By Joseph Murphy at thegamingliberty.com
I sit here and I find this review hard to write – why you may ask? Well, I have finished Limbo and I feel that it has set the bar for puzzle games for years to come. Slack-jawed and anxious, I rack my brain for constructive words and sentences, but I feel numb.
Numb because I have just experienced one of the most incredible arcade/game experiences in years. For that very reason it’s hard to commit to language when only experience and visuals will do justice.
Limbo is based on a simple yet deep tag line: “The boy enters Limbo to discover the fate of his sister”. As you start the game you’ll see very little in your way with regards to menus. No heaviness, no awkwardness, just emotion.
When the first screen appears you’ll sit there waiting for the intro but there’s nothing. In fact, if you look carefully, you’ll see a small bump on the path and after pressing the A button – you’ll suddenly be aware that this is no bump, in fact it’s a head: our head. As the tiny white glowing eyes open you feel your heart beating heavier. This is no ordinary game.
The graphics and the imagery used in the game are sublime. The art-team at PlayDead have created something that could be shown to the would-be gamers of the future as a history lesson in design: it’s impeccable. The drawn out blacks, darker shades of grey and blurry whites scream tension, torture and fear. As iconic as some of the most revered art in the world, the chosen art-style should be studied. To be critical of their vision is to not understand creativity.
Ingenious Puzzles
Limbo plays very much like other puzzle games. Jump and action are your main abilities and thanks to some very clever set-pieces, you need no more yet you achieve so much through your limited arsenal. The puzzles implore you to study the task at hand and thanks to the frequent checkpoints, even the most ludicrous mistake will not be punished harshly. During the earlier stages of the game the puzzles can seem simple but they have a strange sense of accomplishment about them.
Take for example the Spider puzzle. As you march along you’ll come across a colossal spider. It stabs and claws at you as you get close: venture too close and he’ll impale you. As he sits in your path you wander back and forth wondering how to get passed: remember, you need to find your sister.
As he stabs the ground where you last stood, the ground rattles from the damning impact and if you’re aware of your surroundings, you’ll notice that these tremors have worked to your benefit. Behind you, previously sitting on a branch is a bear trap. By pushing/pulling the bear trap [via the action key] towards the beast you can tempt it into attacking you. As its mighty legs lifts and gain momentum, you shift to one side leaving the bear trap in the way. The connection between the two means the spider loses its leg: a lesson learned you think to yourself.
Two great elements of the game are the animations and sound effects. The animations are fluid and seem to resemble something of a beloved animation film rather than an independently developed title. The boy bounces, falls and acts in ways that set this title beyond rival games. It’s obvious not only from Limbo’s movement and puzzles that there is a physics engine at work but if you look closely the animation, it shines. The music and the sound effects add depth to this already beautifully saturated title and from an audio point-of-view the game meets the already astronomical standards set by its visuals.
There are however, some minor issues with the game, as to be expected. Some of the puzzles aren’t clear and for that reason, the game will not please everyone. Towards the end of the game though you will notice that certain parts have no clear indication at all about what to do next and for that reason I must have died maybe 15 times. Like walking in the dark – I had to feel my way around every possible outcome – it was confusing and equally frustrating when the way became clear, accidentally.
I could go on about some of the beautiful moments that made me gasp aloud and search my room for a witness of what just happened but I’d rather not as this is a game you feel: it’s emotive, moving and clever. Limbo, like so many independent titles might suffer from the lack of the PR war machine behind it but this is not a title you should miss.
People will look back at Limbo with fond memories and will praise PlayDead for being one of those studios who had balls big enough to do what THEY wanted. It is simply one of the finest Xbox Live Arcade titles in years and for that reason you must try the demo at the very least. A sombre, dark and moving game, Limbo is incredible.
Format: Xbox 360 Live Arcade; Developer: PlayDead
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