Insomniac Games founder and CEO, Ted Price, penned this week a piece for the PlayStation.Blog’s ongoing ‘Discover The Creators’ series, listing six must-play PlayStation games. Among the heavy-hitting PlayStation 4 exclusives like God of War and Horizon Zero Dawn and CD Projekt Red’s open-world epic The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt sits a surprising indie title – Inside.
It’s high praise coming from the man leading the studio responsible for last year’s excellent Marvel’s Spider-Man. But, Ted Price isn’t the only one to shower Inside with praise this week.
Inside, released in 2016 and developed by Playdead, takes the player on a bleak puzzle-platforming adventure through ever more surrealist and though-provoking dystopic locales. It culminates in a supremely unique denouement that sits vividly in the mind of anyone who has played the game. We’ll short of providing further details so as not to spoil the surprise.
Inside garnered wide acclaim at launch and continues to stand as a shining emblem of what independent gaming is all about – niche titles that strive to offer a different gameplay experience to big-budget games backed by millions of marketing dollars.
To celebrate its 20th anniversary, British gaming institution Eurogamer sat down to pick the brains of the biggest names in gaming. Each one was asked to list the best games from the last 20 years. Among illustrious company was none other than Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding creator, Hideo Kojima.
When pressed for his favorite games, Kojima said ;
“My all-time best games are Super Mario Bros., Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken (The Portopia Serial Murder Case), XEVIOUS and Outer World (Another World in Japan). The game I like most from the past five years is Inside.”
It’s been a good week for Inside, and although it might not need it going by the strength of the game itself, a nod from Price and Kojima should nudge gamers into exploring this brilliant indie if they haven’t done so already.
If you’re tempted, Playdead’s previous title, Limbo, is just as compelling and well worth exploring too.