Could Inception Work as a Game?

Inception is a film of meticulous construction. It has to be. The story goes so meta so quickly it would be impossible to exist if not for the plot (or plots) being tied to one central idea. Much like Christopher Nolan’s first mainstream hit, Memento, the film follows one narrative through an unconventional, even schizophrenic story that whilst being complex, maintains some semblance of balance. The film’s ability to take the viewer right to, then along, the fine border between comprehension and Beyond The Infinite is what makes it so fantastic.

But once I’d dissected the ending, the meaning and the magnificent special effects I started thinking: Could you make a game of Inception, or are the key ideas at play only suitable for film?

The basis of the film, for the benefit of those yet to see it, is the idea that it’s possible to go inside people’s dreams. Whilst this lets you take something, perhaps secret plans, from an individual’s subconsciousness with relative ease, you need to “go deeper” if you want to leave something. This more difficult process is called inception, and is done by going into the dreams within the dreams.

Games, like the viewer of a film, almost always follow a linear path of progression. Even in games which have substantial time altering mechanics (The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom and Braid, for example) the player is always following one continual narrative, even if the action on screen is not. But Inception isn’t about going forward or backwards in time. If anything it’s about slowing time to explore our thoughts, conciousness and the meaning we take from dreams.

Perhaps a better starting point is to look at those games that break the 4th wall, that move outside of a game’s physical limits. “You like Castlevania, don’t you?” Metal Gear‘s Psycho Mantis asks the player after reading the memory card. Scarecrow in Batman: Arkham Asylum uses the breaking of the 4th wall to not just get inside Batman’s mind, but also to get inside the player’s. Both games challenge the player to think differently. They move one level up, or to put it another way, they go deeper.

If Inception: The Game is created and moves outward, towards the player — rather than simply inwards down some kind of level progression, Mario-pipe style — then the next question I would raise is how to review it. So much of the game would depend on the player, on their interpretation, that the conventional review formats wouldn’t work.

You have to click here to go D E E P E R.