INMOST Review – A Most Compact and Compelling Narrative | COGconnected

INMOST Assessment

Hidden Layer Video games’ INMOST has lastly launched on PC and the Nintendo Swap after releasing on Apple Arcade late final yr. Maybe greatest described as a side-scrolling journey title with heavy puzzle and narrative parts, INMOST was a surprisingly compact however memorable expertise. Lasting between 3-5 hours, and in a position to be accomplished in a single sitting in that case desired, INMOST respects the participant’s time dedication.

INMOST tells the narrative by way of the views of three controllable characters: a person, a lady, and a knight. Every character’s narrative is advised individually, however interconnect at varied lengths. Briefly (and within the spirit of avoiding spoilers), the sport doesn’t offer you an incredible understanding of the plot in the beginning, and it’s as much as the participant to navigate the assorted characters’ views. Whereas I totally anticipated a cliche and considerably tacky narrative to unfold, the sport’s final narrative was memorable sufficient to beat some storytelling cliches. Total, the sport’s narrative was put collectively nicely, and made me take into consideration what was occurring as I performed by way of it.

Three’s a Crowd

INMOST’s three characters have three vastly totally different strategies of gameplay. For the person, the gameplay largely revolves round platforming and puzzle fixing. For the woman, her path is usually advised slow-paced and narratively, and is usually an journey title with some very minor puzzle fixing. Lastly, the knight basically follows a platforming-action path. His path is essentially the most fast-paced, however is proscribed when it comes to gameplay with three major strikes at your disposal: leap, assault, and a grapple hook-like mechanism.

Total, the gameplay of INMOST was fairly spot on for the assorted sections. The platforming for essentially the most half labored nicely, although there have been some minor points when it comes to precision. The puzzles diversified in issue, however nothing was overly troublesome. Lastly, the knight’s motion parts have been simple, if perhaps even a bit too easy. Maybe the most important difficulty I confronted was when in charge of the person, as wayfinding the subsequent goal was at instances unclear, inflicting me to undergo the entire map once more to attempt to discover the place to go subsequent. Moreover, varied parts interrupted the move of the sport, resembling fixing a number of fascinating puzzles in a row, solely to be halted with a slower paced narrative part.

Though I first discovered INMOST’s color palette a bit bland as most issues have been lined in a blue or inexperienced hue, a number of totally different hints of color and the influence of the colors themselves made me neglect about this. In reality, the sport’s pixel artwork mixed with the gorgeous backgrounds and colors have been one of many highlights of the sport. Moreover, the soundtrack and voice overs of the sport labored nicely, particularly together with the graphics with a purpose to set the temper and tone of the sport.

INMOST was a nice shock. The sport was a brief expertise with a strong narrative with results that may final a lot longer. As for the gameplay itself, the enjoyable puzzles and collaboration with the story helped to deliver the sport to life. Talking of which, the sport’s audio and visible parts additionally labored nicely collectively in setting the tone of the sport. Total, all the weather of the sport come collectively in the long run, very similar to its narrative, to offer gamers with a robust bundle. To anybody considering buying the sport, I go away you with the disclaimer discovered on the sport’s Steam retailer web page: “INMOST is an intimate story of loss and hope that some could discover upsetting. Participant discretion is suggested”.

*** A PC code was offered by the writer ***