Inside the Gear Review

Inside the Gear is a difficult game. There aren’t many titles which have made me drop my face into my hands in frustration, yet Mykhail Knokh’s puzzler managed to do it time and time again.

The goal of Inside the Gear is to get your tiny cog from one side of the level to the other using a variety of shapes, planes and prisms. There are 25 levels available in all, though it will take some serious investment to complete all of them.

Everything in the game is presented in a quaint 3D platforming world known as “The Gear”, accompanied by steampunk whistles, clanks and hissing. Sparks of orange and red (the game’s main colours) occasionally spurt and shoot across the screen, adding life to what would otherwise be a rather static background. The game features some great sound direction, though: the ways that the movements of your cog through the level affect the atmosphere are well designed and fluid.

Once you manage to complete each level in Inside the Gear you’re rewarded with a swift pat on the back followed by the introduction of an even harder- more complex, set of objectives. While you might think that this is obviously standard affair – the further you progress the harder it gets – you never really feel a sense of accomplishment. Rather, as I worked my little cog all the way to the end of each set piece, I began to dread what the next stage would comprise of.

Inside the Gear’s controls also left me frustrated at times. There is no mouse or controller support to speak of, while each object in the game is selected with TAB, rotated with Q+E and then moved with WASD. It makes for a crowded upper-left keyboard and more than a few times I had to glance down to make sure my fingers were in the right place.

The game’s UI and menus are basic or non-existent: there are no graphics options and no real tutorials or hints to help you along the way if you’re stuck. All of this culminates in moments when you feel like you want to tear your hair out.

As I said at the start: Inside the Gear is a difficult game. It delivers some challenging puzzles but tacks on frustrating moments that will leave you wanting to quit, uninstall and forget about it. The game will be good for those who like their short bursts of fun, but doesn’t have the staying power for anyone looking for a more in-depth puzzler.