Mobile game reviews

ONE BOY’S BAD DAY TURNS DECIDEDLY STRANGE. $10.99 | playdead.com/inside

DEATH COMES EASILY in Inside, and the first couple of times, it comes as a shock. Your character, a small boy in a red sweater, is fragile, falling to attacks from the callous adults who hunt him or to a bite from a cruel dog. It seems like a hateful game at first, the boy stumbling in his constant flight from left to right, hiding from searchlights and their accompaniment of more death. You’ll leap walls and chasms in desperation, wade waistdeep through water, and lie twitching after being hit by the comically large darts fired at you. The game, from the makers of Limbo, hasn’t arrived on iOS unscathed. Running and jumping are mapped to slides and flicks of the finger, which works well, but having to use a long press to perform actions like exiting a vehicle is unfortunate, though it does remove the need for on-screen buttons. None of your interactions are explained, leading to early frustrations. It’s also extremely dark, requiring full brightness to play. We’ve shifted crates and swum through water before, but when such elements are presented like this — with dark humour, wriggly bum snakes, sharp design, and the ability to squeeze genuine sympathy from the most jaded player — they gain new life. Inside isn’t a long game, but it’s certainly memorable. And it will make you laugh as much as it makes you want to cry.