The Inner World: A Throwback Game In a Modern Package [Review]

By

The Inner World

The Inner World is one of those “throwback, but in a good way” titles that reminds us of how good we have it nowadays. That sounds harsh, but remember that a time existed in which point-and-click adventures were everywhere. Very few of them gave you any help or hints, and all of them required you to play Amateur Psychic with the developers.

The Inner World by Studio Fizbin
Category: iOS Games
Works With: iPhone, iPad
Price: $2.99

This is what I’m saying (slight spoiler, but it’s the first puzzle): I have no reason to believe that a drunken worm would make for a good slingshot.

And it’s a good thing that The Inner World is so cute and sympathetic to its players or that would really annoy me.

If you watch that trailer, you’ll also see that this is a bit of a throwback in its art, as well; its world and characters are all hand-drawn, and that adds a lot to its personality and charm. It actually reminds me of a more cartoony Machinarium. But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself; this is usually where I say what the game is about.

The Inner World is about a little guy named Robert who has a flute for a nose who sets off on a quest through a world that somehow exists, in the developer’s words, “in an enormous hollow space which is ventilated solely through three big wind fountains.” One day, the wind fountains dry up, and it falls to Robert to discover why.

The Inner World
Robert’s flute nose is fully functional.

Point-and-click veterans are familiar with “pixel hunting”: It’s when you’ve exhausted all obvious options, so you end up mousing over every inch of the screen to see if there were any interactive objects you missed. Recent titles like developer Telltale Games’ Tales of Monkey Island, Back to the Future, and The Walking Dead have added options to reveal every clickable object.

In The Inner World, you can hold your finger on the screen, and white dots will appear over everything you can interact with. It’s a convenient way to keep the game playable without giving too much away.

I have no reason to believe that a drunken worm would make for a good slingshot.

If you want it to give too much away, however, it also has a clever hint system that gives you little nudges to lead you very slowly through solutions to the game’s puzzles so you can kinda feel like you still figured it out on your own.



The Inner WorldGame Name: : The Inner World
The Good: Great hand-drawn art, an interesting setting, excellent voice acting, and very player-friendly.
The Bad: Really? A worm as a slingshot? And I have to get him drunk first? Also, at 2GB, it’s a hefty space investment.
The Verdict It’s a must-play for adventure fans, and a must-see for non-adventure fans. Just look at it.
Buy from:App Store

[rating=game5]

Newsletters

Daily round-ups or a weekly refresher, straight from Cult of Mac to your inbox.

  • The Weekender

    The week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.