INNERSPACE
It's 2018 now so why not roll up with a 2018 game? But Chris, you say, what about your huge backlog? What about all the years old games in your library? To that I say...well you are right. No excuse. Really though I have been watching the development of InnerSpace since its kickstarter (I did not back it) at the end of 2014. It was supposed to be released around the end of 2015...but that's just not how game development works sometimes and while a bit late the devs at PolyKnight did release InnerSpace this January (2018).
So once again I found myself in a minimalist exploration game with light puzzles, beautiful visuals and large glowy things that transform in a satisfying way.
The game play of InnerSpace is quite simple, you fly a small contraption around inside out worlds (like being inside a globe rather than outside), find relics and solve puzzles. This in turn unlocks new contraptions to fly, upgrades them and progresses you through the story. This will take you though about 6 or so different "worlds" of varying size. Some of these you will spend a lot of time in others you pass through fairy quickly. I do wish there was either more smaller levels or more to do in the shorter ones.
The story is light, but I enjoyed it and wouldn't have minded a little more exposition to fill in some more details as long as it played while I was flying around. As it is the current story/conversations take place while you are "docked". It tells a tale of lost Ancients, capturing the Wind and obtuse Demigods.
Each of the constructs you fly has distinct advantages and disadvantages and also particular sounds that fit the style. My personal favorite was the frame with bird-like wings that as you pitch and roll the feathers sounded like a light piano (harpsichord) being played. The remaining sound effects are serviceable as is the music, light and ephemeral. InnerSpace neither wowed nor disappointed me in this department.
The puzzles ranged from simple and obvious to nicely intuitive once you got the hang of the game's language. Though a few I felt were a little too deliberately obtuse without reason. A lot of the solutions are so much about thinking out the solution as just having an awareness of the world design.
The flying of InnerSpace feels good, the controls allow you to do all the things you want as an "aircraft" with the only real issues I found being is that some of the spaces it wants you to fly in are especially cramped for no reason (maybe a limit of the game engine?). You don't have to worry about crashing though because if you fly into anything you will just bounce off or grind away. There are sections that are underwater where you perform a transformation to "submarine" mode and the controls change slightly but it's mostly just a visual difference. Because you are flying on the inside of a sphere there is initially a fish-eye lens effect that I have read some complaints about but I quickly got used it. The biggest "issue" with the controls is that a controller of some sort is absolutely necessary, the keyboard/mouse controls are abysmal (like they are for most flying games to be fair).
For around $20 and 5-6 hours play (maybe more depending on how good you are at finding the hidden relics) I was quite happy with InnerSpace, but then this game style is my jam. If you interested but on the fence maybe wait for a sale. It's a good game but their are better in this genre.
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