Yet I feel like that was a purposeful decision by the developer. Having said that, movement can be painfully slow and there were just a few too many puzzles that required me to push a block across the screen at a rate that let me catch up on my poor night’s sleep while holding the left analog stick down. It’s a decent mix of variation as the game switches between them frequently enough that you never become lost or bored with one or the other. The Man explores his level in a way that feels like it’s drawing inspiration for metroidvanias but certainly doesn’t feature the tropes often associated with the genre, The Girl plays in a similar way but is more restricted in her movements forcing her to make more use of her environment and The Knight is…well, he has a contextual grappling hook and a massive sword so he plays the most differently. Yet it’s difficult to really say much more about the gameplay because there’s really not much to it. Sometimes I was even placed in a position that avoided the enemy entirely I’m unsure if that was a glitch or the game being helpful but given that Inmost is more about experiencing its narrative and embracing the constantly depressing tone of the worlds, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was the occasional helping hand. The game isn’t even all that punishing for mistakes, often just resetting the player character back to the point they died with no consequences. It’s very simple, almost to the point where it feels like the game could have been better served as a point-and-click adventure game where it not for the sections that require some light timing to jump over enemies or make a leap between a small gap.

Making your way through the three different locations as three vastly different characters, you’ll be forced to solve puzzles that more often than not come down to pulling a thing, running over to collect an item, and then pulling on a lever to open up a pathway back. As a platformer, Inmost is slow and purposeful, if I can use such a word to describe the gameplay. If anything, the padding feels almost incorporated with the core gameplay loop. Still, as a story it’s unique and interesting, paced tightly with very little padding to prolong the experience. Fortunately, Inmost delivers a cathartic and rewarding conclusion that, admittedly, did drag on for what felt like a lengthy fifteen-minute cutscene. While starting out cryptically, I was nervous that Inmost would be one of those games that just makes everything weird for the sake of it without clarifying what any of it means I’ve become tired of games using the excuse of “it means whatever you want it to mean!” to excuse poorly implemented analogies or metaphors. I’m not going into the specifics considering the game relies heavily on dramatic reveals throughout its brief run time that to provide any comntext up front would be a disservice. Mixing elements of fantasy, surrealism and reality, Inmost tells a story that feels not only well adapted to the video game medium but one that wouldn’t be suited for any other form. Which is very much intentional as the game makes it explicitly clear that the experience is about pain and suffering and how those factors warp and change people over time. Be warned though, if you are interested in checking out Inmost, it’s a depressing game, one where there is no light at the end of the tunnel. It’s a game that’s not afraid to tell a wholly original story, targeting themes often unexplored in video games and uses gameplay that might not necessarily be “fun” but is engaging enough to push you through the narrative, which is really the big selling point for the game. A game that launched on mobile last year and was only recently ported to Steam and consoles, Inmost is a game that deserves more credit for what it gets right and I’m really pleased to see it break into a more mainstream market because it deserves to be played by more people. One was The Last of Us Part II and the second one, which caught me completely by surprise, was Inmost.

So far, there have been two games that have managed to pull off such a feat. For me, and I’m sure a great many other folks out there, the juice in the emotional fuel tank has been running low for some time now, so if I’m dedicating my time to an experience that I know is going to crush me and pull on the ol’ heartstrings, it better damn well be worth it. Maybe it’s just a factor of the kind of year that it has been, but I feel like I’ve been playing more “feel good” games than usual lately.

Steam inmost