

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. In a hostile, dystopian world, a young boy flees through a forest pursued by masked guards with flashlights, vehicles, and attack dogs. Escaping the patrols, he crosses into farmland overrun by parasitic worms and rampaging animals, then reaches a seemingly abandoned city where lines of zombie-like people are moved through mind control. Using a mind-control helmet, the boy manipulates these drone-like figures to press deeper into a vast underground facility of flooded chambers and laboratories, where scientists conduct disturbing underwater experiments on human bodies. An underwater creature attaches a device to the boy, allowing him to breathe beneath the surface as he pushes further into the complex, drawn toward something at its center.
PlatformPuzzleAdventureIndieActionScience fictionHorrorStealthDramadeathrobots2.5dside-scrollingsteambirdmultiple endingshidingcameraPlayStation 4, PC (Microsoft Windows), iOS, Mac, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
- Body horror
- Harm to children
- Animal harm
Log it
Sign in to log this.
Where do you stand?
Three questions people argue about. Answer first, then see how your circle and the community split.
Is this Playdead's best work?
Sign in to answerBe the first to answer.
Is it the best platform game of its decade?
Sign in to answerBe the first to answer.
Does the ending land?
Sign in to answerBe the first to answer.
Ask the title a question
Answered from the reviews and content notes on file, never made up. If nothing on file settles it, it says so.
Character
Earnest, grave, plot-driven and bleak.
- earnestironic
- gravecomic
- character-ledplot-driven
- warmbleak
- contemporarynostalgic
Who loves it, who doesn't
No profiled raters yet.
Reviews
No reviews yet.
About the game
- Platforms
- PlayStation 4, PC (Microsoft Windows), iOS, Mac, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
- Developer
- Playdead
- Publisher
- Playdead
- Released
- June 29, 2016
- Modes
- Single player
- Perspective
- Side view
- Engine
- Unity
- Time to beat
- 2 h rushed · 3.5 h main story · 5 h completionist
IGDB rating 8.9/10 from 1674 ratings.
Screenshots






Pairings
Companions we picked from the closest works, and how to take them.
Similar in taste
Closest on the same fourteen dimensions, from everything scored on Curator Co. Other media included when they land close.
Rain World 201774% alikeBoth earnest, plot-driven, grave.
Little Nightmares 201766% alikeBoth earnest, grave, bleak.
Prey 201763% alikeBoth earnest, grave, contemporary.
Gods Will Be Watching 201362% alikeBoth grave, earnest, bleak.
Control 201962% alikeBoth grave, earnest, contemporary.
Scorn 202261% alikeBoth earnest, grave, bleak; this one is more character-led.
Soma 201561% alikeBoth earnest, grave, contemporary.
Silent Hill 4: The Room 200460% alikeBoth earnest, grave, bleak.
Uzumaki 202470% alikeSeries · Both earnest, grave, bleak.
The Third Day 202066% alikeSeries · Both grave, earnest, bleak.
Often played with
Similar games per IGDB. Opening one adds it to Curator Co.








