Limbo game review

Unlike most platform puzzle games, Limbo isn’t going to put a smile on your face, unless you have a slightly dark sense of humour. The official summary of the game is “Uncertain of his sister’s fate, a boy enters LIMBO”. Like that austere and sparse description, the game world is full of empty space, leaving a lot of room for the player to imagine the world behind the game, rendered in what can be described as a beautifully layered charcoal sketch, with a silent film era grain.

As the boy, you make your way to the heart of the matter, and to get there, you have to overcome a series of logic puzzles and enemies. The developer, Playdead, doesn’t hammer you over the head with a story. Instead, it unfolds slowly as you make your way through the various sections of Limbo, from industrial wastelands to shadowy forests. As you progress through the game, there’s an almost hypnotic, dream like quality to the whole world, as you’re immersed completely in it.

You don’t encounter enemies often, but when you do, they’re certainly memorable, whether it’s light-fearing brain ticks or one of the creepiest renditions of a spider I’ve seen in any medium.  Even the boy himself is nothing more than a black silhouette against a charcoal sky, and the only sign of life or character other than his motions is the whites of his eyes.

The unique art style of the game leaves a lot to the imagination, and the audio that accompanies it serves the visuals, and vice versa. The soundtrack is atmospheric, and at points disappears only to be replaced by environmental sounds that match the environment. It’s never bombastic or in your face, and for all the praise the visual team deserves, I’d give equal credit to the sound designers.

From a gameplay point of view, the game design is just about on par with the presentation. Like most good puzzle games, they start off fairly easy, and build to more complex, and as you progress, new mechanics and new interactions between objects are discovered.  Later on, the puzzles can get pretty tough, either via the logic, or the hand eye coordination needed to pull something off before you run out of time. You’ll never feel that something is impossible though, and every failure brings a learning experience. Every failure also brings death, sometimes gruesome silhouettes of dismemberment, sometimes as simple as the boy falling into the water, and drifting down as his eyes fade to black.  Often, these deaths are more poignant than they should be.  After all, it’s a puzzle game, but I personally couldn’t help but feel bad for the little guy some times.  Other times, the deaths (and those of the boy’s foes), were darkly comic.

If I had a criticism that could be leveled at Limbo, it would be that the lack of explanations combined with the visual style can make some of the behavioural cues of enemies easy to miss the first time around. Remember though, I said “if”, and I understand the decision to sacrifice in game “How To” dialogue to maintain both game flow and to keep the playing immersed in the world of Limbo.

Ultimately, Limbo strikes a great balance between all of it’s components, from the artistic but not self indulgent style to the game mechanics, with controls that while simple, can be used to achieve a wide variety of actions.  It’s also a game that’s almost as fun to watch as it is to play.  For that reason, I have to say that Limbo is the best game I’ve played this year, bar none, and well worth the 1200 MS Points on Xbox Live Arcade (as the first of five in the Summer of Arcade promotion).

Don’t even wait to go home.  Hit the link now, and get it already.

I don’t normally give out ratings in reviews, but Limbo deserves to be called a Perfect Game, hence the Achievement rating below.