"Inside" - A Defense of the Ending

[Smooth Operator]

I hated it until a friend pointed out some key points as to what was going on during the game and the ending for that matter, now I really appreciate it how everything comes full circle. Even all the gamey puzzles make sense in their mad world.
Now if you wanted a very literal writing on the wall of what is going on it will disappoint you none the less, in a way I would also love to have the exact story but unless they have a whole novel behind it odds are your imagination makes it better then what they had in mind.

 

[Xprimentyl]

I hated it until a friend pointed out some key points as to what was going on during the game and the ending for that matter, now I really appreciate it how everything comes full circle. Even all the gamey puzzles make sense in their mad world.
Now if you wanted a very literal writing on the wall of what is going on it will disappoint you none the less, in a way I would also love to have the exact story but unless they have a whole novel behind it odds are your imagination makes it better then what they had in mind.

EXACTLY right!! Your imagination becomes an active participant and makes the experience that much better and that much more immersive. Instead of Playdead saying at the end "here's what you did and what it meant," they pose the question "what do you THINK you did and what do you THINK it meant?" Any game that continues to engage me hours, days, WEEKS after the credits role, I can't help but appreciate.

Silentpony said in an earlier post "Who needs intrigue and plot when you can get gamers to argue over things?" That's a fairly 'glass half empty' perspective when you could easily say the intrigue and plot made gamers DISCUSS the things we experienced. When Bioshock, well, SHOCKED us with the infamous "Would you kindly..." plot twist, it was interesting, but there was nothing to talk about; that was the thing that happened; that was the thing anyone who played it experienced. But "Inside," with all of it's ambiguous vagaries, has gamers talking, asking each other, debating, THINKING! I've watched several videos of "Let's Play-ers" playing this game just because I love watching people get drawn in and horrified, asking questions and speculating. None of this would have been possible had we found out "the chauffer did it" at the end.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

The ending was just anti-climatic but in the worst way of it ending without much reason, you just slump dead before the finish line.

What if the amorphous blob is a nudge to Spirited Away's "no-face customer"? What if we, the sum of buyers appeared to the creators as an amorphous mass of... something? What if we, the players, in the eyes of the developers/programmers/artists/writers simply do not deserve a better ending? Even the hidden ending that involves quite the extra effort, is best - and most easily - described as underwhelming.

That said, I find it rare, great and absolutely applaudable of Playdead to uncompromisingly go the Dark Souls route of creating an inspired and inspiring experience with no desire whatsoever to spread a message, join a cult or partake in the latest witch hunt du jour. The game just is, and it's quite clearly a piece of art.

playing Inside reminded me of the first time I played Another World / Out of This World, the original Prince of Persia or even Karateka.

I consider Inside to be an instant classic.

 

[Xprimentyl]

That said, I find it rare, great and absolutely applaudable of Playdead to uncompromisingly go the Dark Souls route of creating an inspired and inspiring experience with no desire whatsoever to spread a message, join a cult or partake in the latest witch hunt du jour. The game just is, and it's quite clearly a piece of art.

I consider Inside to be an instant classic.

^So much this.

How many times have we saved the world from alien invasions or staved off terrorists or saved a princess or been truly surprised by an AI ally betraying us when we saw it coming from the opening cutscene? How many times have we gone through the motions of these same old stories with slightly different skins and felt fulfilled? Yes, those stories are fun to play, but "interesting?" "Thought-provoking?" Nine times out of ten, no, they're not; and even that one time out of ten, the interest fades as soon as the next copy-pasted distraction comes along. "Inside" defies those conventions by handing us something nigh unto indescribable, completely incomprehensible and deceptively simple, but is so beautifully and brilliantly executed and purely unique, we can't help but discuss it. Even the contempt of those who hated the ending is a testament to how immersed they were in that brief 3-4 hour world of "Inside." I've watched several "Let's Plays," and each of them love and enjoy the game, calling it an "instant classic" as they're playing, then they get to the end and start begging people to comment their thoughts! Name any other game that, by its sheer existence, invites that kind of community and camaraderie? It?s a shared experience in which each of our subjective perspectives is equally valid, so yes, it is quite clearly a piece of art.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Take Limbo for example. The story is you're in Limbo...and that's it. That's the full story. You're on the first circle of hell, things are always bad, and when you finish the game, turns out you're still in Limbo. As stories go, its simplistic sure, but its at least explained and cohesive. But what if Limbo had just faded to black after the City sections. It wouldn't have been brilliant, it would have been confusing.

Just remembered, I mean to respond to this. I?d argue that ?Limbo? was, by far and away, more ambiguous than ?Inside.? I may be wrong, but I don?t think Playdead ever released a synopsis concretely defining ?Limbo?s? story at all; the game is defined largely by the community presumptions. You wake up in a forest (we?re never told it?s the literal ?limbo?) and run right for a few hours through increasingly lethal and impossible puzzles only to crash land in front of a previously unmentioned and unnamed female (we?ve always assumed it?s his sister) and the game ends. We literally had no idea of our goal or purpose until the very end, and even then, the abrupt drop to the credits doesn?t tell us if we or ?the girl? were, in fact, alive or dead the entire time. At least, as surreal as it all was, ?Inside? had more clearly defined antagonists and progression (i.e.: forests into farms, into industrial areas, ending at corporate labs.) ?Inside? at least suggests its stark reality and the perception of long-awaited freedom at the end, love it or leave it, is there.

Yes, ?Limbo? was a far simpler story, and in doing so, is more readily forgiven for its ambiguity as the puzzle challenge was the focus. ?Inside? explores more complicated themes with a much larger focus on the world unfolding around us; the puzzles were less taxing this time, I believe, to save players breaking immersion every 5 minutes looking up YouTube guides.