Playdead's style is one big tradeoff. On one hand, being restricted to only moving back and forth with a limited set of actions is quite limiting from a gameplay perspective. From an art direction standpoint however, this choice ends up paying massive dividends, and allows Inside to be a remarkably beautiful game. There is a keen eye for shot composition which gives every scene a fantastic sense of place. Playdead have a masterful control over shadow, and every environment has fine tuned lighting to maximize atmosphere. Another advantage of Playdead's style is that the limited set of actions makes it much easier to make high quality animations. The animations in Inside are some of the best I've ever seen in a video game. Every single one has such a strong sense of momentum, and there are so many tiny details that add to the animations (A great one being the slight bending of the knees when the player swings on a rope). The death animations are particularly gruesome, and made me feel genuine fear from how much I did not want to see what new way they'd find to absolutely eviscerate the player character. The soundtrack fits the vibe perfectly, and understands when to leave things quiet. The game ends with a narrative slam dunk, securing itself as a modern day classic. (10/10)

Playdead's style is one big tradeoff. On one hand, being restricted to only moving back and forth with a limited set of actions is quite limiting from a gameplay perspective. From an art direction standpoint however, this choice ends up paying massive dividends, and allows Inside to be a remarkably beautiful game. There is a keen eye for shot composition which gives every scene a fantastic sense of place. Playdead have a masterful control over shadow, and every environment has fine tuned lighting to maximize atmosphere. Another advantage of Playdead's style is that the limited set of actions makes it much easier to make high quality animations. The animations in Inside are some of the best I've ever seen in a video game. Every single one has such a strong sense of momentum, and there are so many tiny details that add to the animations (A great one being the slight bending of the knees when the player swings on a rope). The death animations are particularly gruesome, and made me feel genuine fear from how much I did not want to see what new way they'd find to absolutely eviscerate the player character. The soundtrack fits the vibe perfectly, and understands when to leave things quiet. The game ends with a narrative slam dunk, securing itself as a modern day classic. (10/10)