These two games are so strange and so unique that in the end—even if you haven’t understood exactly what you played and experienced—you know it was something special. The two titles are from the same company and share some common characteristics: they are puzzle-platformer games, but also have several important differences. Limbo was the first game from Playdead, a small studio from Denmark. You start in a dark forest, in an environment that hovers between two-dimensional and three-dimensional space. In such an environment I never expected to experience fear, but the game proved me wrong in spectacular fashion. Without cheap jump scares, without flashy cutscenes, the game, with its unique atmosphere and music, leaves you speechless. It maintains its eerie element from start to finish. Limbo is by no means an easy game. It is harsh at every point and punishes even the slightest mistake. It lets you suffer in order to learn, as it gives you not the slightest explanation or help from beginning to end. All the puzzles are inventive and keep you in suspense, while the lack of any direction leaves you with many questions at the end. The hidden section you unlock when you finish the game and collect all the eggs is torture. You practically play blindfolded, since most of the time you are facing a black screen. Your only weapon is the sounds you learned from the deadly machines and traps that punished you throughout the rest of the game.
Inside is the spiritual successor to Limbo and it has doses of that eerie atmosphere, but to a much lesser degree. Here there are much more vivid colors, even though we are still in a dark environment, while half a dimension has been added. I know it sounds paradoxical, but a depth has been added to the image that you cannot make use of. The result is a mesmerizing visual spectacle, even though we are still talking about a game of this kind. In Inside, the harsh nature of its predecessor has been set aside in terms of platforming, and greater emphasis has been placed on the puzzles. The image you see at every point is monumental, making it more accessible than its predecessor. Personally, I consider both masterpieces, but I understand why Inside had greater appeal, since visually it was epic. In neither of the two is there a clear answer as to what exactly happened. Neither before you begin your journey nor after. The many fans of the series continue to come up with theories.
For me it is a must-play game, but it is so uniquely strange that I cannot be certain it will convince everyone. In any case, it is available on all platforms in physical and digital form, and now has an extremely low price and very frequent discounts (8.99 for both together, or even less). At that price, I don’t think choosing these two wonderful titles is a risk.