Games like "Inside"

Inside is, in my opinion, one of the greatest platforming masterpieces of all time and also sits near the top of my list of games that I feel has a truly wonderful and thought-provoking story. It is one of the few games that I have played from start to finish as fast as I could, and when the game was over I wanted to stand up and give a round of applause. It is an epic experience that in my mind, hasn't been replicated in many ways and is truly a unique gaming experience.

src

I would imagine that most gamers have already played this, or have at least heard about it. The beauty of this game is that without saying a single word, it tells a massive story where you, the player are free to fill in the blanks as to what the hell is going on and draw your own conclusions as to what you have just experienced. It is such a perfect story that there are loads of videos out there that go on for nearly an hour trying to break down their particular theory as to what the story actually is.

Other games have used this same method of story-telling without using any spoken or written words, and while they are not as perfect as Inside some of them come close and I'll talk about a few of them here.

Brothers

src

Brothers is a story of well, two brothers. Without using any language or rather, a language that we are not meant to understand in the few words that are spoken in a completely made up language, it becomes clear to us that these two sons need to go on a journey to obtain some medicine for their dying father. This results in a long and fantasy-filled journey that is simply breathtaking at times and quite frightening at others.

src

Just like Inside most of the game content is puzzle-solving or outrunning / outsmarting an enemy that is pursuing you. While the game is not very long, nor is it terribly difficult outside of a few clutch moments, none of that matters since the story is so engaging. It also has one of the most amazing endings of any game that I have ever played that will haunt you for a long time after you stop playing it.

---

Braid

src

While this game appealed to me significantly less than Inside or Brothers and it also has a lot of written words in it, these words are presented in a poetic manner that leaves a lot to the imagination. It is also (IMO) very very difficult and requires very precise platforming moves in order to complete it.

src

In Braid you are able to reverse time and not only does this prevent your death, but it is also a very necessary aspect of the game in order to complete certain sections of it. You will need to perform your maneuvers in reverse to take advantage of the "time reversal" at just the right moment in order to get to another platform or something in the distance that you can't reach for whatever reason.

The thing that made this game so great is the ending though, which I will not spoil. You are meant to be attempting to accomplish a particular task and when you finally achieve it, the big reveal is that things have not been what they appear the entire time you have been playing. You can look that one up on your own on YT if youd don't feel like spending 30 hours on this game to find out what i am talking about.

---

Papa and Yo

src

I probably ended up with this game because of some sort of flash sale or Humble Bundle, I don't remember. At first I thought it was lame because it just seemed like another wandering platformer, but then as the story starts to unravel - again, through mostly unspoken visual clues - it becomes an extremely tragic story of a boy who escapes into this fantasy world in order to escape the trauma of his terrible home life.

src

Your gigantic companion that follows you is instrumental in your progress in the levels, but on occassion there are certain things that will trigger him and he becomes enraged, attacking all that is around him, including you. It doesn't become evident until later in the game that this giant companion is actually a representation of the child's own alcoholic father and once these pieces come together it is just such an amazing moment and sorry for spoiling it but I couldn't resist. This amazing game can be picked up for just a few dollars at the moment since it has been out since 2012.

---

Little Nightmares

src

Little Nightmares seems like the sort of game that would happen if Tim Burton got together with someone living in an insane asylum, then talked to some game developers and decided to make an extraordinarily compelling, yet disturbing game. Just like with Inside the story is largely up to you to determine and most of the time you are trying to avoid these extremely creepy overlords that seem to be the masters of the domain you happen to inhabit.

src

The lighting, the eerie sound effects, and just the overall experience is wonderfully done. Little Nightmares 2 was just released and I already downloaded the demo although I don't really need a demo to know that this 2nd installment is going to be just as amazing as the first.

---

Games of this sort don't come around too often. I am one of those gamers that likes a good story, but doesn't want to be straining his eyes looking at a monitor reading thousands of words of dialogue in order to get the point across to me. I enjoy massive amounts of cutscenes even less. These games are able to tell a magnificent story without speaking at all, and this is a truly unique feat that is very difficult to pull off.

I believe that this is likely my favorite style of game but unfortunately, due to the difficulty of telling a story without actually saying anything, is pretty difficult to pull off. Therefore, there aren't actually very many games that I believe fall into this category. Hopefully, some of these titles will appeal to you as well as they did me.