Who would've thought that playing as an immigration inspector would be so engaging and good?

Lucas Pope has done an excellent job with injecting a sense of "charming bleakness" into the entire game. Like the artstyle for example, which is obviously reminiscant of the HyperCard-era games. It uses the clunky core gameplay loop and user interface to create a wonderful, one-of-a-kind experience that served as a trendsetter for the indie game landscape.

This is a modern classic that you should definitely play.

INSIDE is a 3 hour 2D plattformer. The gameplay is deceptively simple, the puzzles are almost trivial and it is a very linear experience. Despite all that, it is such a strong experience that I always come back to. Playing INSIDE for the first time is like looking down into a dark hole: You don't know where it leads to, but you feel compelled to just. jump. in.

The sense of the unknown is what makes INSIDE just work. For three hours, it confidently knows what it wants to do and be and does it perfectly with insane amounts of polish. Play it.

Technically it's more Hotline Miami with more variety, more masks and more scenarios. However, it truly fails in everything it tries to do in comparison to the original. The story is more convoluted than it needs to be, the focus changes so fucking much I had no fucking clue who I was in the end and what exactly this game was supposed to tell me. The "Flow" of the first title is nowhere to be found. Enemy placement and level design goes against what the player want to do - shoot shit and play aggressiv. Where Hotline Miami feels like the player has complete freedom on how he/she plays, the sequel feels like it forces the player to act in a certain way and punishes you if you go off the beaten track. The masks feel far more gimmicky than useful and by the end, it was more frustrating than fun.

This game embodies an adrenaline rush. This hard-hitting, almost rythym-like, blood bath of a game truly sets the bar of what an "Action" game can be. While it aims to criticise grandiose violence by doing it in an exaggerate way, it didn't quite nail its message. The story is kind of a mess and focuses more on style and presentation instead of adding any real context. The story feels more like a backdrop - a means for the player to justify his actions and continue playing. The secret ending did not help the story at fucking all.

In the end, this trial by error gameplay is just too damn good. Play it.