InnerSpace is a new exploration game inspired by the likes of Journey and Grow Home whilst also providing its own unique experience.

In InnerSpace you explore the Inerverse, a group of inside out planets connected together by portals. Within these planets there are no horizons, the entire planet wraps around itself and the sun is in the centre. The inverse is also dying and you must explore these worlds to uncover long lost relics of a previous civilization and revive increasingly epic demigods through some light puzzle solving to save it.

The story is told in two ways: a basic narrative that explains the Inerverse and the collectible relics that reveal more of the lore. It wasn’t the most interesting but it was good enough to propel me through to see the ending and also set up some of the game’s best moments.

The first thing you notice when you boot up InnerSpace is how beautiful the art style is. It’s not overdone with detail and the simplicity that’s kept is effective for the most part. There’s a bit of pop-in throughout the game but nothing too distracting.

There’s no voiced dialogue to tell the story at all. Instead the sound is covered by a really good soundtrack. The sound design throughout this game as a whole is nothing particularly memorable, but it does serve its purpose really well.

Gameplay is easy to get into thanks to the tight controls that allow you to navigate through the smartly designed environments. One second you could be soaring across the skies and the next exploring an underwater cave system by converting your airframe into a submersible with a press of the button. The camera, however, can occasionally work against you. A few times after a crash I had a difficult time recovering. I ended up pinballing between walls while the camera threw a fit. But luckily this didn’t happen to me that often.

Each world you visit looks and feels distinctive and offers an interesting challenge to awaken their respective demigods, which are easily the highlights of the game.

It took me less than 5 hours to finish the main story of InnerSpace, but that’s without finding most of the collectables or unlocking many of the ships, so the game does offer a lot more than what I was expecting.

Reviewed on Xbox One.
Also available on: PS4, PC.

Copy of InnerSpace provided by publisher.