Whatever you think of our review policy here at Push Square Towers β and whether we should invest our biscuit budget into an office steering wheel β there's one thing that we can all agree: 10/10 review scores are rare. In fact, while some sites may use the upper-end of their scale liberally, we like to be a bit more conservative; the scale's there to be used of course, but not every game is the greatest thing since Dairy Milk and Walkers crisps.
We know what you're thinking, though: what about that time you gave Killzone 3 top marks? Look, this haunted author wasn't even on the payroll then and it still makes us feel ill to this very day. But the point is that when Inside scored a 10/10 recently, you can be rest assured it deserved it. And while we're scared of showing too much of the game for fear of spoilers, we've embedded the first 10 minutes or so above so you can get an idea of just how good Playdead's latest is.
Now imagine the final 10 minutes being exactly the same thing, only amplified 1,000 times by a development team clearly off its freakin' nut. It's just that good.
[source bit.ly]
Comments 42
I'm about to play it, but first like to know what the free + games of september are. It may very well be this game.
Looks alot like limbo... and sure, it looks okay, but... judging by this no way this is GOTY considering the INSANE competition it has to go up against.... to name a few Uncharted 4, Dark Souls 3, Overwatch, Doom, and a hopeful mention of Hellblade ....
Yeah. No thanks.
" and whether we should invest our biscuit budget into an office steering wheel",lol,that was awesome sam,some epic British thingy,and yes,i will get that game asap
This game just seems so unappealing to me in name and aesthetics.....and while I'm sure it's nothing like Limbo, it's still the same developer, and I found that title to be "meh" at best.
I'll stick with the Shovel Knights, Bit.Trips, and Bastions of the world.
Push the left stick right.
Push the left stick right some more.
Bit more.
Press X.
Push the left stick right again.
Lather, rinse, repeat. Looks nice, but also looks like a remake of Limbo, only this time with some colour.
And Limbo was bloody crap.
Killzone 3 > Inside
Can I ask something? I read the comments section and it didn't seem like ppl were going off the rails for giving it 10/10. π€
I need this in my life! I didn't see that first dog coming! Almost started yelling "run b!t*h! He gon kill you!!"
Any word on a physical release?
People sure do love to complain. Assetto Corsa scores too low and now this scores too high. Maybe Push Square should just rate every game an 8.
It's a good game but I don't think it deserves 10.
Fantastic game. The developers did a great job. It's short but I enjoyed every minute of it. I can't say that about many games. Fully deserved the 10 out of 10. Sits just below uncharted 4 in my favourite games of the year list.
I recommend playing it at night with the lights out and headphones on.
@Sensechat
The unfinished swan was brilliant, different and a joy to play. It was also released years ago.
Sammy mentions in the article they like to use the whole scale and fair play as its there to be used unlike the pretension of holding scores back for no reason other than they can. The only issue I have is that most people look at the reviews, look at a score, then cry like like an X Factor contestant if it doesn't sit right with them. So what if 10 top scores have been dished out? Witcher 3, Bloodborne, Journey, Persona 4 Golden, Uncharted 4 and the Witness all deserve top marks when placed with the reviews which are almost always professional, informative, unbiased and well written.
I wholeheartedly agree with Push Square's review of Inside.
A ten doesn't mean that a game is perfect.
@Sensechat
Since pushsquare get so excited about games they enjoy they should change to marks out of 100.
Great so you can moan about it not getting a 0.5 or 0.2 extra? Scoring mechanisms for reviews are archaic - arguing over a method of scoring is like arguing over wherever to eat chips or wedges. It got a 10 after a great review, its one of your favourite games of the year. Would you recommend playing it?
@Paranoimia That's a really reductive way of looking at it. It has some really brilliantly designed puzzles that make full use of the limited inputs at your disposal.
@Sensechat I actually believe both The Witness and Bloodborne should have been 10/10, personally. That's what I'd have scored them.
@Sensechat The intro was a joke, but you're right, we really over-rate things. I mean, our Metacritic average is not over six points lower than the global average or anything: http://www.metacritic.com/publication/push-square
(Sorry for the triple post @Tasuki - don't ban me!)
I wasn't sure reading the review but having watched this I'm definitely picking it up, it's right up my street
Just finished my second play through and 100% of the trophies and the secret ending, game of the year for me.
@Neolit to be fair with asseto corsa the top review is an Italian based website, just like the third top rated score, when I checked metacritic a few days ago 3 reviewers gave it 5/10. A few gave it 7/10 and the Italian websites and a couple of game sites scored it higher. Regardless of how its meant to play a number of reviewers using wheels scored it down. Why should we start taking employee number into consideration when the game is full price, if the graphics are crap then let it be said, if the options are crap, let it be said.
The game on PC is the de facto racer due to the mods. There's none of that on PS4. 5/10.
@themcnoisy Amen, brother One of those 5's was even reviewed with a wheel (God forbid).
I just can't trust Sammy B, lol, are gaming tastes are too different, the man would have given TW3 and Doom probably 7's and he has an attraction towards artsy high brow games..........while I would pick Gunstar Heroes over Journey pretty much everytime.
I really like the atmosphere in that footage, but now I'm worried it'll be underwhelming as far as gameplay goes. I'm absolutely not into those games that try to put ambience and/or storytelling over actual gameplay.
@ricklongo Gameplay won't be top notch. But it doesn't have to be in that kind of game. Some games are more about the eperience than acual gameplay. There kind of an interactive movie so to speak.
In my opinion I like them, but it's so much better if games combine a good atmosphere/story with gameplay. Like the Last of Us and Uncharted do.
So glad to see several people don't think "games" like this, journey, and limbo aren't worth their weight in gold. I bought into limbo on release, and have regretted that $20, 3 hour snore fest ever since, and have learned from my mistakes. Any time a game like this gets a perfect score, that's an instant disconnect from that reviewer's opinions about pretty much everything.
I don't think you'll come across very many who actually have played it and didn't like. It's a good one. Put on headphones like JeffTurboWizard said.
@Neolit sorry mate I wrote that passage over a few minutes as I was in work, didn't mean to sound off.
@TimeforTravel "Some games are more about the eperience than acual gameplay. There kind of an interactive movie so to speak."
Yeah, that's what I was talking about. Historically, I just can't get into those games, though. And that even includes The Last of Us - I often found myself disappointed when cutscenes ended and gameplay started, and began thinking I'd just rather watch that story unfold in a movie instead of a game.
@Sensechat you think the Guardian is a better source for game news than pushsquare? Come on man you make sense at times but that's ridiculous. I completely disagree that your saying Sammys reviews are incomparable to the staff at Edge, his writing at times is exemplary, just because his taste is suspect he can definitely write a quality review. ShogunRok plays more RPGs than anyone ever invented, how is he less qualified to write an RPG review than someone at Eurogamer?
The reality is you don't believe inside is worthy of a top score due to its short length, pretensions and lack of challenge. Funny that I hated Bloodborne as it was too long, pandered to the hardcore and is annoyingly difficult. It still deserves a 10/10, 100/100, Essential, A+, *****, 100%, seal of approval.
@Sensechat
I like the old 5 point scale, when a game scores a 3 or 3.5 out of 5, people go, "ok, it's not great, but it's not bad either"...........when a game scores a 60 out of 100, it means it's crap.
@themcnoisy
I agree, basically all controversies on this site boil down to the fact that Sammy has a $hit taste in gaming (now.....that doesn't speak to his immense work and dedication to this site).
@sub12 yeah that's true 3/5 although mathematically the same as 60/100 is different in an out of 5 system, as it sits at exactly halfway. 1/5 avoid 2/5 poor 3/5 average 4/5 good 5/5 brilliant. My mind has just been blown as it doesn't look as bad. But that is on the assumption no game ever incurs a 0/5.
@Neolit Haha same same. Now go and get that complete Asseto Corsa no steering wheel permitted trophy.
What's going on in here?
@Neolit "I was ready to give up on reading games news and reviews sites/publications because of the level of utter disconnect between reviewers and their readership. Many "seasoned" writers started sounding like companies' mouthpieces"
Pretty much this.
@Sensechat I've never really looked at the Guardian reviews and they are pretty good now I've taken a peek, however they only tend to review the bigger games looking at the last years history give or take the odd obscure game.
Nah. I dislike almost every game that this website gives 10/10 scores to, and one of my favorite games of the year only got a 3/10 score. Clearly my idea of what constitutes a good time differs radically from the writers on this site.
I'll pick it up when it either joins the IGC or is included in a humble bundle.
For what it's worth, I think too much stock is put into the score of games by a lot of people. It's a problem within the industry that doesn't really seem to be an issue for other mediums, or certainly not to the same extent, unless it's DC movies getting obliterated by critics.
A movie gets four stars out of five (which garners it an 80 on Metacritic) and nobody bats an eye. It's a great score. It's not an amazing score. But it's well above average. A big video game gets less than a 9 and it's considered a disappointment in a lot of circles, and if it hits a 7 or less and it's basically the worst thing ever put on disc if you'd believe the comments sections of a lot of reviews on the Internet.
On the other side, the second you give the game a 10, a lot of people expect it to walk your dog and pop the kettle on for you once you've finished it. There's a lot of unrealistic expectation surrounding games. If a game gets a 10 it doesn't mean that it will completely change your life. It just means that somebody, somewhere, thought it was an amazing experience and had an outlet to pass that on to other people.
There are a lot of reviews I don't agree with, both because they score a lot more highly than I would, or because I feel that they underrate an experience. But that's why the written word of a review is far more valuable than the score. The score at the end of a review is just a semi-arbitrary number, a sort of pseudo-science - it's attaching an objective value to a mostly subjective piece. But people love scores so that's why they exist, even if a lot of writers wish they didn't. It's the prose of the review that's important. From the way that the reviewer writes about the game you can understand why they gave it the score they did, and from that work out whether or not the game sounds like it's for you.
I absolutely loved Inside. And I gave it a ten for a host of reasons that I think were covered fairly clearly in the review. But a ten doesn't mean you need to go out and buy it. If you know you hate 2D platformers then it's not for you. If you need a clearly defined story or lots of action then it's not for you. If you only play football games then it's not for you. All the person doing the review can do is tell you how a game plays, whether it's broken, and how successfully they felt a game met its ambitions. It's up to the reader to decide whether or not the person writing the review has a taste in games that aligns with their own or not, and from that whether or not the game will be for them.
TL;DR - Ten doesn't mean perfect. It just means somebody out there liked something a whole bunch.
I played through Inside in over the course of three days and loved it. It gave me a really odd feeling.
@Neolit Destructoid actually did go and give it a 4/10
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