Inside story: what is the point of the game?

From the article you will learn what is the meaning of the game Inside, who is the main character and what goals he pursued. There will be a lot of spoilers, so for those who still want to go through the game again and figure it out on their own (or have not played it at all), reading the article is not recommended.

Since the game does not give unambiguous answers to the questions posed, we can only guess and reason. Below are the most popular ending options among Runet users.

Option 1: Creation controlled the boy

Creation is understood as the pile of bodies into which the boy moves in the final part of the game. This is a kind of life form that was created by other people and wished, in the end, to escape from imprisonment. It was this Creation that made it possible to create technologies for controlling zombified people, reviving dead bodies.

Having escaped from the reservoir, the Creation does not arrange reprisal against the former owners, but simply strives for freedom. The telekinesis creature has been leading the boy through the entire game to free himself. That is why, once in the tank, which became a prison for the Creation, he so resignedly and decisively disconnected the wires holding him back.

Thus, the protagonist became only a catalyst for the Creation's escape. This explains the attacks on the boy by a long-haired creature in an underwater location - the Creation wanted to “drag” him to the bottom and grant him the ability to breathe underwater so that he could get into the tank.

But at first the boy fought off the creature pulling him under the water. It is possible that the Creation did not directly control the hero, but only inspired him with a ghostly goal. He walked towards her, not knowing where he was going or why. Towards the end, we find people floating in the water, connected to something with wires, and we “free” them. They could very well have been a barrier to the Creation's ability to hold back. After all, it is after this event that the hero begins to act much more confidently and makes the final suicidal spurt towards the goal.

Option 2: The main character is also a zombie

At the very beginning of the game, in the cornfield, you can find a secret hatch. Having gone down into the bunker and entered the code at the door (to find out, you will first have to thoroughly study all the locations and cut down a number of strange machines), we find ourselves in a room where we see in the background a man connected to a helmet to control zombified "people". His movements follow the movements of the hero, and there are no zombies around. The conclusion suggests itself - throughout the game the boy is controlled. The control system is connected to an outlet, and when the power is turned off (by the will of the owner?), the hero gets up as if rooted to the spot - just like a "disconnected" zombie. This is where the game ends.

There is a theory that the main boy is an unsuccessful (or too successful) result of the experiment and escaped from the underground laboratory before the start of the game. Perhaps it is run by some of the people who resist the regime and want to stop their diabolical experiments. Or perhaps the person controlling the hero is a projection of the player himself. After all, in our hands the boy is little different from the zombie.

Developers hide secrets very talentedly.

But a bolder assumption can also be made. You can "disable" the hero only on the second playthrough. Perhaps the person in the bunker is connected to the Creature, associates himself with him, and already through him controls the boy. After the first escape, the cycle starts again, but now the strange machines are cut down, and the person realizes that he is not a Creature. Escape from the tank is not enough.

It sounds like a "dream within a dream", but the game itself hints at the possibility of this turn. So, in one of the puzzles, you need to take control of a zombie using a helmet and, playing as him, connect to another helmet, taking control of another zombie.

Option 3: Creation controlled by the player himself

Think about it - when you play a game, no one but its creators (that is, in fact, the game itself) knows what lies ahead for you. You just move through the story, complete tasks and follow the development of the story. During the passage of Inside, you are never directly told what is happening and what is required of the protagonist, what he is striving for. It is quite possible that the Creation controlled the hero not directly, but indirectly. Through the player. That is, through you.

When the Creature falls on the seashore, the game takes control and the end credits turn on - you, like the boy, are no longer needed by this powerful creature, it is free, and your mission is completed.

True, there is a sadder version - the Creation simply died, falling off the cliff. It froze on the shore just a couple of steps from the water. A few steps from freedom.

Option 4: Inside and Limbo take place in the same universe

This theory has two versions, and each of them explains why Inside borrows some mechanics from Limbo.

Option One: The events of Limbo take place after the events of Inside. The hero of the first game is faced with the same parasitic worms that are found on the farm in Inside. But in Inside, they only affect animals, while in Limbo, the hero himself was also affected. Dozens of pig corpses piled up on a farm, devoured by worms, may indicate that scientists tried to develop parasites based on them, with which it would be possible to control grown zombies without the help of helmets. Limbo already has such parasites.

If we stick to the version that Inside is a prequel to Limbo, it becomes clear why experiments were carried out in laboratories to “flip” water. In the world of Inside, people are just learning the technology of changing the direction of the force of gravity, and in Limbo it is already being used with might and main in factories.

From the farm it all starts, and there, apparently, most of the clues to what is happening.

Option two, the most plausible: the events of Limbo begin at the moment when the hero Inside penetrates the body of Creation. All the events of the first Playdead game are a projection of the consciousness of a boy who was swallowed up by a terrifying carcass. He tries to get out, first of all mentally, going through similar tests - hence the similarity of some of the mechanics of both games, because in a dream we also often find ourselves in places reminiscent of those that we saw in reality.

At the end of Limbo, the boy ends up in a clearing and seemingly finally finds the girl (a symbol of freedom), but then the game ends abruptly - because in fact the hero has not been freed. Because his consciousness is imprisoned in the immortal body of the Creation, lying on the seashore. And since people are sure that the Creation is still in the vat-trap, hardly anyone will look for it on this shore. Therefore, the boy's mind will forever remain in prison.