Gameplay Journal Entry #9

Inside: Reflection

*Spoiler Warning*

After playing and completing Playdead’s Inside, I am still left with questions about what the game was really about. Playdead has crafted a short, simple, and intuitive game that is also very engaging, dramatic, and provokes a wide array of emotions and thoughts. It is a perfect example of critical play within a game. Flanagan defines games that are designed with critical play in mind are “games that innovate due to their critical approach, games that instill the ability to think critically during and after play” (261). While playing the game I thought I was trying to escape an evil organization’s quest for control over the people. By the end I though I was trying to help those that have been captured and experimented on to escape. In the end, I thought that I was successful in gaining my freedom… but was I really free…?

After thinking about my entire experience with the game though, I have a few new questions about the meaning of the game. During the game, I am trying to escape being controlled by the organization, yet I use the mind control units to direct the “controlled” to help me on my journey. How can I be against the organization and their control over the people, while I have no issues taking control of the people to advance my gameplay. Another question is doing my character really have free will? Or was he being controlled the whole time? Shouldn’t I be running away from the facility instead of going towards it? Why was my character so compelled to free the “Huddle” from the facility? While trying to free it, my character was absorbed into it. Was the “Huddle” controlling me the entire time? In the secret ending unlocked by finding all of the collectibles in the game, you find a room where you see more mind control equipment. Unplugging the equipment results in the shutdown of the equipment, but also the shutdown of your character, just like those being controlled in the facility. That clearly shows that someone or something else was controlling me the whole time. So the game asks us if we are in control of our lives, or is something else pulling the strings, making us believe that we are free?

Playdead’s Inside: Official Launch Trailer

Sources:

Flanagan, M. (2013). Critical play: Radical game design. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.