Hi everyone and thanks for the overwhelmingly positive feedback on this video so far :) This video is split into 3 parts: 1. REVIEW 01:15 (Where I do a spoiler free review of the game) 2. OBSERVATIONS 06:00 (Where I go through the game section by section gathering my thoughts) 3. ANALYSIS 26:45 (Where I TRY to explain what some of the mysteries in the game might mean) I'm not too happy about how badly the KZfaq's bitrate crushes with the subtle film grain effect that the game has going on at all times, which makes the video look way worse than it should, but oh well...

Inside is, in my opinion, one of the best games ever made.

I love that whatever your theory/interpretation is doesn't really matter, in a way. The "feeling" this game conveyed throughout was just indescribable. When you first dunk into the water in the submarine and the camera pans out and the music swells.... When I smashed through the glass as the "blob" I just f*cking lost it... Without even delving into the game's secrets it was a masterclass in storytelling and mystery. For me, Playdead have cemented themselves in my psyche as masters of the gaming craft. Even the way the game's mechanics evolve and change up throughout is staggering. Just wonderful stuff from end to end. This is a game you can't put down from the instant you start running. Bravo. Thanks for the vid, Juutas

I think the chick puzzle at the beginning of the game was actually really important, psychologically. You enter the room with what you presume is some kind of... wood chipper, or grinder. After noticing the box above you teetering on a wooden beam, you come to the conclusion that something must enter the grinder and knock the box down. Seeing as the chicks will follow you, you realize what you must do. You lure the helpless, naive chicks into the opening, and the suction pulls them all in - and then harmlessly blows them onto the box, and knocks it down. There's an element of emotion to this puzzle. For me, it induced shame. I chose to - as far as I was aware at the time - kill a group of baby chicks in order to escape. The narrative turned my perception on me, like it had betrayed me, and I suddenly lost all trust. Would it tease my conscience like this again? That, in itself, was one of many disturbingly impactful moments in the story.

1 minute into the video: "I don't care about no spoilers, this game I ain't playing!" 6minutes in... "Ok I'm out, I might play this game at some point."

Awesome video, I just finished Inside yesterday night and it's going to be remembered more than games in which I maybe have 50+ hours. Truly a little gem in the industry.

This game blew my mind. I remember playing through the whole last half-hour sequence just completely dumbfounded. "...Is this a metaphor?" "What the hell is happening...!?!" "...I don't know what to think anymore..."

A great video, thank you! And I do realize that I'm writing this four years later... But I just played Inside through once again, probably the fifth or sixth time, and started searching for KZfaq videos about it. For some reason, I actually never really questioned the shock wave section. For me, the world of this game always looked like a big testing area - the worms, the mind control, the antigravity, the water tanks, sunken and destroyed places... It's as if humans had gotten their hands on some alien technology or something, and a whole town with the surrounding countryside had been isolated. I just thought that this particular area is for testing a shock weapon they found (or partly developed). And for testing all kinds of materials for their shock resistance. It's obviously an abandoned area - but the shock wave machine is still active. Which pretty much indicates that something went wrong at one point in time. Something collapsed that wasn't supposed to, and the machine couldn't be reached and turned off anymore. Now it's just hammering away the test area. Everything is gradually falling apart. Perhaps you needed heavy equipment to enter the destruction area. The big blast door opens only when you get enough weight on the plate - suggesting a certain type of vehicle that you should drive in with. As it just happens, the weight is exactly 20 human bodies. To me, that's perhaps the most puzzliest of these puzzles, and you can still some kind of inner logic. It's a very well constructed world, with a huge emphasis on the inner workings and coherence of everything. As you yourself said in the video, unlike Limbo, the world of Inside feels logical and organic. The elevator could've have been meant for use only when the shock wave machine is off, since parts of the shaft clearly are vulnerable. Hence the red, flashing lights on the roof of it. It's of course also possible that there is another big blast door somewhere in the distance that should be closed, but as everything went south, nobody couldn't go in anymore and close that blast door. After that, the shock waves have been pounding the elevator shaft structure, and finally, someone taking a ride breaks the camel's back - so to speak. Perhaps the shaft structure itself wasn't going to break down by the pounding, but the mass of the elevator plus a shock wave resulted the structure to fail. What is crystal clear to me though, is that it is a test area. A bit similar to the nuclear bomb test areas they used to have in Nevada. In the middle part of the shock wave section, the boy enters an office space of sorts. There are "crash test dummies" tied to the chairs. The scientists were clearly just about to run a test with them, when the shock wave machine malfunctioned. Everybody just left the building and never returned - not before our boy, who lifts up the blast wall. Immediately, the office begins to deteriorate. I have always been amazed by the depth and complexity and vastness of this game. The gameplay is fairly simple and straightforward, yet the story behind it has a life of its own. Such masterful world building, and so many layers of thought! Even the rather simple moments in this game feel extraordinary to me. Many have commented the flock of chicks you need to "sacrifice" in the barn before getting forward - yes, I felt the sting of shame myself when I first played the game through... But even much more simple moments get me - like walking amongst the silent group of pigs standing in the dark pigsty, after I finally discovered the location of the orb number three. The horror I felt the first time I pulled the lever down, the antigrav water surface went up and the dead bodies started thudding and plumping onto the floor... The horror I felt every time when I barely escaped the guards or the dogs or the siren creature... Even the tiniest dustclouds and grains of sand dropping from above, on every thump of the shock wave machine, when we are gathering the twenty bodies from all over. We have no idea, what the source of this thumping is, but we already feel its presence! That is such commitment to the details. Just super immersive stuff! I don't even consider myself as a big gaming person. But I do love games that just take me away on a journey. There haven't been too many of those, unfortunately, but to list a few of my favourites: - The Room Series - Myst Series - Gorogoa - Amanita-games like Machinarium and Botanicula And maybe a handful of others. So, let's hope that the next Playdead game really is coming... I won't even say "soon", because I want the developers to take all the time they want and need to make it as perfect as Inside and Limbo.

I love the thumbnail! And for the video... This is the only "long ass analysis" video that I've watched to the very end. Amazing work

42 minutes? Fuck yes.

I highly doubt that the shockwave was used as a defense mechanism. If that was the case it makes no sense that 1 it destroys the nearby built environment and 2 there are specific things in place that can save you from being hit by it. I like the theory a lot more that it has something to do with the mind control process. Also something else I wanted to bring up was if the scientists have been keeping the huddle as a mother brain to control the other puppets why were so many of them shocked/surprised and ran to the glass to look in at it?

This is a great video for someone who just wants to know more about inside. Thank u!!

I think the boy has already been mind controlled in the first place and he's nothing but an empty shell. At the farm sequences, it bothered me that the chicks seemed to like him and follow him. When the boy get drowned in the water, the fishes seems to like him too. Then we can see that some fishes were feasting on another corpse under water implying that the boy is a dead shell and they thought he was food. That explains the chicks question for me too. These animal follow him not because they like him, but because they thought he is food. He has the smell, the taste of a dead body from the first place.

Amazing review and analysis. To add to this, here are my thoughts: The whole story has a theme of communism and totalitarianism. The area after the boy's entry through the city gates seems to be in better shape than the rest of the city parts, implying they belong to people from the "higher class," or people with the mask, who try to normalize totalitarian codes of enslaving other humans on everybody, even their own children. The higher class made mind control technology by discovering special mind control parasites, and then they made "the huddle," which is a man-made "human mass" for controlling the working class of society. The working class is brain washed in special cabins in the woods to be ready for the huddle's mind control. In this way, the huddle is THE ONE with the whole community of the working class. However, the huddle does not have free will; the whole facility at the end of the game is designed to force the huddle into doing what it is told. The whole plot of the game is a conspiracy by some rogue scientists to take The huddle's free will back. The rogue scientists sabotaged brainwashing cabins in the wood, and one specimen, the boy, successfully escaped the system. The orbs are also designed by rogue scientists to guide the boy into position of the huddle. These scientists just curiously want the huddle to understand that it is a slave to a totalitarian cooperation. In this way, you have two options (endings): destroying the orbs and that final device with lots of cables that the rogue scientists have made to induce free will in you, consequently ending your life (alternative ending) or doing as the orbs guide you to reach the huddle (main ending). With this thought, it is obvious that ending your own life by the alternative ending sounds like suicide, and no sane sentient being desiring to live wouldn't do such a thing. I mean, why should the boy struggle so much to survive if he deliberately wanted to pull the plug? The logical explanation is that HE DID NOT KNOW similar to us players!!! The boy is the huddle; he starts to recognize free will; he is scared; he sees a world of mind control and suppression; and he sees these orbs guide him into something darker and scarier. Not knowing what is the right thing to do, he acts naturally by destroying any device or machines interfering with life forces, not knowing that that very machine at the end is what gave him free will in the first place. It is like a robot understanding that he is a man-made product and pulling its own plug by mistake because he does not want to be controlled; instinctive yet not what it might desire. Why are all the scientists and staff amazed by the huddle before the fantastic glass-breaking scene? Because as the boy approaches the huddle, being one with the huddle, the huddle understands the truth and reacts more, thus causing scientists to feel amazed to see the huddle reacting, which shows a kind of free will in it. Who are the sea creatures? Probably man-made creatures based on the huddle's anatomy which went rogue and destroyed sunken labs. Why did the aggressive sea creature seem to help the boy later on? As the yellow cable, which is a direct line to the huddle, is hanging around, the sea creature understands the boy is the huddle and thus merges parts of its anatomy with the boy to be able to breathe underwater, similar to how the huddle and the boy merged at the end. What is water's inverse gravity used for? Making living under water possible as most of the country has been destroyed after some kind of war and some places, such as "the pulsing zone," are completely inaccessible. If huddle anatomy were similar to the sea creature’s body, at the last scene, the direct sun’s light stopped huddle from moving into a dormant position, which made it unable to move anymore. This can also be supported by the fact that the higher-class people tried to confine the huddle inside a dark pod, and earlier in the scientists' chamber, the huddle was almost in a dark place. Although the huddle found free will and self-recognition at the end, this story does not necessarily have a happy ending because no one can tell if the higher class can or cannot recover the huddle by keeping it in the dark and feeding it lies about its own existence once again. It is beautiful how PlayDead producers set the theme for this game: You are the boy, the boy is the huddle, thus you are the huddle. You are scared; you don't know anything about your world; and you are guided by a 2D path designed by some orbs that some rogue scientists have placed. The closer you get to your actual self, the more horror you feel about the truth. You finally break free, and yet your mind is still as a child's, trying to know the world, whom to trust, and whom to follow. And I believe the whole game is a demonstration of E.E. Cumming's poem, which has repeatedly been input in the game as some kind of Easter Egg riddle: "Pity this busy monster, manunkind'. This poet explains how humans have forsaken natural things for artificial things until finally a monster of humanity (the huddle) is produced. Yes, humans will become monsters, and they will barely notice how ugly and disfigured they have become if those in power change natural laws so much until nothing natural and free is left. And the same parody goes for a communist and totalitarian system. In it, people are living as slaves, limited, banned from their freedom, brainwashed until they are just a shell of their existence, fed with lies and suppression, bred and raised only to serve the higher class minority as the working class. They might be different but they are a singular mind enslaved and imprisoned. Yet, if some good-hearted scholars awaken a soul, teach him about free will to break free, that person might be able to merge into the whole and help them break free from shackles of lies and control. One free mind to collapse the totalitarian system. One boy to awaken all! (Edited after 1 year of posting my original thoughts!)

Just wanted to point out that the huddle continues moving throughout the entire credits a lot of people claim it’s dead but it’s clearly not especially when you consider the fact we’ve seen time and time again that the “puppets” can survive massive falls and punishment

This is the most in-depth analysis I've seen. So interesting! You introduced certain points I originally dismissed, but one thing I've heard talked about is how the long-haired water creatures might not all be hostile. Whenever the boy is caught by one, it seems like they're just trying to drag him down, obviously drowning him, but the sequence is similar to the one that takes place when the final creature plugs the light into him. Not sure what that means for the game, but I understood this to mean they all have the common goal of not simply killing the boy, but rather drowning him to then do something else. Loved the video!

This is the best video on the internet right now about inside and this video is so damn underrated ,all the points you made were crystal clear and i could easily connect with them....sharing this video right now with my friends who finished the game!!

Big thanks to you for walking the fine line between informed speculation and reading your own associations into the material - you ended up offering a pretty level-headed analysis. This game is a real brain teaser in more ways than one.

Just played this game tonight, start to finish. Amazing. I only found 2 orbs. I still have so many questions, like why and HOW they had gravity-defying water? Why were the people suspended in the floating water being preserved that way? They weren’t being used as workers but also not being disposed of if they were failures. Were they being used to farm more mind-controlling worms? Why did the huddle absorb the boy, and why didn’t it absorb anyone else it came in contact with? I’m unsure if the huddle had been a long standing experiment, since all the scientists excitedly left their areas to all come gawk at it, seems like it was something new to them. Why were people being loaded into the truck in the middle of the woods? Seems like a very random place to gather subjects. This is going to drive me nuts speculating like with Limbo. JUST TELL US PLEASE

Finally finished it. A masterpiece in every way. Definitely the most unique game I ever played.

My husband just started playing this game two days ago and my anxiety can’t honestly take it from the gruesome, inconceivable deaths to the close calls and drastic turn of events. So I figured I’d get the “inside” (har har) on it maybe to help him as a little hint mechanic haha.

The collectibles are likely a relay for the person in the bunker who is controlling the boy. AKA us.

32:14 I would also point out that the "progress-lights sign" on the back wall has age-damaged text on its lower left that you can still read---"ENTER CODE SEQUENCE"---with a symbol next to it: a ⊥-shape that matches the shape of the door-switch in the bunker beneath the corn field. Even in this video, the ⊥ is clearly visible on the lower part of the sign (30:00), though the text was only more visible in-game rather than in the video here.

Fun fact: game was created in 6 years and it took them 6 years to create just ending which means that all this time someone worked on ending

Well, disappointed as I was with the existing analysis videos of this game, I was gonna make a video of my own and decided to double check if there weren't any other videos with the points I was gonna make... aaaand then I watched your video as the last video I was gonna watch before making mine. Shit. You basically already made most of my video. You even divided it into clean sections of observations first and conclusions later. Just because there are still thoughts of mine I think are worth mentioning and because it would be so messy to keep referring to your video for observations, I'll still probably make mine and do it from scratch, but I will definitely at least mention yours.

I love this review/analysis good job on the video

Great analysis. Demonstrates the great depth of the game.

Excellent video. Thanks for making this. With a game like this I love to hear different theories and speculation. I played this game when it first came to Nintendo Switch a few years ago after hearing it was one of the best games of 2016. It's now 2022 and I'm replaying it and just FEELING how atmospheric the game is with it's symbolic minimalist visual style with it's ambient lighting and immersive sound. It's a pleasant game in many ways as it can be tense and unsettling at others. Overall I find the mystery of the game combined with the game's graphical engine and especially LIGHTING as well as the subtle but immersive sound design from the music to the sound effects all makes for such a compelling game. I can see myself playing this game every few years for years to come. I'm so glad I decided to go back and play again. This game really is a work of art and stands apart from anything else created although some obvious surface level observations could be made to other puzzle platformers, this game has a unique feeling. It's the questions it makes you ponder and how it doesn't TELL you anything but that the player needs to put the story together in their head themselves which makes it such an intriguing and fun mystery.

I'll bookmark it for later.

18:26 What a weird time to find out about this video. Rest in peace, Steve Harwell of Smash Mouth. The idea that Inside and Limbo take place in the same timeline, and that Inside is a prequel to Limbo, is actually incredibly fascinating to me. It's a theory I've never thought of before. Sure it seems farfetched, but there are a good few red threads and similarities to back this theory up somewhat, like the gameplay, the protagonist, the style, the goals, the stories and even the music. It's things "both protagonists" have experienced in some way.

I always thought the poles in the shock wave area were harnessing the shock wave to produce power; the shock wave being some kind of natural occurrence.

I've heard theories that the different stages of the game represent different parts of the body...for example, the shockwave trial represents the beating heart of the "factory"

Best video on this game, on youtube! Congrats🥳

ok first of all it was a good video. the splitting made it very easy to watch. juutas you have mastered the transitions, reeaaaaally well made. now for the game itself, the sheer amount of details impresses me, no kidding. i guess its one of those you have to nitpick for years. maybe you can become the vaati of inside hahaha. i would love to watch more theories and process stuff but i dont think ill play this. so many questions unanswered!!! i guess that picked your brain for weeks. fine work skeleton

Here’s my short and simple take. It’s quite obvious. The boy is controlled by a sympathizer. A sympathizing scientist. The hidden bunker under the cornfield is his hideout. Plus the fact that some scientists seem to sympathize with the huddle, and ended up helping it escape.

that is amazing vid, thank you!

Well, i know what i'll be doing for the next 45 minutes

This is awesome!

6 years later 🙃

Good stuff!

"Are you the dreamer? or are you part of someone else's dream?"

Great review. I've had Inside on my Xbox One fir ages, but now I have to play it. 😎 also proud it was made here in Denmark

Glad I found this channel

Final words: "Hopefully we don't have to wait another six years [for the next game] to happen though!." Oh dear...

Finally!

in my mind, that shockwave thing was a sorta defence mechanism to keep "something"/the enemy (if there was a war/endtime-scenary thingy) from the research complex~ also, methinks was good review/analyse/video...

this video really deserves more likes

I think the game creator tries to create Brave New World on his own version :)

Thanks man.

I agree that I don't think the hivemind was controlling the boy and I knew that the sequence was the music theme of the game. I wonder if what we're supposed to think is sentient as the hivemind is actually the boy himself. He is the one who has gained enough experience maybe from his upbringing to realize that the only way to stop the madness is to unplug.

really late but i just finished the game (after having it for a year and not touching it) and i have to say. this isn't a game. this is an experience. i really like that the ending was ambiguous and left people questioning what in the fuck was going on. the visuals, sound design, and lighting were amazing. the overall aesthetic is great. the concept of mind control is really cool too and i wish the game had at least 30 more minutes but this was amazing. i really hope play dead has something else in the works because Limbo and Inside are amazing.

Why does everyone ignore the same music playing in the orb where you need the elevator next to the big window and the fact that there's blood before the door in the floor below

awesome

I missed the orbs entirely, holy shit

I'm willing to bet that some kind of intelligence that scientists are testing is not in the monster, but in the boy. The monster does not look like a full-fledged life form in principle, let alone have intelligence. Not a single zombie in the game has a mind, and the monster is clearly simply assembled from them. Also the number of zombies under our (and the boy’s) control is constantly increasing as the game progresses, so it is logical that the apogee of this is one creature consisting of many.

I will gladly wait 6 years for another game like this.

35:32 l do think that the other sirens kill you just because of game mechanics that you need to have obstacles as a player, but as plot l do think that all of those sirens, though sometimes l wonder if it was only one, were trying to help the boy. HOWEVER, it is also true that probably the other creatures did not have the mechanism that the last one had

You forget about who's controlling the boy during all the game.

hello! may you please tell me where you got that scene in the beginning? thanks!

you can breath under wadaaaah

A 'puppet' broke their neck and most likely died, after the player turns of an anti gravity thing

Yo this review is as long as the fuckin’ game

Inside is about social media

18:40 fuck. I just realize videotapes on ground. maybe you can find a phone too. That mean...

why would you 'thry' to conclude something? 6:25

it's a bit of a shame ya never finished/dropped nier:automata

This game try to tell a horrible truth about our life...

Try to associate the fiction with the real life, and maybe you'll then get the deepest meaning:) Like - how are we exactly used as puppets, while we think we are giving our best for the society.. ON MANY LEVELS!... Cmon.. It is so clear... The whole existentialism, fighting to save your childish ass, not knowing why are you here in the first place.... Brilliant!

Around 28 min there is some footage of real life gross ass worms, please warn when you show that stuff I was eating

The Waffle House has found its new host