The Inner World Review (Xbox One)

The Inner World has you taking control of Robert, a court musician in Asposia’s largest wind monastery. The air of this world is provided by three wind fountains, that each peter out in turn - leaving the wind gods to deal with Asposia. With your best intentions at hand, you set off to discover why it’s all gone wrong.

The art style on offer in The Inner World has all of the hallmarks of the point and click titles that were all the rage in the late 90s. The game has a certain cartoon charm that reminds me of Aaahh!!! Real Monsters or Courage The Cowardly Dog - just with a modernised twist. It lends itself to the atmosphere of the game well, suiting the backdrop of Asposia down to a tee.

From an audio standpoint, the dialog is well delivered and adds to the immersion of the characters and their stories. The Inner World would struggle to hold your interest if its characters weren't so believable - their voice acting is top notch and gives the characters depth. The soundtrack is relatively mellow and stays in the background to let you concentrate on the puzzles when needed.

Gameplay can be a little frustrating as this being a point and click title; Studio Fizbin have had to modify the setup to make use of a controller, rather than a mouse. This has lead to a slightly awkward setup, where all of the vital points are highlighted as you shift between each of them using the bumper buttons. This negates some of the joy of discovery in a point and click like this, since there’s no real need to explore the map to find what you can interact with. It also makes repeated interaction with the same points trickier, which is a shame, as there have been other titles that’s made use of an on screen cursor that moved with the analog stick perfectly fine.

The puzzles for the most part aren’t too hard but will still get the grey matter ticking away in places, so don’t expect anything quite as crazy as those found in the Secret of Monkey Island series of games. If you get really stuck, there’s a hint system that will hold your hand a little along the way, so even the most puzzle-phobic gamers can at least enjoy the story and the ever simple humour of the protagonist Robert.