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Playdead's INSIDE spoiler thread.
- Thread starter whatevermort
- Start date
More_Badass
Member
Given how some tech seems to reverse engineered for things found in Limbo's world, my theory is that the shockwaves are the failed result of experimenting with the rain machine tech in Limbo. That machine was able to influence an entire region in an instant when activated, much like the shockwaves do, and let out a bright flash and thunderous roar when activated
So good to wake up this morning and read all the different viewpoints and things that were all tried, yep, tried to crawl into the furnace thinking it was the end, and the part where you drowned I actually thought the game had crashed and it was an overelaborate bug, was mashing the buttons and was about to hard reset until my brain went "woahh...wait...look!"
More_Badass
Member
So potential Limbo > Inside connections
Rain Maker > Shockwaves
Brain Leech > Mind control (white worm and similar gaits while controlled)
Gravity switches > Suspended water
Rain Maker > Shockwaves
Brain Leech > Mind control (white worm and similar gaits while controlled)
Gravity switches > Suspended water
RiccochetJ
Gold Member
I thought that Limbo was the religious version. You're dead and you're in this fucked up world that you're trying to traverse.
Insight feels like this science experiment gone exponentially wrong in the real world. The masks are what really did it to me once I saw the ending. The humans trying to knock this thing down but at the same time trying to protect their identity in case there is direct retribution if they fail.
DragoonKain
Neighbours from Hell
Finished it and loved it. This game had the best checkpoint system ever. If you die, you start like 30 seconds behind. No tedious long replays of big sections.
To me the most difficult part(if you wanna call it that) was definitely the big shockwaves. That took precise timing.
I'm still thinking about what to make of the whole story, but I got a whole "Agent Smith" vibe out of it.
I'd have to go back and play again, but I'm pretty sure if you die towards the beginning, your character bleeds, but I remember getting sliced up by the spinning fans later on and not seeing any blood. I think that was after your "death" if I remember correctly, but I don't think I died again after that. I wonder after that "death" if you stop bleeding when you die.
If the above is true, then I'm thinking you start off as a human, and your death is actually you getting uploaded into the mainframe of the machines or whatever is controlling everything, allowing yourself to come back as a non human entity, and you are "inside the mainframe, hence the name of the game Inside.
To me the most difficult part(if you wanna call it that) was definitely the big shockwaves. That took precise timing.
I'm still thinking about what to make of the whole story, but I got a whole "Agent Smith" vibe out of it.
I'd have to go back and play again, but I'm pretty sure if you die towards the beginning, your character bleeds, but I remember getting sliced up by the spinning fans later on and not seeing any blood. I think that was after your "death" if I remember correctly, but I don't think I died again after that. I wonder after that "death" if you stop bleeding when you die.
If the above is true, then I'm thinking you start off as a human, and your death is actually you getting uploaded into the mainframe of the machines or whatever is controlling everything, allowing yourself to come back as a non human entity, and you are "inside the mainframe, hence the name of the game Inside.
supernormal
Member
This. It truly looks like one of those Pixar shorts that feature simpler graphics. The whole time I'm playing all I could think of is, how clever they were with their approach to the visuals. Like they tailored the whole game to something they could nail flawlessly without any sort of drawback typically found in other games (poor textures, low res shadows, jaggies, etc). Your basically playing amazing concept art.
On topic though, the game really through me off with that last section. The whole time I felt like it was hinting at something to do with the water creature. When you get pulled down and "revived" I really thought it was hinting that you would now be bound to water, explaining therefore how those creatures came to be (boys like you who got grabbed trying to escape and now roam the waters naked with their hair grown out).
Iva Demilcol
Member
Wow!
THIS. GAME. It contains Bloodborne level of WTF.
As soon as I began to control other people and animals (the fish) without using any helmet I totally got it: I was an experiment, probably more advanced than the mermaid girl. I was feeling as if I had knots in my stomach when the kid and his father(?) were outside the room while I was operating the water and the gravity device, were they watching me? was I being tested?... edit: I believe the chickens following you around was some kind of hint that the boy had some latent powers, also I can't believe I didn't think about this while playing: Why would a boy want to go inside this facility where almost every sentient being wanted to kill him?
The shockwaves were pretty tense too. My interpretation is that they were conducting nuclear experiments, probably related to all those mutants we see in the game. For a moment I thought I wouldn't be able to go back to the surface again, that I would become like the mermaid girl... but in the end it was actually worse than that.
At the beginning I thought I was going inside (see what I did there?) this facility to try to unravel some kind of mystery, as soon as I saw those mind controlling leeches I thought of aliens. The alternate ending makes me think that we take control of the test subject right at the beginning of its mission and we see how everything is going to end, but once you realize what is going to happen you try desperately to avert everything from the very beginning and you disconnect yourself. Pretty much like Bloodborne
. The alternate ending being the "good ending" is just fantastic.
I won't forget this game any time soon.
THIS. GAME. It contains Bloodborne level of WTF.
As soon as I began to control other people and animals (the fish) without using any helmet I totally got it: I was an experiment, probably more advanced than the mermaid girl. I was feeling as if I had knots in my stomach when the kid and his father(?) were outside the room while I was operating the water and the gravity device, were they watching me? was I being tested?... edit: I believe the chickens following you around was some kind of hint that the boy had some latent powers, also I can't believe I didn't think about this while playing: Why would a boy want to go inside this facility where almost every sentient being wanted to kill him?
The shockwaves were pretty tense too. My interpretation is that they were conducting nuclear experiments, probably related to all those mutants we see in the game. For a moment I thought I wouldn't be able to go back to the surface again, that I would become like the mermaid girl... but in the end it was actually worse than that.
At the beginning I thought I was going inside (see what I did there?) this facility to try to unravel some kind of mystery, as soon as I saw those mind controlling leeches I thought of aliens. The alternate ending makes me think that we take control of the test subject right at the beginning of its mission and we see how everything is going to end, but once you realize what is going to happen you try desperately to avert everything from the very beginning and you disconnect yourself. Pretty much like Bloodborne
you can choose to get out of the Hunter's dream by allowing Gehrman to kill you, in this game you destroy those orbs that lure you to the core of the facility
I won't forget this game any time soon.
wesleyshark
Banned
Fell asleep and woke up thinking about this game and its ending. Been a long while since a game has left this kind of impact on me.
Beat it twice yesterday. Loved it and I think there's a lot of theory crafting ahead of us even though I don't think we'll end up with anything too concrete. It's meant to be open-ended, even more so than something like Bloodborne. Still, I'd like to see us hammer out a list of "facts" or things we feel pretty sure about soon. 
On that note, he's a thought entirely out of left field. The city you move through is seemingly emptied of its inhabitants. It appears the research facility has taken control over its population and shipped them to their facility (?) but was the mind/body controlling done slowly/secretly or, did something happen to the city that killed the population which allowed the facility to use the people in their experiments and only use the people whose body were relatively undamaged.
Could there have been some kind of alien invasion (i.e. the body snatcher parasite?) that the facility was trying to use for their own purposes? Does the blob at the end have something to do with it? Or are the scientists the aliens?
I never gave a thought to the parasites being aliens during my first play-through but I figured it was worth mentioning. You DO first see them in a farm with a cornfield after all.
Anyway, after beating this twice I went back and played through Limbo again too. Like everyone else mentioned, there are certainly some connections though it could be more thematic than literal. It's tough to say. (The giant sign letters on top of the building, the gravity, mind control). I will say that Inside is so much better than Limbo. The portrayal of its themes, encounters, art, and overall game design are on another level.
You see another child at least one other time in the game. The first time in the forest. I'm pretty sure there is one or more kids watching during the line-up section and then another kid or shorter silhouette during the water lab experiment. I'm color blind so I never pay attention to color but maybe someone else can let us know if it's the same child or not? There could certainly be some connection there.
Actually the director's (?) limbs don't move, it's the parts that fall of the blob that move. It happens at least one other time during that sequence.
On that note, he's a thought entirely out of left field. The city you move through is seemingly emptied of its inhabitants. It appears the research facility has taken control over its population and shipped them to their facility (?) but was the mind/body controlling done slowly/secretly or, did something happen to the city that killed the population which allowed the facility to use the people in their experiments and only use the people whose body were relatively undamaged.
Could there have been some kind of alien invasion (i.e. the body snatcher parasite?) that the facility was trying to use for their own purposes? Does the blob at the end have something to do with it? Or are the scientists the aliens?
I never gave a thought to the parasites being aliens during my first play-through but I figured it was worth mentioning. You DO first see them in a farm with a cornfield after all.
Anyway, after beating this twice I went back and played through Limbo again too. Like everyone else mentioned, there are certainly some connections though it could be more thematic than literal. It's tough to say. (The giant sign letters on top of the building, the gravity, mind control). I will say that Inside is so much better than Limbo. The portrayal of its themes, encounters, art, and overall game design are on another level.
You see another child at least one other time in the game. The first time in the forest. I'm pretty sure there is one or more kids watching during the line-up section and then another kid or shorter silhouette during the water lab experiment. I'm color blind so I never pay attention to color but maybe someone else can let us know if it's the same child or not? There could certainly be some connection there.
Actually the director's (?) limbs don't move, it's the parts that fall of the blob that move. It happens at least one other time during that sequence.
wesleyshark
Banned
I remember seeing quite a few children. That one you mentioned near the forklift is easier to spot, but there's others earlier in the game.
darkinstinct
...lacks reading comprehension.
Or they simply felt it was easy to just use existing gameplay techniques from Limbo for the next game.
Except that if you pay attention to the environment and items Bloodborne isn't hard to understand.
More_Badass
Member
Considering how much pain-staking attention to detail and polish they put into this, it's very unlikely that it's a case of just reusing stuff for the sake of reusing
dugdug
Banned
Yeah, I mean, is there any other interpretation than "test subject escapes, breaks back in to release other test subjects"?
Like, with Limbo, to this day, people are still discussing whether the kid's really in Limbo, whether it's a dream, whether it's hell, whether he's dead, etc...Inside is much more straight forward story, IMO.
I think it's just as likely the two games are connected as it is just common themes the designer is interested in.
How do you know the protagonist was a test subject? Even if that is spelled out, how does that make the game not open to interpretation? There's so many other details to talk about, such as the "why" and "what" of the game's world.
What you're saying is akin to "Is there any other interpretation than 'foreigner travels to Yharnam for blood transfusion, is told to seek Paleblood'" for Bloodborne. There's a whole lot more to the story/lore than that.
I certainly think its possible that the child died when he was drowned by the water creature and reborn as part of the hivemind. Though there are quite a few things that may contradict it. Such as, what was the boy's original purpose and if he had one, was it hinted at during the game? You can also get the alternate ending super early in the game (though you have to essentially beat it first then "go back in time" to do it) where you didn't drown yet. Why would the boy die from a fall after he's reborn (or does the game just fade out before he'd get back up?). Why would the little chicks follow him before he was reborn (i.e. there's something different about him already)?
Also, as far as the blob goes, it seems like something just started happening with it when you got to the facility. Perhaps it sensed you getting close and the scientists picked up on its "brain" activity. i.e. why they were all freaking out and running to observe it.
At the part with the forklift near the end there is a child with their assumed dad watching a crate of zombiefriends getting trucked away. I think the scientists were just used to having kids around, or they didn't care because they were preoccupied with the blob.
My theory is that the blob controls the computer in the vault to control the kid to make him come save them.
ultrazilla
Gold Member
Beat it twice yesterday. Loved it and I think there's a lot of theory crafting ahead of us even though I don't think we'll end up with anything too concrete. It's meant to be open-ended, even more so than something like Bloodborne. Still, I'd like to see us hammer out a list of "facts" or things we feel pretty sure about soon.
On that note, he's a thought entirely out of left field. The city you move through is seemingly emptied of its inhabitants. It appears the research facility has taken control over its population and shipped them to their facility (?) but was the mind/body controlling done slowly/secretly or, did something happen to the city that killed the population which allowed the facility to use the people in their experiments and only use the people whose body were relatively undamaged.
Could there have been some kind of alien invasion (i.e. the body snatcher parasite?) that the facility was trying to use for their own purposes? Does the blob at the end have something to do with it? Or are the scientists the aliens?
I never gave a thought to the parasites being aliens during my first play-through but I figured it was worth mentioning. You DO first see them in a farm with a cornfield after all.
Anyway, after beating this twice I went back and played through Limbo again too. Like everyone else mentioned, there are certainly some connections though it could be more thematic than literal. It's tough to say. (The giant sign letters on top of the building, the gravity, mind control). I will say that Inside is so much better than Limbo. The portrayal of its themes, encounters, art, and overall game design are on another level.
You see another child at least one other time in the game. The first time in the forest. I'm pretty sure there is one or more kids watching during the line-up section and then another kid or shorter silhouette during the water lab experiment. I'm color blind so I never pay attention to color but maybe someone else can let us know if it's the same child or not? There could certainly be some connection there.
There's also the scene where you hide behind a trash dumpster(?) you pull away from the wall and in the background there is a cage full of "test subjects". Then you see the guy in the forklift along with a man holding a small child's hand watching the forklift driver load the cage onto the semi. The child seems to be looking at you almost knowing you're there.
I'm also trying to wrap my head around the ending after a good night's sleep. The only things I'm really confident about is that this is the same boy from Limbo and the universe is related. He's searching for his sister again and finally finds her when she takes you down the abyss which seemed to be a metaphor for "it's gonna be o.k., I'm with you but we're gonna die". He then wakes up on another "plain" if you will of Limbo(one where he know longer bleeds) and is trying to get to the center of the machine/light/sound/ which I think signifies heaven/the afterlife/the void?
Anyways, Play Dead nailed it again. Two fantastic games that this 44 year old guy will never forget. This is why I love video games.
Is the boy not bleeding after that part confirmed? I can't check till tonight.
ultrazilla
Gold Member
I'm almost 100 percent positive after that part, he doesn't bleed. I'll have to do another play through though.
dugdug
Banned
I'm not saying every single detail is spelled out, just the overall story. Yes, the details are a bit vague, but, even then, I imagine after a couple hours of discussion, it'll be easy to figure out. With Limbo, I felt like every sequence was left up to interpretation, and that's what I loved about it.
Not saying one is better than the other, just that it's two different experiences and one left more of an impact on me than the other.
wesleyshark
Banned
I remember getting shredded by the fans. Don't remember if it was blood or entrails that I was seeing though.I'm almost 100 percent positive after that part, he doesn't bleed. I'll have to do another play through though.
I forgot to mention one of my favorite moments in the game. How the sound changes during the shockwave sequence when the blast hits while you're behind the moving metal plate. That sound was soooo good.
Fascinating! Have any theories on the questions I asked above? Do you think he lost all his agency from that point onward?
I'm almost 100 percent positive after that part, he doesn't bleed. I'll have to do another play through though.
Fascinating! Have any theories on the questions I asked above? Do you think he lost all his agency from that point onward?
More_Badass
Member
It seems a bit odd that the dogs definitely kill, but the people and machines seem to try to capture you like alive. Suffocating you, the darts, the taser wire. Although the guys did start shooting in the beginning
Bits N Pieces
Member
Same. I've been thinking about it off and on throughout the day. You think you know whats going on and then BAM, that last act turns everything on its head, literally.
Going to play through it again tonight to find the collectables and try and make a bit more sense of it. Dont think I will though, I mean the little boy knowingly sacrificed himself, right? I dont know if I should be happy or sad with that and that has never happened with a game I've played before.
Bravo Playdead, bravo!
More_Badass
Member
Yeah, it's definitely a smart subversion of the rules you've been learning throughout the game. Seeing a cube like that means you need to use it, so you go over there to use it.
Yeah, without context, the trailers make you think you're trying to escape the place, but in game, you're constantly going deeper and deeper inside. As a player, you're doing it because you have to do and are curious, but the boy is willingly entering the facility, risking his life to do so.
The rebirth scene underwater is the most confusing part of the game for me. I'm still not sure at all what to make of it.
Like, maybe up until that point, the kid's plan WAS to escape the facility, but then once he's revived he just becomes a mind controlled husk and enters it to free the blob.
Like, maybe up until that point, the kid's plan WAS to escape the facility, but then once he's revived he just becomes a mind controlled husk and enters it to free the blob.
I think I only got one achievement, too. I plan to play through again, but I'm probably too dumb to find everything myself. Hopefully someone will post a basic secrets guide -- just, like, the "chapters" to check out.
More_Badass
Member
Well after that, he was able to control the hivemind without the helmet. Also notice that the cable had the similar orange light that the control helmets did
Well after that, he was able to control the hivemind without the helmet. Also notice that the cable had the similar orange light that the control helmets did
Yeah, idk if that meant that you were now reborn into this all powerful being who could control the other minds and not have to breathe underwater or if you were reborn into a zombie-like husk that doesn't need those bodily functions anymore since you technically died and are now surviving from whatever was injected into you from that cable.
SEGAvangelist
Member
Yeah. It seems likely, based on all the stuff in this thread, that he died at that point of the game. At this point I feel like whatever controls the husks is in control of the boy.
mcwizardry
Member
Thanks, didn't catch that.
The real twist at the end of the game is that it's running on Unity. Inside is absolutely beautifully rendered (and secretly has the best hair physics in a game) on top of flawless performance.
Between Inside and Ori and the Blind Forest I'm impressed by what devs have done with Unity.
Between Inside and Ori and the Blind Forest I'm impressed by what devs have done with Unity.
dugdug
Banned
I'm confused, was it not obvious that, that was going to happen? I immediately walked by that because it was clearly a trap, but, there was no way to avoid it so I figured it was a plot moment (which it was).
More_Badass
Member
Yes. My mind was just blown. Never in a thousand years would I have even imagined that I would ever play as a Cronenberg flesh thing in a video game