Inside vs Journey
Inside
Inside is 2.5D-like, atmospheric puzzle/platformer where you play as a young boy trapped within a dark project that pushes the human body within the limitations of physics. Being a puzzle game, Inside has some of the most intriguing ones. The goals are often vaguely known rather than being concretely defined by the game, and of course, every aspect of the puzzle is built to push your use and understanding of the game mechanics and your character's (limited) abilities as a boy. Interestingly, there are a lot of water levels for a platformer game, but these levels somehow managed to feel relevant to the overall storyline and spices up the gameplay.Although many have openly criticize the ending of the game, the overall feeling that is evoked by it seems perfect for a game as dark and as unsetlling as this one. If you're ready for a puzzle-platform game that will challenge your brain while at the same time bring out strong emotions, this is the game to play.
Journey
Journey is literally a quintessential "artsy" adventure game. Why so? Well, the game puts you in the shoes of a mysterious robed figure who you will control throughout your adventure across beautiful, quiet and mostly desert landscapes. Each landscape provides players with a puzzle to solve that will allow them to move on to the next scene, though players can simply roam around the place and drink in the gorgeous visuals.There isn't a lot of buttons in the game and that's fine enough since you really don't need much to solve the puzzles, but personally, I'm incredibly intrigued by the Sing function. Although it is used to solve certain puzzles, most of the time you'll probably be using it idly while your character is travelling. Depending on how long you press the button and how fast you do so, you can actually create amazing little tunes that you'd love to have it recorded down and turned into perhaps a ringtone or something.
That said, Journey is a game that's so much more than composing music and solving puzzles. It is a journey (like its namesake) to help the robed figure discover who he/she is and to help you figure out what's happened in the game world, resulting in the sprawling desert that spans most of the game.