Review for InnerSpace. Game for PlayStation Network, PC, Steam, Mac, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Linux and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 16/01/2018
A few years ago the crowdfunding phenomenon exploded, particularly profitable in the videogame field, in which not only bombastic projects worth millions of dollars, but also small playful experiments were financed. The latter is the case with InnerSpace, born from an idea of five students, an idea he believed in Aspyr Media, which has announced its partnership with Polyknight Games at PAX East last year.
Explaining what InnerSpace is is actually quite simple: it is a three-dimensional adventure game focused exclusively on the exploration component. The player, as the mysterious Cartographer, drives an amphibious aircraft in search of ancient relics and new caverns to explore.
There is also a plot, centered on the existence of an ancestral civilization and some divinities, but, in fact, it is the player who decides how much importance to give to these elements, other than the preponderant one of the quiet and relaxing exploration of the wide, connected levels. between them by portals. The developers speak of "player-driven narrative", although to the writer it seemed much more banal that the story has an ancillary role, being relegated mostly to conversations (not always necessary) with the Archeologist and to the discovery of relics, delegated to the player's perseverance and methodicality. Precisely for these reasons it is not easy to quantify longevity, which however, in spans, should settle on average around seven / eight hours of play.
The setting designed by PolyKnight is quite suggestive. Call Reverse, is a sort of spherical and hollow world whose heart is home to the air while the water surrounds the whole. The name derives from a further peculiarity, which consists in force of gravity in opposite direction compared to what experience and traditional physics have accustomed us to: it is a centrifugal force and not a centripetal one. If you are sensitive, some operations may cause motion sickness.
The gameplay proves essential. The control system involves the two analog levers and a pair of backbones, and there are no particular interactions with the environment: the player can just break through some walls, cut cables, pull levers, interact with the demigods, all operations that require to mostly to impact the interactive element with the aircraft. Despite this very simple setup, the controls are not entirely satisfactory therefore, especially in the tightest spaces, they can produce a sense of frustration that is completely inappropriate in a game like this.
Since InnerSpace is primarily based on exploration, it was necessary to conceive a truly suggestive universe. In this sense we can say that PolyKnight has hit the mark, in the face of a technical sector that is anything but sophisticated that sometimes lends itself to some drop in frame rates. As very often happens in the indie field, it is first the chromatic choices (which you can partly appreciate thanks to the screenshots accompanying the review) that strike the eye, which then can also dwell on the mixture of stylized natural elements, especially underwater, and mysterious and often quite imaginative architectural elements in their forms.
The soundtrack, composed by Chris Miller (in whose Soundcloud page you can find the OST of the game), it helps enormously to give InnerSpace that dreamy atmosphere that PolyKnight has so desired, while the retro sound effects don't always seem so fitting.
InnerSpace is a suggestive and interesting project, which fits with personality into the indie trend of exploration titles. Unfortunately, paradoxically, the experience is partly compromised by the frustrating moments that appear from time to time, linked to a control system that is not always friendly and to the level design, in some situations difficult to read.
► InnerSpace is an Adventure type game developed by Polyknight Games and published by Aspyr Media for PlayStation Network, PC, Steam, Mac, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Linux and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 16/01/2018
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