Inside
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 feels like
The dark, surreal settings and hunted atmosphere build slow-building anticipatory fear throughout. The narrative is deliberately enigmatic, with secrets and answers withheld, drawing players forward. A crushing, suffocating heaviness permeates the dystopian world and increasingly surreal situations.
What it's about
A dark, oppressive project and dystopian environment form the narrative setting. A hunted boy navigating alone through a hostile world embodies solitude and disconnection. The unsettling atmosphere and surreal, dangerous settings aim to disturb and frighten.
How it plays
Environmental puzzles woven into the world are explicitly central to progression. Platforming navigation is a core interactive element throughout the game. A mind-control device that manipulates bodies suggests gravity and physics-based puzzle solving.
How it looks and sounds
The game is explicitly presented in 2.5D side-scrolling format as its defining visual structure. Side-scrolling perspective is the canonical view through which all gameplay unfolds. A predominantly monochromatic visual style is central to the game's dark, minimalist aesthetic.
How it's structured
Explicitly single-player with no multiplayer component. Every space is deliberately authored by designers, not procedurally generated. The game progresses through discrete, authored environments in a largely fixed forward direction.
Kindred games
Shares Side View, Monochrome, Handcrafted World, Dread.
Both lean into Single-Player, Side View, Monochrome, Handcrafted World.
Shares Dread, Platforming, 2.5D, Environmental Puzzles.
Both lean into Single-Player, Dread, Platforming, Environmental Puzzles.
Shares Side View, Platforming, Handcrafted World, Dread.
Both lean into Single-Player, Side View, Platforming, Handcrafted World.
Closest hidden gems
A lesser-known kindred — Platforming, Linear Levels, Side View, Mysterious. 94% positive across 4,416 Steam reviews.
Both lean into Single-Player, Platforming, Linear Levels, Side View.
A lesser-known kindred — Gravity Manipulation, Handcrafted World, Platforming, Minimalist Visuals. 87% positive across 4,351 Steam reviews.
Both lean into Single-Player, Gravity Manipulation, Handcrafted World, Platforming.
A lesser-known kindred — Environmental Puzzles, Linear Levels, Mysterious, Minimalist Visuals. 89% positive across 4,378 Steam reviews.
Both lean into Single-Player, Environmental Puzzles, Linear Levels, Mysterious.