InnerSpace Review – Turning flight upside down and inside out

Flight is spectacular. Coined by some as the Icarus complex, there is innate desire in most humans to take flight to great heights. I’ve discussed in previous reviews that a great flight mechanic can make or break a game. Flight needs to feel liberating and simplified while also allowing for precision, something some AAA titles managed to fumble last year. So when InnerSpace offers up gameplay that is nothing but flight—you cross your fingers and take the plunge, all the while hoping that you’ll not spend the next few hours grinding your face along the side of a cliff.

Take a breath, find your bearings and get to work. Your bread and butter in InnerSpace will be to collect Wind while keeping an eye out for hidden “Relics”. As the Cartographer it is you job to get these back to the waterlocked Archaeologist. Some will be intact, others will be in pieces for you to hunt. In the first area you’ll unlock the ability to fold back your wings and dive into the oceans and your search continues below the surface. This is where you begin the discovery of one of the legendary Demi-Gods, who acts as a kind of boss battle. With this discovery you’ll find yourself on a new mission as you jump from one Bubble-world to the next.

With a stunning art style and calming sound track there is a large amount of joy found with mindless flight. The colouring contains warm tones for the earth and refreshing cool tones for the water, so much so that I wanted to dive into this post apocalyptic landscape as it seemed like a relaxingly quiet location. While you’ll be perpetually in motion you will have a chance to pause and take in your surroundings. Scattered around the worlds are “Totems” that let you tread air and gather yourself before jettisoning off towards your next destination—or linger to watch the ebb and flow of the gravity defying water against the rocks.

InnerSpace does a great job of simplifying its flight controls. Your left joystick controls your pitch and yaw, while the right will give you control over your roll and acceleration—keeping in mind that outside of totems you are an instrument of perpetual motion. The addition of the “Stall” mechanic on the left trigger is a life saver. Essentially identical to drifting in driving games, you’ll float slowly in the direction you were travelling while having the ability to rotate freely, releasing the trigger will shoot you off in your desired direction.

Unfortunately though this exploration can be where InnerSpace falls down slightly. Being sometimes vague in its directions and a little over confident in the visual queues it’s supplying means that on a few occasions I was left bamboozled on what I should be doing. While the Archaeologist can offer some hints or tips there are some areas through the middle of the game that separate you and leave you circling areas looking for answers.

Not helping this matter is the sometimes confusing layout of worlds. On a couple of occasion I was left looking around like John Travolta in Pulp Fiction thinking “Have I been here?” While other times I found that my adamant belief that I had visited a location meant that I completely missed the answer to a puzzle. Perhaps the use of some type of marker that you could leave yourself would have meant that I didn’t keep turning up to the same tunnel and only realising half way through it that I had seen that mossy outcrop four times already.