LIMBO REVIEW Posted by Alevop on Jul 25, 2010 07:52 (40 days ago) |
Limbo, essentially, is yet another 2D side scrolling puzzle platformer, but calling it that makes me feel like I’m doing the game an injustice. It has a very distinct charm that sets it apart from other games. There is absolutely no colour in Limbo, instead it just displays the characters and objects as silhouettes against a very bleak, grey backdrop. It’s a very simplistic style, but one that I think would look impressive even if it was released 20 years from now.
The game starts off with an innocent young boy waking up in the middle of nowhere, with no explanation as to how or why. It’s a nightmare world where everything it seems is trying to kill you. But its inherent beauty and mystery makes you keen to explore and discover just exactly what’s going on.
It’s not just the graphics that are simple though, the controls are as well. In fact you only need to use three buttons in the entire game; the left analog stick is to move, A to jump and B to interact with various objects. You might think this would make the game a little easy, but you would be mistaken. I warn you that you are guaranteed to get very frustrated playing Limbo. The puzzles are quite remarkably designed but extremely challenging and perhaps not for the casual gamer. You will often find yourself getting stuck for long periods, only to realise how simple the solution is, but the game does this quite deliberately.
Limbo is also very unforgiving as every mistake usually results in a quite brutal death, but this makes it more rewarding when you do eventually solve the puzzle. And Fortunately checkpoints are frequent, so you will never have to repeat any section more than once. But most impressive of all is every puzzle in each of the game’s 24 chapters is completely unique.
 The lack of colour isn’t the only notable absence; there is virtually no sound in the game either. An ambient drone and the occasional movement of objects is all that you will hear. There is no dialogue, yet the atmosphere created by this creepy silence and black and white world manage to convey a quite emotional story. I never would have thought that a puzzle game would be able to engross me in a fictional world so much.
In short, Limbo gives the player everything that you can ask for from this type of game. It’s another great success story from the indie development scene that deserves to be supported. It even has replay value in the form of secret areas hidden throughout the game which reward you with achievements, not that you would have needed a reason to play through a second time anyway.
The only area that disappoints is the final third of the game in which you come across more cliché elements like laser triggered machine guns. But even here the games charm doesn’t wear off, and doesn’t hamper the overall enjoyment you will get from possibly one of the best Xbox Live Arcade games to date.
Score: 9/10
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