Art: Playdead · from the official Microsoft Store listing

INSIDE

Playdead

Xbox Series X|SPCCloud

About the game

Hunted and alone, a boy finds himself drawn into the center of a dark project.

Discover Playdead's unique indie adventure game Inside, a dark, narrative-driven platformer combining intense action with challenging puzzles. It has received critical acclaim for its moody art style, ambient soundtrack and unsettling atmosphere.

What the press said:

“MASTERPIECE! Inside is a 2D puzzle platformer that builds upon what made Limbo great, and in fact builds something greater.”
IGN — 10/10

“Inside expands on the concepts and scope of its predecessor in wildly creative ways, and it's so immaculately designed and constructed from top to bottom that it almost feels suitable for display in an art museum. This is one hell of a follow-up.”
Giant Bomb — 5/5

“Gorgeous art and animations, devious puzzle design and a pitch-black sense of humor. A perfectly paced series of escalating "holy shit" moments.”
Kotaku

Winner of more than 100 awards, including:

- Artistic Achievement (BAFTA)
- Game Design (BAFTA)
- Narrative (BAFTA)
- Original Property (BAFTA)
- Best Independent Game (Game Critics Awards)
- Best Independent Game (The Game Awards)
- Best Art Direction (The Game Awards)
- Spite Award (D.I.C.E. Awards)
- Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction (D.I.C.E. Awards)
- Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction (D.I.C.E. Awards)
- Best Audio (Game Developers Choice Awards)
- Best Visual Art (Game Developers Choice Awards)

Description from the publisher’s Microsoft Store listing.

Story

AI-assisted summary

You play as an unnamed boy who starts alone in a bleak, mostly silent world. He slides down a rocky slope and runs through a dark forest while masked figures with flashlights, spotlight vehicles, and dogs search the area. The journey is a side-view puzzle adventure: walk, run, climb, swim, and use the surroundings to get past obstacles. Color is sparse, and capture or a wrong step can end a scene, though progress resumes from the last checkpoint. Beyond the woods lie roads, farms, and signs of a larger, secretive operation. The boy is hunted and drawn toward whatever that project is hiding.

Full story (spoilers)

A boy slides down a rocky slope and flees through woods patrolled by masked guards, searchlights, vehicles, and dogs. He gets past a road blockade and reaches a farm where worms have driven pigs into a frenzy, then uses the animals and machinery to reach a city that looks deserted. There, lines of lifeless people are herded by mind control. Farther on, an underground complex holds flooded rooms, a shock-wave chamber, and labs where researchers experiment on bodies underwater. In places he can wear a helmet and steer some of those controlled people to solve problems. An underwater, siren-like being fastens a device to him so he can breathe below the surface. Deeper in the offices, scientists watch a round tank. Inside it is the Huddle, a huge mass of joined human bodies. He releases its restraints and is pulled into the mass. As the Huddle, he smashes through the facility, killing some scientists, is briefly trapped in another tank, breaks free again, and crashes through a wooden wall. The mass rolls down a wooded hill and stops on a bright grassy shore. A hidden route exists if glowing orbs found earlier are switched off. The boy can revisit an early bunker, enter a new underground room of computers and a mind-control helmet, unplug the power, and freeze in the same pose as the deactivated people.

Written with AI from the sources below and checked claim by claim against them; nothing else is added. Wording is ours; Wikipedia content is CC BY-SA 4.0.

Trailer

Official trailer · XBOX on YouTube · Watch on YouTube ↗Loads from youtube-nocookie.com only when you press play.

Screenshots

Tap to expand · from the Microsoft Store listing

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Game details and art come from each game’s official Microsoft Store listing (cover images are cropped from those official images, or from publisher press kits, with our title overlay; nothing is AI-generated); art © the respective publishers, used for editorial review. Game Pass membership from Microsoft’s public Game Pass catalog, checked Sep 29, 2026. Critic scores appear only where a real aggregate exists; otherwise “Not yet reported”.