INSIDE

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Combine Hunter
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INSIDE

Post by Combine Hunter »

I want to continue you my twitter chat with Sean here, but I won't be able to until later on.

In the mean time, even though the thread is marked as spoilery, please make sure to use the spoiler feature for posts regardless.

Sean, to be continued...
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Sean
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Re: INSIDE (Spoiler filled narrative discussion)

Post by Sean »

My biggest problem with Inside is kind of unfortunate, but, unavoidable for me: it had to follow up Limbo.

Limbo is a game that is *still* debated about to this day. No one knows for sure what the entire story of Limbo is, or what all of it's individual pieces are supposed to mean. While Inside has moments of ambiguity, I felt that, for me, after only a couple hours, it was pretty clear what the story was:

Test subject escapes, returns to main laboratory to help the other test subjects escape as giant blob. Is successful. Moments in between are easily filled in, IMO. Girl in the water? Previous test subject. Other buildings that you traverse through? Previous labs where tests failed.

Ultimately, I just feel like so little is left to interpretation in Inside. And, while, I'm sure PlayDead didn't just want to do a retread of Limbo, the openness of the latter's entire story and visuals is what I loved about it.

That's not to say the game's a failure. It's spectacular from an Audio/Visual POV.
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Re: INSIDE (spoiler-filled narrative discussion)

Post by ratsoalbion »

You think it/they escape(s)? Well sure, but I think it/they die(s) as soon as it leaves the confines of the lab...
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Re: INSIDE (spoiler-filled narrative discussion)

Post by Sean »

Oh, definitely. And it seems like it wasn't aware it was going to die once it got out, but, the mockup diorama you see earlier of the last shot of the game seems to sugges, at least some of the scientists were expecting it to happen, hence them setting up the traps and pathway.
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Combine Hunter
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Re: INSIDE (spoiler-filled narrative discussion)

Post by Combine Hunter »

I'm not entirely sure the boy was a test subject (kind of undecided). The whole game is about manipulation, and the more I think about it and reflect, the more I think the boy is a puppet the entire time. You were playing as the blob right from the word go, controlling this boy (this is a fairly popular theory at the moment, I lay no claim to it). The alternative ending, where the boy seems to shut down the main power source for all of that mind manipulation stuff, shows him just pass out after flicking the switch, which I think reinforces the idea that he is being manipulated.
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Re: INSIDE (includes spoiler-filled narrative discussion)

Post by Sean »

So, would that mean the boy was out in the world and is randomly selected by the blob? And if the blob is controlling everything, why would the water creatures attack it? Unless I'm wrong in thinking that they're also previous test subjects.
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Re: INSIDE (includes spoiler-filled narrative discussion)

Post by NokkonWud »

I always felt that the boy may have been the success and to keep the secret they activated some form of fail-safe in summoning him back, which is why, if they see him, they kill him instantly.

There are many ways to read it though, it's quite fascinating.
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Re: INSIDE (includes spoiler-filled narrative discussion)

Post by Alex79 »

I've not read the other comments in this thread for fear of spoilers, but I'm just after half way and totally stuck! I don't want to look at a walkthrough, but if anyone is able to give a spoiler free hint it would be much appreciated!
Spoiler: show
So, I'm in the water. I'm past the bathysphere section, just on my own, but that demon mermaid creature is back (god, she is actually terrifying! I get really anxious when she gives chase!)

I am at a part where you climb out the water on to a platform. There is a chain above me I can swing on, and a lever which causes the chain to travel left and back again. I can jump off in to the water to the right, swim down and there is a button which closes an underwater shutter. The solution is obviously to swim past the button, hit it, and make it through the shutter before the mermaid can get me. She always gets me though. It's clear I need to distract her, but I can't see how to do it. I thought maybe going off on the chain after hitting the lever, and making her follow it to the left, before doubling back and making a dash for it might work, but it doesn't seem to.

Any ideas!? Thanks :)
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Re: INSIDE (includes spoiler-filled narrative discussion)

Post by Stanshall »

Can you get her attention without actually falling in?
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Re: INSIDE (includes spoiler-filled narrative discussion)

Post by Alex79 »

Thanks guys, finally got a chance to play it again tonight and did it first time :) all the way to the end! I'll post some thoughts up tomorrow.
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Re: INSIDE (includes spoiler-filled narrative discussion)

Post by Alex79 »

So, Inside then. I found it a really interesting game. So many questions were going through my head as I played. Who am I? Where am I? What are the zombies? What are those mermaid creatures? What am I running from? Where am I running to? The sense of dread when one of them was chasing me was something I've not felt whilst playing a game since Alien Isolation. And the moment where she drags you down, and you struggle and struggle, but you can't get free, and you give up, resigned to the fact you're done for, but no! The feeling of relief when you realise you can now breathe underwater is incredible. Everything about this game was amazing. Right up till the end. As I played, I hoped that I'd uncover something so revelatory at the end that it would answer all my questions in an instant. But it didn't. At least, not straight away. I came away from the game feeling let down. Like something was building to some grand conspiracy, some cover-up that I was about to expose. And I felt really deflated when I swam in to the tank and saw the monster. At first, I thought it was an alien. Which in my head, was a massive cop out. Reading articles and theories last night pretty much spells out what was happening in the game, and I understand it now, but it still wasn't what I wanted from it. I wanted something bigger, something grander, but I didn't get it. It was a perfectly ok story, and it was expertly told, and the gameplay was amazing from start to finish, but in the end, well I just felt like I was left wanting something.........more.
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Re: INSIDE (includes spoiler-filled narrative discussion)

Post by Donk »

I didn't play a lot of 2016 games in 2016 but this is probably my GOTY. The visual and especially the sound design, good lord. Controls, puzzles and length were perfect. I'll qualify this by being a busy family man, the simple controls and shorter playtime allowed me two consume it in two sittings, it's impossible for me to play the larger games like the Witchers or Souls games these days. Although when I started Dark Souls 1 last year I forced myself to play that and only that when I had time, took me 9 months at just under 60 hours.
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Alex79
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Re: INSIDE (includes spoiler-filled narrative discussion)

Post by Alex79 »

In addition to my previous comments, give that they've surely exhausted the very stylised puzzle-platformer, I'll be very interested to see what Playdead come up with next.
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Re: INSIDE (spoiler-filled narrative discussion)

Post by SnakeyDave »

Combine Hunter wrote: The whole game is about manipulation, and the more I think about it and reflect, the more I think the boy is a puppet the entire time. You were playing as the blob right from the word go, controlling this boy (this is a fairly popular theory at the moment, I lay no claim to it). The alternative ending, where the boy seems to shut down the main power source for all of that mind manipulation stuff, shows him just pass out after flicking the switch, which I think reinforces the idea that he is being manipulated.
I think Inside can be put as another brilliant addition to the stanley parable, MGS2, Bioshock, etc, which comment on free will through talking about (the illusion of) player agency. Manipulation is definitely a key theme. The boy controls the puppets, as you control him. I think in the alternative ending we're literally switching the game off.

One of the most disconcerting things about those humanoid figures is their uncanny quality of looking human but being empty shells. It's fascinating therefore that when you have the most agency- you are in the least human of forms. The game, I think, wants to make us question our own free will; whether there's really something Inside us.

It's a more coherent piece than Limbo. Structurally, Limbo had a fantastic first 'act' culminating with the demise of the spider. But after that, although the puzzles and atmosphere were excellent, it seemed like a series of evocative but somewhat unconnected events. Everything in Inside feels bound together, about control and about questioning whether human life is special. Limbo was a mood piece, Inside still succeeds in that regard but is much more.
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Re: INSIDE (includes spoiler-filled narrative discussion)

Post by Todinho »

After reading through this thread Im afraid my thoughts on the ending remain the same,I did not know there was another ending to be had by destroying all the control stations I only got half of them but I feel that ending would be better at the very least it would be more satisfying, the game starts off as you seemingly running away from an oppressive governement(the boy in red,people being round up and threated like cattle immediatly brought Nazi paralells to me) Now the level of destruction in the game dont suggest that I thought that maybe there was somekind of Alien takeover or something went very wrong but that's kinda of irrelevant what frustrated me so much was how the ending echos LIMBO and yet what gets accomplished by it?In Limbo that ending makes sense given that you`re in you know LIMBO! Here even if you`re 100% sure that the boy was being controlled by the blob(aka the One Reborn XD) what does him joining them and escaping accomplishes?Freedom I guess,though what does that mean in that form I couldnt possibly understand but I guess you could argue that`s part of the point.
What I thought would happen and what I think would make the most sense given the story,is how the entire point would be the boy escaping this opressive government or aliens just to end up in the blob and then having to kill itself in order to end it`s misery,it would fit because you`ve been struggling against them from the beginning of the game and this would not only be the boy`s last escape but also a final act of defiance against the system,it also fits with the metanarrative of player manipulation since that`s the only way to close the game. You could try and make the case that that`s what`s happening at the ending but I dont think so given that the thing is clearly alive at the end and you had a much better dramatic way to end it before. Despite this rant I still really enjoyed the game but this ending just got on my nerves...
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Re: INSIDE (includes spoiler-filled narrative discussion)

Post by Todinho »

Thinking about it more that scene were you`re forced to drown and suddenlly learns to breath underwater is really bothering me now...the only way that makes sense is if the boy is maybe acting outta his own volition at the start of that game but at this point he is maybe "joined" with the blob due to the cord somehow and then goes own to join then,especially given that it's after that point that you start to control people without needing the helmets but I dont know how would that go with the other ending where you destroy the control things since I dont recall finding any after that but I might've just missed it,but then again at that point where he is joined unplugging everything could also unplug you so,I dont know that scene is weird.
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Re: INSIDE (includes spoiler-filled narrative discussion)

Post by Chopper »

I finished it a few days ago as it was the last big 2016 game I wanted to play. I thought it was nonsense.

For me, it has the same issues that a lot of games which are light on actual gameplay have - if you're relying on other elements to carry the game, shouldn't those elements at least provide some level of satisfaction to the player?

Instead we get all these half baked stories presented beautifully - Virginia, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, Inside - but with no substance.

I'd like to see these games work better. Firewatch, for all its issues with the misdirection part of the plot, and SOMA, are two games which I thought really delivered on this front. The rest are really lagging behind.
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Re: INSIDE (includes spoiler-filled narrative discussion)

Post by Alex79 »

Have you played Gone Home?
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Re: INSIDE (includes spoiler-filled narrative discussion)

Post by Stanshall »

Re: Rapture, I found that game very moving in the end, once I realised what had been happening, and with the conclusion to the protagonists' story, but so much before that was either superfluous or easily missed. It meant that there wasn't necessarily a coherent narrative to carry the story they wanted to tell. That's how it felt to me, anyway, and the whole follow the light thing was ultimately quite frustrating. Why walk you down one path and then double back and go elsewhere? Literally a waste of the player's time.

It's been said elsewhere but it was like a fragmented Radio 4 play attributed greater weight because of its sense of mystery. I'm glad I played it, and I got something moving from it, but that was little to do with how it was told, which ultimately worked against its strengths.
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Re: INSIDE (includes spoiler-filled narrative discussion)

Post by Chopper »

Alex - played and loved Gone Home, though I wasn't mad about the creepy house 'misdirection' bit at the beginning either :) But it worked very well I thought.

Stanshall - totally agree about the waste of the players time in Rapture. I'm someone who loves to poke around in every corner. In Rapture it took ten minutes to walk up a field to find nothing there, then another ten minutes back to the gate!

NB I'm not trying to be combative or attack Inside here; I love that these games are being made for us but I just find the implementation lacking as it relates to story/narrative.
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