The Haunted Hoard: Inside (Xbox One)

Bring people together, and you can do most anything. At the same time, bring too many people together, and the wants and needs of an individual will be superseded by the desires of the group. Inside is an atmospheric puzzle platformer where you can feel both sides of this dichotomy, a young boy trying to escape being molded into what the world wants him to be but to escape it, he’ll need to often rely on others as much as his own drive to survive.

 

Inside presents a wordless narrative, the game not even making it clear why the young boy in a red shirt is fleeing as the game begins. You will be pursued by hounds and potentially even shot if you soon catch the eye of mysterious men searching the woods you find yourself in, but as you flee forward and end up in more civilized areas, you’re still not granted easy answers. The whole world is bathed in moody darkness, light often harshly standing out against the dull coloration of the environment that often leans towards monotone or muted colors. A good deal of your exploration is about uncovering more and more of what is going on even though there’s never a moment that provides a direct answer, but you do start to see the darker lengths taken by people in control to achieve whatever they’re working towards. Inside, as hinted at by the fact you can see the boy shot, does not shy away from violence to nail in the dour state of its world or to make a failure truly feel devastating. You may respawn nearby, but not before you see how brutal things could be as his body goes limp suddenly from the impact or attack that did him in.

Piecing together the visual clues of Inside isn’t too hard, and you’ll come to at least recognize there is some larger societal or corporate reason for people treating each other less as fellow humans and more as things to round up for whatever greater purpose is being pursued. Fairly early you’ll encounter faceless drones who literally cannot think for themselves, one of the common puzzle types being to hook yourself to a helmet with yellow lights to use your thoughts to guide around these hollow workers. This is where one of the more fascinating parts of the narrative themes comes to light as well, because while you are clearly doing all you can to preserve your life, you are just as much using the drones to your advantage and leaving them behind when their work is done serving you as the person in charge. At the same time, as you go digging a bit more under the surface and see more of the story unfold, you’ll start noticing the boy does value collective success even if the steps there can be inglorious or a little callous. Undoubtedly the powers that be are far crueler and the game is not afraid to show the awful ways people are forced into submission or turned into obedient servants, so while it’s definitely a little more complex than a lone hero against a diabolical corporation that devalues human life, you’re certainly not sinking to the same kinds of lows in just using people to hold down pressure pads or push large boxes.

 

The puzzle solving of Inside can sometimes intersect with the oppressive rule over the world quite effectively, a memorable if not complicated moment seeing you suddenly stuck in line with people who have been clearly worn down into being unquestioning and subservient. They walk exactly as they’re told to do and you need to keep pace with them or you’ll stick out and suffer for it, the task not too demanding or difficult but impressing on you without words that this is a world where, should anyone stand out, they’d suffer just like you do should you fail to do as you’re told. Puzzles that are more thematic than challenging aren’t too common, the game usually better able to tie both together like those times you need to help command groups of drones to be where they need to in order to help you progress, but there are some moments that pursue a puzzle idea that seems almost disconnected from the bigger picture. One section is devoted mostly to navigating in a submarine, the puzzle format justifying its presence through its quality and the game can still keep things uneasy and raise questions, especially when you encounter someone underwater who wants you dead.

The strange figure in the water is actually a good case of the game managing peril well, as many times the boy in red will need to outrun some encroaching danger with immediate death happening should you not escape it in time. Chase sections are usually not long but you can feel your pursuer nipping at your heels, the game having a good sense for how tight an escape should be without it being easy for it to slip into repeat deaths because you faltered in some small way. The underwater section involves many points where you need to just barely outswim that figure to a spot of safety, and even puzzles that aren’t about chases may still have a window to find like needing to figure out the rhythm of a shockwave so you can barely line up with cover to avoid being blown away.

 

Without giving away any details on the ending, the game does wrap up in a way that both pulls together its themes and provides a rather exciting gameplay change to boot. Rather than just hitting a climax and ending there, the game actually lets you do some puzzle solving with the ramifications of the final focus in on a thematic examination of unity, even the final ending perhaps leaving you to question the kind of thoughts I brought up at in my starting paragraph here. Inside is expecting some interpretative legwork though and cannot speak fully on the thoughts it raises since it did not aim for direct messaging, but the implications and atmospheric establishment of the story do help raise up a puzzle platformer that doesn’t push its systems too far to make for brain-busters. You’re kept active and engaged though, needing to truly work to make your way through this world to help establish the threat of what you’re up against. Unless you are interested in the really well hidden collectibles that feel more like a reason to return to the game than something to grab on a first go, Inside manages to pack a few hours with good puzzle solving and a dystopian atmosphere to make it feel grander than the humble substance of your actions.

THE VERDICT: Inside presents a dark and intense world, the player immersed into the oppressive dystopia through certain puzzles and the shock of the terrible banality of some of the deaths they may experience. The puzzle solving mostly remains effective but certainly not the star, sometimes playing into the themes very well but at other points like the submarine section it seems to play with a gameplay concept more than tie it to the thematic elements. It will leave the player with a good deal to mull over after the few hours it takes to complete, the worldless plot certainly demanding more interesting thought than the simpler solutions to some of its puzzles.

 

And so, I give Inside for Xbox One…

A GOOD rating. The moments you put on the helmet with yellow lights certainly feel like the area where Inside best unites its messaging with its puzzle design and even raises that sort of conflicted view that makes it lack of direct messaging both compelling and less able to provoke specific thoughts. It won’t ultimately ask you to weigh in on individualism, collective action, societal cooperation, callous corporatism, and other ideas that may emerge without ever being named directly, but having those periods where you can feel the benefit of guiding pliable people who don’t object to your orders certainly feels like it is meant to give you pause for more reasons than figuring out the puzzle’s solution. Inside diverting to some puzzle formats like the submarine section that perhaps don’t fit in don’t harm the game and actually help the gameplay avoid stagnation, and they don’t feel truly out of place either as they can often reinforce dread or build up more of the mystery behind whatever has caused this world to turn towards this brutal dystopic style of living. Inside didn’t let its story or its puzzles fully guide the show and they can usually have room to breathe and play to their strengths for it, but the puzzle solving does feel like it is what keeps it from more easily earning a Great rating. Sneaking around is sometimes a bit plain and limited variables in some puzzles can make them a bit straightforward or instead lean more towards managing little windows of potential failure, although at least dying has that emotional impact because it’s a harsh reminder you’re just a small individual in a world that’s turned hostile towards anything that doesn’t fit soundly into its oppressive systems.

 

I finally got around to covering Inside after having played a few games that seem to not get the appeal of what this title does. Somerville and One Last Breath are atmospheric platformers heavily inspired by Inside but without the the careful touch needed to mix in peril, quality puzzles, and background story-telling in a way that feels clean and coherent. Inside may shift the strength of what it is focusing on, but it understands how to craft a world of mystery and mood, it knows how to present some clear thinking points that get deeper the more you tie them to things you’ve done, and it gives you activities along the way that can feel intense or provide more involved play than trying to run for your life. It’s clear why Inside is imitated, so much of its design effective and intriguing with a rise in puzzle excellence all it would need to make it even more unforgettable.