Limbo, developed by Playdead, released on XBLA last year and was well received as an outstanding downloadable game. Our own site gave it a 5/5 review, with other reviewers giving it similar scores. Now, a year later PlayStation 3 users can finally get their hands on this Indie gem via the PlayStation Network. I do not own an Xbox 360, so I unfortunately missed this downloadable title last year, which means I jumped at the chance of playing it on the PS3 when it finally released on the console this July.
Limbo is a 2D side scroller that takes players through a world that is freighting and mysterious. Players control a boy looking for his sister, only to be met with many puzzles, other boys that only look to kill, and a gigantic spider that hunts you down in the first chapters of the game. Limbo’s monochromatic art style is done beautifully with excellent lighting, and film grain effects that adds to the game’s dark presentation. Mixed with loud and metallic ambient sounds, the overall visual and audio presentation of the game is eerie and is at the same level of classic gothic horror films, and film noir from the past.
If the visual and audio presentation is not enough to set an eerie atmosphere, the gameplay and deaths should. Limbo is filled with puzzles, and most of them require trial and error or as the developers call it “trail and death”, which is probably a better description of the puzzles in this game. Each puzzle is designed to seem impossible to pass, and they usually take several failed attempts to finally figure out. For myself, it took a few more attempts after I figured out how to solve the puzzles. When each puzzle is failed, which are more like death traps than puzzles, the boy is met with an unfortuante, and gruesome death that can be unpleasant to watch. The death scenes is where the game really highlights its dark atmosphere. From getting crushed by large boulders, impaled by the giant spider, or sliced into pieces by a giant saw, the game gets darker and darker with each death.
The game follows a very linear path that takes the player from a dark forest, to factory type settings, with increasingly difficult puzzles. Pacing may feel weird in this game, as the first quarter of the game is filled with set piece moments such as your first encounter with the giant spider. The rest of the game is filled with puzzles, and almost no set piece moments. This makes the game feel unbalanced, as if one half of the game is loaded with increasingly hard puzzles, while the other half, while still difficult, can be completed rather quickly.
I find it odd that a boy is the main character of a game so focused on death, gothic presentation, and overall dark atmosphere. It only adds to the game’s mystery. Why is this boy here in this strange and deadly land and how did he and his sister become separated? No explanation is ever given in Limbo, as there is no dialogue in the game. With no reasoning behind the game’s strange and mysterious story, it is left to an open interpretation for anyone who experiences it.
Limbo is a unique experience that helps prove the downloadable market offers some wonderful games for cheap. Playdead took an old genre of games (platformer) and injected it with a horror twist, that has left players with an open interpretation that is still debated today. Not often do I play a game and sit around after finishing it pondering its outcome and meaning, and debating what the story is really about. For that reason alone, Limbo is one of the best gaming experiences I had thus far in 2011.
