't affect me at all. Could be because of the black and white art style, or it could be because if that boy's in limbo then he's already dead so what harm are a few dozen more gruesome deaths going to do to him.  

I'd recommend both if you see them on sale. Where Inside was an experience, Limbo errs more on the side of being a game (but is still abstract in its own way).