Ending Really Diminished the Game (SPOILERS DUH!)

[MalachiX]

All in all, I enjoyed this game quite a bit and thought it was generally better designed than it's predecessor Limbo (the world felt more varied and the gameplay felt a lot more in depth).

That said, the last part really felt so much like a downer that it left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

I realize there are a lot of interpretations but in the end, pretty much all of them still feel kind of depressing to me mainly because IT'S HARD TO FEEL HAPPY FOR THE BLOB or really any sense of accomplishment.

I mean, the thing is a horrible tangled mass of body parts and flesh. Not only is it hideous to look at but it also also seems like it's in a great deal of pain just by existing (we hear the different parts of it moaning as we escape). It's clearly some kind of god-awful genetically engineered monstrosity that was created by the scientists. It doesn't seem like it would be capable of surviving on its own and, even if it did, probably wouldn't have much of a quality of life.

The whole thing felt terribly pointless to me because we watch the Boy get absorbed into the blob. It's terribly saddening to play as this kid for a whole game only to see him receive such an terrible fate. If perhaps he was always a part of the Blob then it's a little less sad but it's still such a downer because, once again, the poor Blob seems like such a miserable crime against nature. If he's an outsider who was being controlled by the Blob (as is heavily implied by the secret ending) then it's super depressing since he still seems to be part of the Blob in the end.

It's a shame because it really left me feeling numb and frustrated without any real sense of accomplishment or closure. Limbo didn't exactly have the most complete of endings but at least I didn't feel miserable at the end.

I must say, I would have enjoyed the game much more if:

A.) The Blob had coughed up the Boy at the end.

or

B.) The Blob at least looked like something that wasn't in unspeakable pain every moment because of nature.

I realize that the standard defense for critiques like this is usually, "but that's the point!" or "you missed the point!" but neither changes the fact that the last act left me feeling pretty hollow which is a shame given how immersed I was in the game prior to that.

[e.bkapalka]

I think the ending is supposed to be kind-of circular and hopeless

[Anderstein]

I played through it yesterday. This meatball .. I think it is an idea worth doing in a game, but this was not the right one. It didn't feel right. The meatball was nothing you could easily feel sympathy for unlike the boy. The ending was also anticlimatic and disappointing.

I think video games can be art and I'm constantly looking for good examples. I really love what they done with INSIDE, especially its stage. But the generally weird ending will hinder me from showing this game to persons who usually have no interest in video games aka my parents.

Just think of a Cronenberg movie. It's something special, but nothing you would watch with your parents.

[Oh_Man[TFE]]

Worst ending since Mass Effect 3.

[sumolagann]

I liked it. Very bleak.

[Romp]

The ending is very similar to the ending of Limbo.

SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!









Limbo ends with the boy you play as finding a girl sitting on a hill. You walk up slowly and she sits up right, without looking at you, then rolls credits. It's not a cliffhanger. The games are MADE to give the player multiple story lines that they can decide to follow. The mechanics in this game were great and the graphics were great too. You can decide what happens at the end, but with the light perfectly shinning on the boy and the blob, it should be good.

[Resolute]

SPOILERS

A bleak ending is ok instead of a happy one but the narrative still has to flow from what just happened in the story. This doesnt. I really expected the dead blob to spit up the boy and he would walk on the beach and escape. It is actually really disapointing.

This is how the game should have ended:
A)if you fail to shut down all reactors then the scientists are still in control and the boy is eaten alive by the blob and dies in the tank.
B)if you shut down all reactors then the boy is the only one with mind control ability, he takes control of the blob, escapes and it spits him out on the beach.

This is because:
1)We see the growing powers of the boy and his ability to mind control bodies without a helmet.
2)We see the disablement of the scientists reactor cores and thier mind control helmets.

An ending where the blob escapes the facility but the boy is dead makes no sense. The boy is the only one in the narrative with the ability to take control of bodies without wires and helmets.

[Myth[Alex]]

Originally posted by Resolute:

SPOILERS

A bleak ending is ok instead of a happy one but the narrative still has to flow from what just happened in the story. This doesnt. I really expected the dead blob to spit up the boy and he would walk on the beach and escape. It is actually really disapointing.

This is how the game should have ended:
A)if you fail to shut down all reactors then the scientists are still in control and the boy is eaten alive by the blob and dies in the tank.
B)if you shut down all reactors then the boy is the only one with mind control ability, he takes control of the blob, escapes and it spits him out on the beach.

This is because:
1)We see the growing powers of the boy and his ability to mind control bodies without a helmet.
2)We see the disablement of the scientists reactor cores and thier mind control helmets.

An ending where the blob escapes the facility but the boy is dead makes no sense. The boy is the only one in the narrative with the ability to take control of bodies without wires and helmets.

I also don't understand that. Why have the devs decided to make such an ending? Too bad we cannot see their point of view (so we can understand the whole thing)... almost 6 months have passed since the game was released and the devs still haven't posted anything to elucidate us regarding the ending........... Come on, devs! we need some answers :\ please

[e.bkapalka]

It's definitely meant to be ambiguous. I wouldn't expect the developers to ever say anything about the story

[Castor Troy]

I can't wait for the sequel, Inside 2: Electric Blob Boogaloo. This is where the blob continues to grow strength in the wild absorbing different animals until it returns to the facility and kills every last scientist, dog and human in there.

[Evilkarnie]

Have any of you not seen the alternate ending? I just completed it and honestly prefer that one to the original. I wont spoil it unless we have all seen it.

[Visuwyg]

Generally I'd agree with you, but I didn't really form a tight connection with the boy, so at the end I didn't particularly care that he was now a hideous flesh mass. Instead I laughed like a maniac at the sheer bonkers spectacle, but was left with an empty feeling at the end.

I really need to research what that "secret ending" I hear about is.

[Apocolyptica]

I didn't like the ending either and was surprised to see the credits roll at that point.

[MalachiX]

I don't consider the "secret ending" a full ending so much as an easter egg. It clarifies a little of the story intellectually but doesn't really resolve the emotional arc that the real ending left me feeling so unsatisfied.

SPOILERS

The secret ending basically is just to reveal that the Boy is also being "controlled." We don't know by whom and we don't even know if it's just meant to be a commentary on the Player controlling him. It's very brief and really just a side note. I'm glad to have seen it but it doesn't really change my feelings on the end.

[MalachiX]

Originally posted by Resolute:

SPOILERS

A bleak ending is ok instead of a happy one but the narrative still has to flow from what just happened in the story. This doesnt. I really expected the dead blob to spit up the boy and he would walk on the beach and escape. It is actually really disapointing.

Agreed. I would have been fine with the ending had the boy been released by the Blob at the end or had he just road the damn thing to freedom.

Hell, I might have even been OK with him remaining a part of the blob if the blob had been something different. The problem is that the blob is just a mangled mess of limbs that doesn't look like it can realistically live any kind of real life outside of the lab anyway.

Had the Boy succeeded in freeing it just so it could see the outside world before it died, I might have really liked that ending. But to have him sucked into it so he too can become part of the monstrosity and then die with it is just feels like a "♥♥♥♥ you" to the player.

[MalachiX]

Originally posted by Kaffeebohnson:

Generally I'd agree with you, but I didn't really form a tight connection with the boy, so at the end I didn't particularly care that he was now a hideous flesh mass. Instead I laughed like a maniac at the sheer bonkers spectacle, but was left with an empty feeling at the end.

Don't get me wrong, the crazy blob destroying the lab is indeed darkly funny. But, as you said, you ended up feeling empty at the end. I think the reason for this is that Inside (and Limbo) were never really games about a wacky big spectacle. They're lonely and strangely emotional titles in which the world is trying to destroy you. The crazy ending might have worked if it felt properly connected to the rest of the game. If the Boy was still alive and was just helping free the Blob then we would have had a very satisfying last act in which you finally get your revenge on the deadly gaming world with the help of another victim. But because we lose the Boy, the ending section just feels like spectacle for the sake of spectacle.