Inside
2016
- platform
- puzzle
- adventure
- indie
- action
- science fiction
- horror
- stealth
- drama
- single player
The story
Inside is a puzzle-platformer developed by Playdead, presented in a 2.5D side-scrolling format with a dark, predominantly monochromatic visual style. The player controls an unnamed boy navigating a dystopian environment, solving environmental puzzles, avoiding hostile guards and creatures, and using a mind-control device to manipulate bodies in order to progress. The game features no dialogue or HUD, relying on visual and audio cues to guide the player through its increasingly surreal and dangerous settings.
What it’s like
Desaturated greys and muddy browns sit under a sickly green-tinged haze, with the boy a small hunched silhouette against vast, flat-lit industrial sets: fences, silos, pale corridors that feel like they breathe. The camera hangs at a fixed remove, so every scene reads as a stage picture, and the 2.5D layering lets distant machinery and fog drift behind the foreground. Sound does most of the work here: a sparse, low ambient drone, the scrape of boots on gravel, distant barks and metallic groans, long stretches of near silence broken by a single sharp cue. Vibe: bleak, watchful, quietly unsettling. It suits a late-night session alone with headphones, when you want tension without chatter. Pacing is deliberate, with long pauses to study a puzzle and sudden bursts of danger. Intensity is moderate to high: dark, dystopian horror with frequent deaths shown as brief, abrupt violence and grim body imagery, but no dialogue or gore for its own sake. Best for players who enjoy atmospheric puzzle-platformers and wordless storytelling, less so for anyone wanting something gentle.
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