The Twisted Reality of Inside
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 พ.ย. 2024
- Inside is one of the most thought-provoking games I've ever experienced. From it's astounding visual design, to it's abstract narrative, it's a game that I've continually found myself coming back to years after it's release. Today we'll be trying to decipher the meaning of this game. Analysing both the narrative and also elements like the visuals and sound design to try and piece together what this game was actually trying to say with it's warped and oftentimes unclear story.
One thing that always fascinated me about this game is the detached body parts that are still somehow sentient and following the player in their own disturbed ways
37:30 As Jacob Geller pointed out, another thing that should be considered is how far down we've actually travelled. Nearly the entire game has us travelling downwards, with the player occasionally going up here and there. This means that we should be underground rather than being on a beach, which makes it seem like this is all artifically created.
The whole game is full of unique context-sensitive animations, which gives the main character a more organic and realistic feel as he progresses.
Its a game full of memorable moments but that ending is like nothing else. The last 20 or so minutes of the game make me sad and horrified all at once.
I've shown Inside to people who barely even play videogames. I just handed them the controller and said nothing.
The majority of them finished it in the same night. There's something special about this game.
Maybe the kid means the inner child and the whole game is venture into the darkness of an adult soul. The trucks could represent the truck load of masks adults are forced to wear. At the beginning it's like he's falling in, not climbing out. The inner child is trying to survive through the grayness of maturity and escaping from all the masks (personas) of adult life. Maybe my theory says more about me than the game lmao. I need to play this for sure. Great video, definitely thought provoking. Thanks for sharing.
This game is one of the greatest pieces of art I’ve ever played in my entire life, and if you look closely enough in the background, the very background, the cameras are moving that level of detail is awesome and the mimicry to get through that section is legitimately, terrifying. I want to know more about this world I want to know about. The masked dudes lol
The titles for these games are pretty correct, playing these games are like being *inside limbo* .
i love inside so much one of my favorite controllable pieces of art
The pods throughout the game are, seemingly, storage and some form of either processing or generation of the mindless drones. It's impossible to say for sure what they're used for, but we see the people in the truck at the start as though recently gathered from the pods, and then that same truck - along with full trailers' worth from dozens more - stopped at the point where they're all being tested somehow, and observed. Quality control, presumably. Additionally, some of the workers we must collect to open the large door right before the 'pulse' section are stored in one, hanging far above the ground. Whether the pods affect the mind's development and/or connection to the control systems, or perhaps bodily development, is hard to say. These drone-like people are clearly treated as a resource and seemingly not developed through birth, but artificially grown, shown in the upside-down water chambers later in the game. As for their place in the world, the train station shows it well, where three different levels are depicted - the first, a commuter train loaded with what are presumably functional-minded people; the second, cargo trains with open-topped cars, the drones packed in in the same way they are in the truck; the third, a defunct, collapsing and partly flooded section below the surface, where some of the drones sit inactive still, abandoned in place. We see them everywhere, though - stored in massive pallet-like cages (the forklift scene where a whole container of them is moved off to places unknown, and the section before the pulse being the most prominent) and transported like simple products in cargo spaces rather than like people. They work in lower jobs, as we see one in the facility at the end of the game working as a janitor and mopping the floor before it joins the boy and his following; and appear to be connected somehow to a higher mind. Interestingly to me, it's difficult to say if the control the boy can exert on them is a sign of extreme competence with the technology and methods, or a sign of the process simply being streamlined - wireless thought-to-action, perhaps. And the ones being tested, in the facility at the end of the game, seem to imply some form of.. perhaps an attempt at making something more, with different anatomy, specialized to other tasks better than the base human. Massively increased height, dexterity, extra limbs, spatial awareness, whatever else one could need.
The chicks, with one dead, is continued later. When gathering all the people up, one is already dead - seemingly killed by the pulse before shielding was in place, or perhaps fried internally by long exposure like the helmet is later on - and is used regardless, dropped off a ledge with little consideration. When dropping the bodies out of the water, one lies mostly inert on the ground, using only a single limb to flip itself around occasionally - unable to move, unable to see or hear as it lacks a head, but still alive and presumably suffering somewhat.
Notably with the pigs and their parasites, pigs are often used for testing due to being similar to humans. They are one of the closest biological matches to humans we've got access to. And all the pigs are completely dead from these parasites - piled up in a cart, littering the edges of the farm, of the river, everywhere. Yet in the barn, where one of the game's secrets lies, is a large herd of sheep, entirely unaffected - presumably, the parasites are incompatible with them, leaving them entirely safe despite otherwise these parasites, capable of independent locomotion even if just for a short time, could easily spread between all those sheep in no time at all. They cause aggression in the one pig, though whether that's direct control, causing confusion, or just sparking emotions through chemicals, is impossible to say - however, they are likely either symbolically or literally predecessors and counterparts to the technological ones not much later in the game. The pig is injured in the same way the chicks were, though it is not killed - it is left somewhat immobile, seemingly inert, and only reacts by struggling against being moved. It's certainly exhausted, but it can stand and move. The dead one, in this case, is perhaps the one that falls off of the cart when it's landed on, its body caved in and nearly split.
It's also worth noting that nearly all the stuff we see is abandoned, under construction, and often both. The huge camera-like turrets are portable, meant to be moved around - built for this environment of places being entirely abandoned, until they were too. The area with the safe is a warehouse of some sort, and still has cranes and supplies midway through being moved into place, now left without even turning the machines off. The train yard is abandoned, flooding gradually with sections collapsing and decaying, and many of the buildings we pass through have various uses which mainly appear to be a mix of industrial and residential - apartments whose balconies are parkoured across, what might be a church in one background, the aforementioned warehouse and the seemingly grain processing building right after the farm. Abandoned and empty, seemingly quickly at that. The flooded sections after show even more - the massive slanted area where the bathysphere must be jumped through a door contains an artificial forest long since abandoned, otherwise the same in basic concept as the one at the start, showing that society has built further and further away from the rising water - or pushed the water back and suffered the consequences after. The trees in the second forest are seemingly a part of the structure, supporting the ceiling rather than reach up into canopies, and the ground is all flat with minor ground cover, as though a vague replica of a forest rather than a real or even realistic artificial one. It's possible, of course, that some of this abandoned area is due to everyone fleeing the child we play as. The laboratory facility has recently-vacated desks as everyone rushes to view the huddle in its containment chamber, with cigars left smoking, a phone off the hook, doors left open. Yet it also is operating normally in other spots despite so many, which mirrors the other areas - some processes continue in spite of this. It all is orchestrated somewhat, after all, but the stranglehold of control is destroying things as it seems the place was built faster than could be ideal, with construction equipment still very much present even at the end, which also, the end literally requires breaking through an incomplete section of the wall to get to. There is much like this.
When talking about the boy as a drone - such as whatever the device that gives water breathing does - it's important to think about the alternate ending. Several puzzles show the drones can control further drones, opening up the possibility that the boy is, himself, also one - though one functioning differently, as the dogs sniff him out. Or perhaps one simply not treated with the same processes as the others, who got out beforehand. Hard to say. Regardless, the alternate ending does show him as a drone, but whether it's a meta commentary of him being controlled by you, the player, and you letting him free but him being empty of anything _but_ function as a vessel for the player, or if it's something else, is hard to say. Perhaps he was controlled by an AI, or perhaps many of the mind control systems work the same way and this one simply broke free. The orbs broken throughout the game often power these, so it's possible he simply disconnected whatever was actually controlling him as well as the computer, and that the computer was not controlling him specifically - or possibly just not controlling him anymore. Again it is practically impossible to say for sure.
Just got this for under £2 in the Nintendo E shop- what a deal. Great timing Munt Lad
Its important note the decay of the facility and structures, i think it implies that even if everything is orchestrated it isnt going to last.
The stranglehold those in power have is killing this world, and in response they tighten thier grip, prefering a dead world to a world where they have less of anything.😊
I’m 100% certain this is the best video game essay channel on TH-cam. Thank you for all the work your put into these. 🤘
I heard a theory about the pods is that they are used to breed the worms, or even the slave people we see along the game. Maybe they are not really people, but created using the worm to be submissive.
One of those games I think every gamer should play at least once.
This game made me feel emotions I have never felt before
It's interesting that you, along with other possible interpretations, chose to approach the game's themes through a political perspective. On an abstract level, I have somewhat presumed the red shirt to be an allegory to the boy's revolutionary intents, but never given it much thought. Now, seeing your video, I find this perspective incredibly interesting and valid in it's own right. Great video, and good luck!
While cancer is relentless if you actually know how cancer cells work the whole view doesn't really work. Cancer is more of an energy draining error. It would rather compare the boy to a transplant organ failure. The boy helps the as you call it organs and the guards could be the immune system. It has hard time going through the aline organism, mostly tries to go through obstacles and work as intended. But at the end causes destroction and dies after.
But of course this is just my opinion.
Edit: I feel like there is some truth in that view.
Wow how does an amazing essay not have more comments
Will u make a Red Dead Redemption retrospective? U have made critiques on 2 of R* big franchises except RDR. I want to hear ur opinions on them.
I'm a game developer myself and it makes me so, so happy that niche indie games exist. I love Playdead.
"Is that the sound of a child?"
"Look I caught a child! sweet dude!"
"annnnnd he murdered me"
Wow, I remember all of your old videos and I come back to you having so many more subs! Big ups.
im suprised this vid only has like 500 views after an hour or 2
thank you its sublime it reminds me of stories of gibli
The best analysis of Inside by far, you make great content man keep it up!
nice video if you enjoyed this game then you might like mushroom 11
Thanks king 🙏🏻
I know the view count is less but fammm keep on goin
26:07 Raiden, turn the game console off right now!
Deserves more views... I'm guessing they'll come through ❤
Idk why games like these aren't the norms, instead recycled boring shooters with season pass is what we get.
$2 on nintendo store or it was last week still didn't buy it lol
This game was repetitive, simple and really boring??
You didn't enjoy it?
Interesting perspective, I thought all the puzzles were fairly unique, what made u feel like it was repetitive?