What is your theory of INSIDE's story? (SPOILERS)

[username]

The whole game had me stuck with the mindset that I was helping some poor kid escape some weird science experiment controlled by a tyrannical government... Until I went back and completed the collectibles (100% achievements).

The final scene under the farm completely changed my view. We (the player) are the key antagonists, and the boy tricks us into unplugging each orb, thus leading to unplugging himself causing us to lose control of him (possibly sending him into limbo, making this a prequel?). In order to make this believable, you cant think of yourself (the player) as a person, but a state of mind control. This boy is different though, he still has his awareness and the ability to coerce his intentions to his controller, and uses this to try and save himself. Also, the final scene after 100% completing the game looks very similar to a computer station, much like we use to manipulate him.

Just a thought.. How about you?

[Talhante]

Ok, so the game is full of symbolism and metaphors as Limbo is. There are a lot of theories already and some are really nice.

Well, here is my theory.

The kid is the player.
The world is the game - like the software itself -.
The people in the world are the developers.
The factory/laboratory is the studio.
The drones are the clues.
And the Blob is/are the theories.


At no time was said that the kid is trying to escape or running toward something specifically as the player is not. The kid is running through the world - the player, game. As the player you were curious about what was ahead, what is the game, what is Inside, You start collecting clues till you have a theory.

The world, at least on the beggining is very similar to the world of Limbo: the parasite, the puzzles design, the gravity based rooms. The world from the beggining to the very end is a sequence of puzzles even when you get to the objective - the blob, you still have to pass some tests to finally get to the end. When the blob stops, you stop. you finish the game, there is no point on moving after that. By the way. The miniature beach on the woods, with artificial light, all made up by the developers.
Everything was planned to the player to finish the game there.

The developers were always trying to interfere on your way but after you die they give you another life and a power so you can go on. They cheer when you finally enconter the blob. They help you doing things for the blob.

When you enter the factory you see some body parts and some unfinished drones, you see they testing the drones, how they walk, how they jump, how you’re supposed to control them. You see parts of the scenario that don’t belong on a level hidden on the secret levels. You can see the laboratory where they tested theories right before the Blob.

When you find the drones you start getting what the game is about and yet it changes, and changes again. You get a feeling that they’re incomplete There is something missing. Sometimes it feels like they’re just part of the scenario.

The Blob, an agglomerate of bodies, of drones, that get the boy sucked in. Lots of ideas, lots of theories that have to pass some tests till the end to be quiet and forgotten as the developers planned.

The secret ending is exactly it as well. You are the Boy. If you disconnect your self from the game, there is no game, you don’t play it.

A quote from kotaku about Limbo“Arnt Jensen, who directed and conceptualized Limbo, isn’t telling. He has confirmed that the girl in the ending is the boy’s little sister, but that’s it. He’s even conceded that some fans have come very close to interpreting the game ‘correctly,’ but he’s upset by this; it signifies to him that he should have left less clues, not more.”

I get a feeling that they really wanted to make something very subjective following the base of semiotics giving the player a wide range of possibilities. Everything could be true. But if that is the case, the game could have no meaning at all. So this could be the real story of the game, telling everything and telling nothing at the same time.
The game did reminded me the transition between Unedited Footage of a Bear (Being Limbo, with something specific to tell) and This House Has People In It (it does say something but it is so meta that could be anything you want to interpret)

Well that’s my version.
Sorry about my English, it is not my main language.

Oh and I saw someone explaining the Tumor Theory, very nice, totally works for me.

[username]

Awesome theory! I love when a storyline like this can be interpreted so many different ways. Would you have a link to the Tumor Theory?

[Xavier: Renegade Angel]

I love the Unedited Footage of a Bear and THHPII comparisons. Just finished Inside and it's the only thing that has made me feel that same kind of abstract dread that This House Has People In It does so very well. And just like THHPII, I'm going to have to finish Inside about 15 times I think.

[Talhante]

Originally posted by mike:

Awesome theory! I love when a storyline like this can be interpreted so many different ways. Would you have a link to the Tumor Theory?

I couldn't find the original post but it is basically this:

"The game is an allegory of a human body. You are playing inside a body as a red blood cell. Eventually the boy sheds his red coat and becomes a white blood cell and removes the blob, which symbolizes a tumor. The tumor is then extracted from the body and dies outside of its host."

[Nyota Mwuaji]

I have a rather odd theory. What if Inside is a prequel to Limbo. Think about it, the machines, the forests and such. WHAT IF in Limbo you are playing as another experiment that escaped and the "sister" is actually a child that was brought to the lab to see the various experiments. in that one stealth area with the fork lift you see a person with their child watching the cage being taken away. Inside takes place before the blob escaped, after the blob escaped the lab was abandoned, leaving the forests inside to overtake the place and the power to eventually start to fail. just a theory though.

[Perfice]

The boy is actually one of the mind-controlled slaves (he slotches just like the slaves when you stand idle). The blob is controlling him throughout the whole game to come release it from it's containment. Why else would the boy go through so much to release the blob when he could have just ran away or shut the entire operation down?

[Xavier: Renegade Angel]

^ It almost seems like part of the point of the game is that he couldn't shut the operation down. Run away sure but even the powerful blob couldn't shut it down or even escape due its (apparently) final resting place. Boy working for blob makes definite sense though. I just want someone to explain what the area with the sonic blasts was. Whatever is behind that area of the game feels like the most important piece that no one will probably ever know.