In general, it’s pretty hard to find a game that really makes me uncomfortable. There are plenty of horror games I’ve played that made me feel uneasy in that moment, but few that gave me an unending feeling that can only be described as “what the fuck”. However, there is one title that reminds me of this feeling more often than I would like.groundbreaking inits ending won’t leave me alone.
Insider spoilers
When Inside came out, I hadn’t played Limbo, Playdead’s previous game, although I was familiar enough with it that I more or less knew what I was doing. Both games are puzzle platformers with a young, silent protagonist whose journey is as mysterious to them as it is to you.
The world of Inside is a fascinating one. It’s clear that the world has some fascism in it, and most of the masses seem to be indoctrinated…something. You yourself are forced to control selected population groups, directing them in ways that allow you to navigate through the various puzzles the world puts in front of you. Clearly, this is a game about control and authoritarianism.
So where did you and the little boy you play come from? Your role is the controller – pardon the pun – leading this unknown lad into the unknown. The world becomes more fulfilling as you progress, but you’ll never learn any important information about how things got the way they are, or who the boy really is.
However, you will find one thing about him: his purpose. That is, being part of what you might simply call a Blob (or more specifically “a lot of human flesh and limbs”) for reasons the game refuses to make explicit. For the sake of discussion, we will use the first one for the rest of this article.
The Blob is the boy, the boy is The Blob, and you are the boy, all intertwined in a way reminiscent of 1989’s incredible physical society. As I mentioned before, I’ve played games that make me uneasy at the moment. The inside is one of them – especially in the section that shows too many dead and rotting pigs.
Blobs are something I stick to today, though. I often like to describe my gender as an amorphous blob, almost unknowable, which is probably why I’m so fascinated by this sentient, faceless creature. But its presence also terrifies me like anything else.
It clearly has desires, and like all of us, its main desire is freedom. You see, scientists have trapped it, and you, like the boy, are seeking to free it, as it is finally revealed. Why this happens, I don’t know. Did The Blob take control of the boy, and in turn you as the player, to free yourself? Are scientists encouraging it to do so? I can’t answer either of those questions, which is part of why The Blob is permanently etched in my brain (I might add rent free).
The first time I played this game, I sat down and played it because it was so short, I almost thought it was part of the point: when I got to the point where you were one with The Blob, my partner and I – Who is watching me play – stunned. I started playing it late and obviously ended up later than that, just don’t know how it feels.
For me, it’s mostly because The Blob doesn’t seem to have a solution. You do eventually escape the facility where you were trapped, but when you manage to do so, you and Blob find yourself on a coastline with nowhere to go. After all, the world only moves in two directions, left or right.
The ending means freedom, but it doesn’t really offer freedom, neither for the Blob, nor for me, or you as the player. As the credits roll, we’re just glued together and doomed to be stuck in this place, maybe forever. This is what makes me uncomfortable.
The developers’ feelings about The Blob aren’t particularly obvious, though I do think they’re sympathetic to its existence. I do think its body is slightly used to shock value (with unsettling connotations), but I also do think there are strong criticisms of how those in power treat those who are even far apart.
So for this creature, or people, or beings, whatever it was, the way we left it left me terribly sad, frustrated, and hammering it home for the last time, uncomfortable.
Horror is at its best when it tries to reflect something about the world around us. It’s easily the most modern genre at any given moment, always having something to say about the present. The best horror films are able to tell the moment they were made, but still feel timeless, even if they are so unfortunate.
Inside is as powerful now as it was when it was released eight years ago, and I hope I’ve made it clear how deeply its impact is. Conveniently, it just happened to be on PS Plus recently, and while I may have spoiled everything in front of you, experiencing the game as a moving visual work will convey all of this better than I could possibly do.
Of course, while I rarely need an excuse to consume anything horror-related, the arrival of Halloween certainly makes it an opportune time to deal with the bumps of the night. So, do yourself a favor and play this game with The Blob and it will always be with you.
