As of late, I’ve been on a kick of playing indie games. During the recent Nintendo Indies World stream, the game INMOST caught my eye, which is a game created by Hidden Layer Games and published by Chucklefish. INMOST is a narrative-driven puzzle platformer with a serious and emotional story. Throughout the game, you will change perspective among 3 characters: a young girl, a knight, and another man who is seeking answers. In order to move the story forward, you must solve puzzles and learn lessons through each character as their parts in the story are slowly revealed.
While I’ll most likely be going back to the game to explore more to see if there were options I missed out on and to find items I kept seeing throughout the game. INMOST does present itself in a different manner than other games. If you happen to be picking up the game because you’re a puzzle platformer fan, be warned that INMOST is an intimate story of loss and hope that some may find upsetting and player discretion is advised. Now let’s dig into the full review of Hidden Layer Games new game INMOST.
The game INMOST starts off very mysteriously, with very little revealed about the characters, the setting, or how it is all connected. You are following the other man while a narrator describes how in a world where pain is all around, it is possible to find goodness as well. Soon after you’ll cue into the playing as the little girl in another mysterious way. This will be the same for the knight as you play as well. The more you progress throughout INMOST the game will show how each may be connected. As I’ve already stated the game does follow a dark path for each of the characters and it had me thinking about what may be really going on for each character as I progressed. At times the game offers a glimpse of hope for each of them, but will also throw a curveball in a sense to have you think about the outcome of the path you happen to be on.
During the gameplay itself, whether playing as the young girl, knight, or the older man, each has its own set of puzzles to figure out. Examples: looking for a way out of a room, finding the right item to open a door, or figuring out how to traverse the landscape. There were many times I ended up going to previous areas due to seeing a place I later had the correct item to get through. Another example is not having a key or means to unlock a room. However challenging, the puzzles never completely overshadow the story you’re following. INMOST even with its dark tale still provides plenty of narrative elements and gameplay that kept me wanting to know more. I often while playing thought, did I miss something in the past room or did I not take the time to look into what the narrator is telling me at key points. Since beating the game, I’ve already went back to explore the game more and found things I didn’t think of looking for the first time.
The game controls are easy to pick up, leaving the challenge to the puzzles themselves. There are on-screen cues when you can (or should) interact with an item in a specific way. The musical score to the game is very pleasing to listen to and provides a great atmosphere from start to end. When playing as one of the three characters throughout INMOST you’ll get some feeling behind what’s going on. The score provides a backdrop to the story in addition to the narrator that is speaking at times. Audio cues at specific points in the game kept my interest so that the music didn’t become monotonous. (For those who may be interested, the game soundtrack will be available for purchase on Steam.)
Visuals throughout the game were monochromatic, but then again that didn’t take away from the overall tone of the game. Bright colors or rainbows wouldn’t have done the story and meaning of the game justice. The game kept with its dark tone from start to finish and fit perfectly with the idea that the intermittent light revealed itself as a meaning of hope. However, at times that hope would be crushed by the creatures and/or beings you came to visit. Keeping that light or hope didn’t come easy due to the obstacles you face in the game. I did learn while playing the game, some of the visuals within INMOST were worked on for quite some time. The final cut scene of the game, for example, took months of work to complete and assemble the roughly 70,000 frames within it.
As a whole, I found the game to be quite enjoyable, despite the dark and serious tone. I didn’t want to put the game down once I started playing. The story kept pulling me to play more to learn what’s going on between all the characters and the meaning behind them. Even at this moment in time, I want to go back to see what things I may have missed (hence my mention of going back to play through again). There are items in-game to be found and I’ve even learned there were cats to save who have their own story.
Hidden Layer Games found the perfect way to present this meaningful look into an emotional and atmospheric narrative-driven puzzle platformer. If you’re looking for a very deep game that has more emotional meaning, you’ll want to give INMOST your full attention from the moment you start playing until the end.
