INSIDE game & commentary on society

Last week, a friend of mine has recommended me to share with him the experience of a short puzzle/platforming game INSIDE by Playdead. In this short story (~3 hours), I have constantly thought how what is shown to us by INSIDEs team is a commentary on the world, which I am sharing with you today.

INSIDE the capitalistic machine

Philosophical analysis of elements presented in the game

The story is a commentary on life (duhh), society (duuuuhhhh) & modern, collective consciousness & "the capitalistic machine". Told through eyes of a person born without anyone indoctrinated into ways of the modern world (?an orphan?), trying to understand what happened to this world.
This boy goes through life's traps, to become a leader. From birth, through chasing the career, to becoming a mass influencer & what this chase leads to. A little guy in red shirt, who doesn't let anything stop him in his track to learning what makes the world tick.
At the beginning, we see what is left of old way of life. The farms are empty & old machinery is left to rot, rust & decay. No one is paying any interest to it.
We are being chased by masked "observers". People, who feed the machine, just to watch what is going to happen. This can be interpreted as government officials, secret "world leaders", pulling innocent little guy in red into the brain washing machine. Or, just normal people, destroying the world of this little guy unconsciously, without thought following some agenda.
Zombie workers, are people locked in their way of life. Occupied with important, but seemingly mundane work. The leader had to try them at the start, was schooled to become part of the workforce. Even though scrutinized & controlled in these 'normal' jobs, when we break free after hours, we are free to chase whatever dream we want.
Throughout his journey, our little leader influences actions of other people with his thought. Nothing stops other people from doing the same, as we see in that one puzzle.
Now, the water levels. Water flows like information, you can bathe in it, you can drown in it, both can be distilled. We live thanks to water & information. Both make us human. Water, physically. Information, mentally.
Now, the sirens. Because of the section where we go for short dives of faith under obstacles, also avoiding grasp of sirens, I associate them with very strong subjects / ideals / specialisations we choose to follow in the deep waters of information. Some will suffocate us, some will build us & show us a new way through depths.
I don't think the connection with a cable during transition into gaining ability to stay under water has any special meaning. But the under water breathing is an indicator that the protagonist has full control over information (& this way, also over people, with no need for the control helmet)
And then we get into the belly of the beast. The "INSIDE" of a machine, trying to build "the dream world" (we see at the end). Giant machinery which indirectly disintegrates human body. Pools of toxic material. Weird human creations being grown in inverted water (manipulated information?), attached to reality through a cable & a box.
Through all this effort in infiltrating clockwork of "the machine", information distillation, thought influencing, we become one, a group consciousness, observed by the engineers of "the machine" & external, passive masked observers.
In the end, for our leader to progress, he has to get mangled by the construct of the machine & becomes a caricature of itself. An unstoppable blob. This blob then does whatever it wants with it's surroundings, even squashing creators of "the machine". It then reaches that artificial beach, where it realises, it is trapped. That there isn't anything anymore to "go right for".
Then, through going back to the roots, the writers encourage us, to disconnect from the machine. Don't chase what's being put in front of us (right of the screen), but sometimes look back.

Conclusion

I see that the story is trying to instil a feeling of disgust & dread towards industrialisation & capitalism. Quite a few indie games do (most prominently, Little Nightmares). But, I feel like ending the chase on an artificial pleasure island, while the outside world decays, should be treated as an exaggeration to drive a point. The show was definitely worth it & thought inducing. It has definitely impacted my mind & thoughts of others. I hope to stay aware of its message in the future, but it is not going to stop me from being the Red Shirt guy.

Thanks for reading my analysis of the game INSIDE by Playdead. I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I did.