Welcome to our review of The Inner World, a twisted point and click game out now for Nintendo Switch.
Embark on a crazy adventure to the wonderful and mysterious world of “Asposia”.
Robert is a novice, a bit clueless, but with a heart of gold. He lives a peaceful life as a court musician in Asposia’s largest wind monastery. Contrary to the laws of physics, Asposia is an enormous, hollow space surrounded by an infinite expanse of earth. The world’s air is provided through three wind fountains, but as one wind fountain after the other petered out and the wind gods came to Asposia, all of the sudden Robert found him in the middle of a whirlwind.
Together with the help of the mysterious thief Laura, his best intentions and no clue whatsoever, Robert sets off on his adventure to discover the secret of the wind’s disappearance. Will the young adventurer be able to save his world? And what are Laura´s secret intentions…?
Inner World is a point and click masterpiece with one small caveat, it is all about using the controls but not the touchscreen. Sporting some very elaborate controls, there is really a lot to do on 1 screen at the same time. Whether it is making a homemade slingshot or figuring out a puzzle, this game does a lot for lovers of the genre.
After starting the game, you get a very short introduction about how the storyline has been built up. You meet the main antagonist and experience how he ends up chasing a pigeon down a chute. Once down in the apparent slumps, it is up to you to start solving some very intriguing puzzles. Prepare to think out of the box quite often, you will need it.
Allow me to give you a simple idea based just on one of the very first puzzles you need to solve. You need to gather a branch, feed a worm some alcohol to make it drunk, catch that very same worm and then use him to create a slingshot. Sounds fun, right? It is but sadly at the same time, it is not always. Possibly the biggest gripe with this genre is that often you are not giving clear indications how to solve puzzles and Inner World uses that very same approach.
Sure, you can keep trying to combine every possible item and eventually you do solve any puzzle, dedication might be the solution, but a little more guidance does not hurt. Then again, I do consider it the appeal of this genre. I really do, just wish it was a little easier sometimes, maybe some additional clues? But enough about that, back to the actual game.
Inner World is a trip down a wacky world with wacky dialogue and even wackier graphics. It might be one of the funnier ones I ever played. Regrettably, I would have loved touch controls instead of button controls, they would have added to the experience. Honestly speaking, I got irritated a little at the very beginning that I could not use touch. I had to show the hints, which are basically all the items you can interact with. Once you get to them, you got some options like watching/inspecting the item, whether you want to perform an action or use an item you gathered on it.
In most cases, you are easily getting an idea of what to do, but not every time is it easy to see how this is done. Trial and error, I suppose is the right way to describe things. At the same time, words can not describe the high you get from solving the heavier puzzles. Let me tell you, finally figuring out something can feel awesome.
In conclusion, it may be a big missed opportunity to bring touch controls to the table. Clues might be few but again, that forces you to think outside the box. I look forward to what the second game will bring! The second one is out already and my review will be online in the coming days already.
For the original installment, my rating is 75%
