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[More_Badass]

So the game's true ending reveals that the game is a game, and the kid is controlled by the player?

That is absolutely terrible.

And on top of that, the puzzles were not as elaborate or satisfying as Limbo's.

Yeah, Inside is on my list of most disappointing games of this year.

Eh, I thnk that's only if you're looking at it in a meta sense. In-universe, I took it as confirming that the boy is just a drone and being controlled/guided by the blob all along. Adding more evidence to the notion of it being a test training the boy how to assimilate with the blob

 

[lt519]

Interesting theories here, I have to go play it again to remember some of the sequencing. But to me you clearly die and come under the blobs control at that point. The blob itself is under close control of the player and/or scientist.

I just don't get why the scientists are hostile in the beginning and then docile towards the boy at the end and the only way I can do mental gymnastics around that is you die underwater and then the blob takes control, which they control, so they have no reason to be scared/aggressive. I get the alternate ending let's you unplug the boy, so I'm a bit confused as to the whole he dies halfway through or he doesn't.

 

[pantsmith]

Just finished this today - great game!

The whole ending sequence throws a wrench into everything, and leads me to two conclusions. Either:

a. the boy was controlled by the blob the whole time, and escapes
b. the boy and blob are just an experiment/test

I guess it could even be both? Ugh.

The diorama of the cliff/beach in one of the lab rooms throws everything for a loop. Did they know? Did they expect it? They seem equal parts surprised and prepared as the blob breaks out.

 

[breakfuss]

Just finished...mind is just...ugh...idk. Blown.

 

[Eusis]

Beat the game myself.

Well that was... that was a thing.

 

[EVA UNIT 01]

I just finished.
WHAT THE FUCK

 

[Makoto Yuki]

I just finished.
WHAT THE FUCK

Sums up how I felt.

It was an interesting game, never played Limbo, but now I want too.

 

[renegade_dewitt]

I just finished.
WHAT THE FUCK

My reactions exactly. Specifically, if I were to use a word to describe this game: experience. This game felt like an experience that I was going through, not a video game that I was playing but a mental experience. Holy shit. Definitely in the top 10 somewhere.

 

[renegade_dewitt]

The diorama of the cliff/beach in one of the lab rooms throws everything for a loop. Did they know? Did they expect it? They seem equal parts surprised and prepared as the blob breaks out.

This. Only realized this when I saw a playthrough and a 2nd look at the game after I beat it myself. The diorama is eerily similar to the ending scene where the blog ends up....hmm....very very interesting...

This is one of those games that if people want to, they can come up with endless theories about what the game means and specifically what the ending means. Seriously, very artsy game that is executed perfectly!

 

[Poimandres]

This. Only realized this when I saw a playthrough and a 2nd look at the game after I beat it myself. The diorama is eerily similar to the ending scene where the blog ends up....hmm....very very interesting...

This is one of those games that if people want to, they can come up with endless theories about what the game means and specifically what the ending means. Seriously, very artsy game that is executed perfectly!

Nah, with the secret ending the game is basically "solved" in terms of basic story structure (experiment being repeated multiple times, the boy is a drone, all according to plan).

But, the stuff in between those general beats is pretty fascinating and gives plenty to think about!

 

[breakfuss]

Is there an explanation for the following:

-the area with the sonic booms periodically going off lol?
-the siren/mermaid creature? I had someone in another thread reply to me that it was just an older version of me but I'm not sure I agreee.
-the visitors. I saw what appeared to be a father with his child. This initially led me to believe this place was being used to harvest cloned parts but if that's the case then all the elaborate experimentation would be unnecessary. Idk idk.

 

[Gradly]

Such a great experience indeed and I'm waiting for it to play it again on smartphones too cuz that seems inevitable.

So do we expect Playdead will ever tell us about what exactly was going on, or they will just leave it like that? Did the game get patched for PS4 Pro with native 4K?

 

[softie]

Really cool game.
I'm really curious about the orbs you can turn off. Who placed them there and for what purpose? At one point you're attacked by dogs from both sides and have to defend yourself via torch. After you turn off the orb the dogs become silent and back off. It's like they're scared of you or the orb is like a power source and turning it off makes the environment weaker?
I also felt that the water creature at the end was rewarding the boy for coming this far and plug the cable into him.

 

[dno_1966]

Just started it and am really loving it so far, amazing atmosphere.

 

[Mr-Joker]

I recently started the game and while I liked the art style, I quickly got bored and felt that the game was very one note in the sense that once you played it or seen someone played it there's very little reason to replay it.

 

[SomTervo]

Is there an explanation for the following:

-the area with the sonic booms periodically going off lol?
-the siren/mermaid creature? I had someone in another thread reply to me that it was just an older version of me but I'm not sure I agreee.
-the visitors. I saw what appeared to be a father with his child. This initially led me to believe this place was being used to harvest cloned parts but if that's the case then all the elaborate experimentation would be unnecessary. Idk idk.

I think that was me.

There is an argument that the "mermaid" is one of the failed boy experiments. In the game's last couple of hours there are other failed "blobs" around - three of them, hidden in foreground/background - as well as potential dead/transformed boys. We also pass through at least one more "failed" or flooded facility suggesting this has all happened at least once before.

Also the boy's last moments are underwater with the blob. What if the transition failed or another mutation happened?

I think there's more evidence but I've forgotten it.

I recently started the game and while I liked the art style, I quickly got bored and felt that the game was very one note in the sense that once you played it or seen someone played it there's very little reason to replay it.

So not replayable = one-note?

Do you need to replay every game you own or get a 10-hour-per-buck ratio out of it? Do you need loads of checklists or trophies to MAKE you replay it? (Also FYI there is a reason to replay. More than one, actually.)

Sometimes high quality is worth the price of entry itself.

 

[HueyFreeman]

Really cool game.
I'm really curious about the orbs you can turn off. Who placed them there and for what purpose? At one point you're attacked by dogs from both sides and have to defend yourself via torch. After you turn off the orb the dogs become silent and back off. It's like they're scared of you or the orb is like a power source and turning it off makes the environment weaker?
I also felt that the water creature at the end was rewarding the boy for coming this far and plug the cable into him.

The orbs are linked to the secret (true?) ending. I won't tell you what that is, but finding all 13 (I believe) orbs gives you access to the true ending, though it's actually still not that straightforward to actually obtain the true ending. No idea how someone figured that out :|

I recently started the game and while I liked the art style, I quickly got bored and felt that the game was very one note in the sense that once you played it or seen someone played it there's very little reason to replay it.

Good to hear, but this is the spoiler thread.

 

[More_Badass]

I think that was me.

There is an argument that the "mermaid" is one of the failed boy experiments. In the game's last couple of hours there are other failed "blobs" around - three of them, hidden in foreground/background - as well as potential dead/transformed boys. We also pass through at least one more "failed" or flooded facility suggesting this has all happened at least once before.

Also the boy's last moments are underwater with the blob. What if the transition failed or another mutation happened?

I think there's more evidence but I've forgotten it.

At the end when you get sucked in, the boy looks exactly like the others, implying the others are previous subjects who failed to assimilate and have been living down there for a long time hence the long hair.

Also in the big fan tunnel, other sets of red shirts/black pants fly past you, implying that you're far from the first boy to attempt this

 

[Irminsul]

Just finished it yesterday. Haven't said "What the fuck" aloud to a game in a long, long time, but there I was, controlling a... something and feeling delight and unease simultaneously.

Also, now that I'm through, I understand that Jim Sterling didn't really call Inside a "flashy" game in his GOTY video...

 

[Mupod]

So not replayable = one-note?

Do you need to replay every game you own or get a 10-hour-per-buck ratio out of it? Do you need loads of checklists or trophies to MAKE you replay it? (Also FYI there is a reason to replay. More than one, actually.)

Sometimes high quality is worth the price of entry itself.

I agree that a short quality experience can be worth the price but there just wasn't enough here for me. Fell for the hype, and I knew it was short, but I was expecting more after all the raving about it (and 2 hours is even shorter than I thought). I hate trial and error instadeath in any game so anything with dogs/guards/whatever was obnoxious to me. With a couple clever exceptions the puzzles were mostly so obvious I can barely consider them puzzles. Just mechanical chores to get through so you can keep holding right. And for a game this short it was pretty silly how much 'ok now do this menial task 2 more times' there was. I mean, that's such a common thing in video games I normally don't even think about it much less complain about it. But the whole selling point of this game to me was a short memorable experience with no meaningless repetition or filler.

I will say the one thing in the entire game that truly impressed me was the blob, specifically in how it controls. It was completely intuitive and very smart. No prompts needed, the buttons just do what you expect. Manipulating those long beams and tossing the crate around could have been annoying but everything was fine. The animations and gross flesh slapping sounds it makes were cool as well but what I took away from that section was just how little I had to think about controlling it. Part of me hoped they would keep going and expanding on that concept, having you control weirder and weirder abominations but it's all over in a few minutes.

 

[marc^o^]

I finshed it two weeks ago. At this level, a game is a piece of art. Absolutely fantastic, everyone needs to play it.

 

[Glix]

I loved playing through this game so much, and this thread has added so much more. I cannot wait to play through again now.

 

[WrenchNinja]

Finished the game yesterday. Got the secret ending. Think the only puzzle room i really liked was the 19 bodies one. Some interesting twists with the story and theories though. Kind of wish I had waited for it to go cheaper than it did with the last psn sale. 13 bucks was way too much for this, don't know how people justified paying 26 for this to themselves.

 

[KodaRuss]

I just finished the game and I liked it but I probably could have done without the whole blob thing. While it was good gameplay it made a very depressing game just crazy depressing.

I felt the puzzles were a little easier than Limbo for the most part. Never got stuck like I did in Limbo a couple times.

I wanted to explore more of the dystopian world but obviously we got many more questions than answers from the end. Which is what I expected.

Probably the best Indie game I have played this year, about to finish the witness tonight.

 

[jond76]

Halfway through controlling the blob I thought: oh OK, this is just another vehicle Luke the sub, eventually I'll climb my way out. Nope. Straight Cronenberg.

Weird game, but fun to complete. Animation was some of the best I've seen.

 

[RuhRo]

What are the going theories on what the hell is going on in the word of Inside?

 

[A Link to the Past]

The one thing I like about Inside is that it does not at all bother to answer any questions about itself. All the things that RuhRo mentioned, they're largely unexplained, and that's good. And not even in the sense of "we get to intuit these things for ourselves, rad!", but more that as some little kid (or experiment), we would have no idea what's going on. We would have no one there to deliver information to us. On all levels, we're on the outside looking into this dystopian world, and that was really rad, just leaving everything unanswered and unexplained. It's not a matter of why or how, it is just a matter of "it is"

 

[mishakoz]

Finally got to this game after listening to high praise from friends.

...Eh?

The game is beautiful, with a great sound design. Puzzles can sometimes be interesting and there are more than a few good "discovery" moments


But...

A lot of the puzzles are kind of one-note. Too many of them are "wheres the box" puzzles which suck, especially when there will be a box in the foreground or background that you can't reach but is Right there.

Then there's a little bit of world inconsistency. It teaches you to move ladders early on then never used that again, and when there is a loose ladder in the room with the ceiling water and the switch to raise and lower the water, you can't move that ladder for some reason despite it looking unachored. Spent a long time trying that one.

Then there's the pay off. What's the big "experiment"? I feel like the devs had the idea to have something big at the end but had no idea what that should be and we got the blob. It's not terrible, but it wasn't great either.

Overall, I paid $20 for 3.5 hours. In retrospect I think that's a little high but I won't dwell on it. Decent overall but I think I enjoyed the build up much more than finding out what it was in the end. My comments above are pretty specific but I think my main complaint were that the puzzles were just okay

 

[Icolin]

Replayed this again and yep, it's still one of the best games of last year, and the generation. Fucking fantastic game.

 

[TheMissingLink]

Is there an explanation for the following:

-the area with the sonic booms periodically going off lol?
-the siren/mermaid creature? I had someone in another thread reply to me that it was just an older version of me but I'm not sure I agreee.
-the visitors. I saw what appeared to be a father with his child. This initially led me to believe this place was being used to harvest cloned parts but if that's the case then all the elaborate experimentation would be unnecessary. Idk idk.

Just finished, same questions, especially #1 and #3. I saw father and child at least twice. What's a kid doing there??

And I was totally confused that I ended up back in the facility after the mid part of the game. Felt like I traveled a VERY long way down and east... Only to be back?

I liked it. I think? I'm not sure. I enjoy stories that are unexplained, but not sure how I felt about this one.

I did notice that diarama and made the connection almost instantly: this was all meant to happen. Especially with some scientists helping the blob along...

 

[zoukka]

Reading this thread made many things clearer, I also watched the secret ending from youtube, cool stuff. I literally played the whole blob section with my mouth open, one of the craziest, creepiest and impressive segment in any video game ever made. The blob physics were wonderful. Trying to hit the switch with the wooden pole was amazing...

The devs played me like a fiddle. I so wanted to believe that the blob actually escapes and breaks out from the cycle. What a brutal, cruel game world and story they came up with.

 

[The_eJoker]

I was randomly listening some songs, then i choose Akira soundtrack. That was very fortunate, considering the ending of this game.

 

[malfcn]

Yeah. What the. Hrm.

 

[Machina]

I have played both Limbo and INSIDE, and I just can't get these games from Playdead to jive with me. The art style and general aesthetic is always good, but after an hour or so the gameplay just gets really boring.

 

[Dabi]

The game looks like it takes place sometime after a catastrophic event (cars buried in the ground etc.)

After watching some videos on it and some thinking I think that the current human population is greatly reduced due to said event. The lab you explore is used to create new humans as like a way to get pop. numbers back up and / or slaves to whatever is left of the human population. The creepy mermaid kids are experiments that have gone wrong. The blob is another experiment that has developed to the point where it has a mind of its own and controls you (the boy)to free it. The blob is controlling you to set it free when really it has no control of its freedom since it escapes to the same place the scientists want you to escape too ( the diorama). Scientists think they're controlling the blob when really the player is in control since the player can achieve the alternate ending and end the experiment before actually playing the game. However... the player technically isn't in control since the developers are the ones who made the game and so they make the rules.

The whole thing is supposed to be a metaphor about life I think lol. As in we as humans think we have control with our day to day lives but in reality what if we are in a game/simulation ourselves? And if so, who made the rules?

it also makes sense the game is called inside since the whole thing takes place within a controlled experiment including the setting. If the scientists knew you'd end up beside the lake whose to say that the forest with all those humans being transported in trucks wasn't also within the same facility?

 

[Von Krukru]

One of the few games I can call perfect. Not a single default, technically or artistically. Perfection.

 

[BumblebeeCody]

My friend and I went through the game last month.

Yeah I mean.....it was OK and stuff. I had a big issue with the developers trying to get the player involved in intense situations leading into an overall satisfying event. It fell flat when you don't know what you're doing. Mainly at the beginning of the game when you're being chased. It's supposed to feel like one long intense chase scene but since there are obstacles such as getting noticed or waiting for the car to park up or running to the left to hide behind the rock etc, just led to that whole section feeling nowhere near as good as it should be. There shouldn't be any failure state in those types of sections.

I've read many different theories on the ending and yeah I can get behind the thought. Limbo was a better game though.

 

[HawksWinStanley]

Just finished this (both endings). Game-wise i enjoyed it more than Limbo which was one of my favorite games last gen. I wasn't a fan of the bullshit trial and error in that game which seemed to be pretty much non existent in Inside. The game ran flawlessly and while the puzzles weren't as hard as Limbo I had more fun pulling them off. I don't know if it's because of the animation or art direction but overall I just had more fun with this one.

As for the story, I was kind of under the impression that it was just the blob calling to you the whole time or the boy was acting under his own power but just wanted so badly to be reunited with whoever the blob was made of. I like the idea of the latter more – that the boy was willing himself to help the blob since he didn't show any of the obvious signs of being under mind control. There were still a lot of human touches to him, but then you see him pull the plug in the true ending and he folds up like all of the zombies do when the helmet isn't being used, so who knows. I also missed all of the clues like the diorama and clothes of previous kids that points to more of a Matrix type of plot. I can get behind that as it seems to be the most likely based on the evidence.

I also saw a video pointing out the picture of the blob in the dark room of the underground shelter in the corn field. That combined with the "true" ending definitely gives me the vibe that somebody was possibly rebelling against what was going on and was keeping tabs on the previous iterations of the blob. What the video pointed out too was that the person who was working in that underground bunker might've been kidnapped and absorbed into the blob and that's why it was able to use its knowledge to control the boy to free it. But then why would it bother doing that if the guy already knows that the blob is never actually free, hence the photo taken?

I don't know, great game though.

 

[lvl99 Pixel]

I thought it was interesting how all the birds and fish follow you around just like the human clones. I figure even those creatures were early clones or something

 

[Bronetta]

I had a couple of friends over the other day who are pretty much non gamers. I decided to show them INSIDE on a whim, didn't think they'd like due to the slow and puzzle nature of the game but instead they were hooked from the atmosphere and tension.

We finished half of the game in one sitting, got to 75% last night and will hopefully finish it next time we meet up.

Being an observer really allowed me to take in a lot of details and cues I missed on my first playthrough. Decided to look up some videos on YouTube and then came back to this thread. There's a lot to themes and symbolism in the game, even if it doesn't beat you over the head with it.

Phenomenal game, hopefully we don't have to wait too long for Playdeads next joint.