Last played on: March 2020.
My verdict is at the bottom.
Read the full review, with pictures[raggartsreviews.com]

Do you find it hard to know what a game wants you to do? Do you get confused or lost when there are too many options? Do you enjoy wonderfully well-crafted games that will stay with you for years to come? Boy, have I got a game for you! The premise of Inside is very simple: you play a boy that needs to go… somewhere to the right.

The difficulty lies in the fact that the environment, people, animals, robots and whatnot are all trying to kill you. Or incapacitate you, the story is not always clear on your fate when you “die”. And you will die a lot, at least at first.
The controls are simple and responsive. Move, jump, push, pull. That’s it. The ingenuity of the level designers makes for a very intuitive and yet intriguing experience. When unable to progress further, I would often ask myself “Well, what next?” And then, when I figured it out - which usually didn’t take long because the clues are often quite obvious - I would usually have a big “Oohh, that is clever!” moment. Once I learned to use a given object, I could extrapolate how to use it when confronted with a new scenario.

It’s hard for a game to make the player learn its internal mechanics without ever explaining them directly all the while conferring a sense of achievement every time an obstacle is overcome. It’s a concept that’s really hard to pull off but I found that INSIDE succeeds hands down. Note that I played the entire game with an Xbox 360 controller so the game will probably feel different with a keyboard and mouse. I highly recommend using a controller.
Because of its simplicity and general structure however, the game does not have varying difficulty levels or a lot of replayability, especially once all achievements are unlocked. It’s still a fun game to play, it’s only more of the same. However, because the game’s world, and the game’s atmosphere, are so well designed and well put together, I found myself repeatedly asking myself “Why?” and thinking about the game in general during the days after I finished it.

It’s a lingering experience of sorts, even if one doesn’t get to play it for a hundred hours. Also, I find there is something very satisfying about finishing a game in one sitting. All in all I had a good experience, and a good emotional connection with INSIDE. I still think about the game from time to time, which is a good sign the developers did a lot of things right.
I don’t want to spoil the ending, or even the major events happening during the game but I will say that you have to play the game to the end. It’s beautiful, completely incomprehensible but at the same time an epiphany of sorts. And it’s definitely a big part of the game, even if it leaves you scratching your head.

For my part, since I had all sorts of questions after playing the game, I also took the time to find the secret ending. Which left me with more questions than answers, but I feel like that’s the whole point of this game: to be an unforgettable experience.
INSIDE will haunt you, in a good way. This game is one of the few deserving of being called a masterpiece.
It’s very hard to say, because everything fit together so well. Since I have to say one thing, I’ll say it was probably the emotional connection with the world.
How sometimes I knew what I needed to do to get through a given area but in my haste I was somehow thwarted and I was forced to restart.
Definitely! I recommend buying on sale, because the replayability is low. I think paying $20 for 4-5 hours of playtime is not very good value.