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The dark, unsettling adventure Inside is now on the iPhone

The dark, unsettling adventure Inside is now on the iPhone

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One of last year’s best games was a short but haunting adventure called Inside. Developed by the team behind the similarly macabre hit Limbo, the game put players in the role of a young boy in a mysterious, gray world, uncovering all kinds of horrors along the way. It starts out as a simple platformer, but the game slowly reveals itself to be something more complex, and much darker, than it initially seems — and now you can play it on your phone.

Developer Playdead released Inside on both iOS and Apple TV today, and it makes a pretty seamless transition to a touchscreen device. Much of the side-scrolling game involves simply walking to the right, and solving small puzzles along the way. The mechanics aren’t complex; the real reason to play Inside is for the atmosphere and story. And this makes it a great fit for a personal device like your phone or an iPad. You can really see the unsettling details of the world with the screen so close to your face, and the haunting sound design — which was recorded with the help of an actual human skull — becomes even more powerful with a good pair of headphones.

I won’t spoil much else for you; one of the best parts of the game is how it continually surprises you with disturbing new reveals, including one of the most incredible endings I’ve ever experienced in a game. You can download Inside on iOS now for free, but to play the whole thing, you’ll need to drop $6.99.

The iOS debut of Inside is part of what has turned out to be an excellent week for mobile gaming. Alongside the debut of the intricate puzzler Gorogoa, this week also saw the launch of the first season of Life is Strange on iPhone, a long-awaited mobile port of seminal indie hit Fez, and a big winter update (and Android version) for the wonderful Hidden Folks.