Review: LIMBO

Playdeads first title arrives on XBLA, bringing with it a touch of mystery and a breathtaking art style all its own. 

Developer: Playdead
Publisher: Microsoft
Platforms: X360

Limbo is a title with a simple premise yet a powerful delivery. It sports a minimalist approach to game design. There is no epic story filled with cut-scenes like many of todays AAA titles, in fact Limbo barely has any story at all. A simple sentence of how this is the tale of a boy entering Limbo to save his sister can be read in the product description upon purchase and that’s really it. In fact Limbo is a title where simplicity is it’s beauty. Limbo controls with only two buttons, has very little sound and the whole world is portrayed in just two colors: black and white. What results out of this simplicity however is something magical. 

Limbo is a puzzle game where you must transverse a desolate landscape via brilliant platforming and solving increasingly difficult puzzles to proceed.  Limbo’s puzzles are truly brilliant; and it’s when the game starts incorporating physics into them where they really become a rewarding experience. Limbo manages to balance that fine line that so many puzzlers have a hard time defining when it comes to difficulty. It’s not easy where you yawn and you solve them with one hand, yet not hard enough where you’ll have to consult forums to know what to do next.

Don’t get me wrong, you’ll be stumped at almost after every corner, but once you look at the problem and work out the possible solutions - clarity arrives just in time to give you that sweet “Eureka” moment. Platforming is just silky smooth as well, the boy jumps on point and grabs onto surfaces very accurately, making hard jumps easy to calculate. (a moment with a certain jump over a moving saw blade comes to mind) Basically it comes downs to the realization that if you die it’s because you screwed up, not the game, and it’s a very nice feeling to have.

While Limbo’s gameplay is very tight, it’s the world that lured me in. The soft two toned shadowy world is a pleasure to explore. The graphics use the two colors very well, blending them amazingly precise - all the way down to the water and gravity that envelope the world. You’ll constantly be on your toes as you move forward through the forests and reach the bellowing industrial cityscapes filled with wild contraptions and creatures that populate Limbo.

It’s a world full of traps that will catch you by surprise and make you gasp as you suddenly meet an untimely demise. You’ll die in gruesome ways with black blood spurting from you in a twisted fashion as your eyes slowly die out; and sadly you’ll see your little hero die a grisly death time after time, as you carefully learn to maneuver puzzles. Luckily there’s a gore filter that can be activated for people that are squeamish at the thought of a little boy being savagely mauled.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Limbo’s sound design. Sound is kept to a minimum only managing to spike at the the perfect moments to compliment the situation. Most of the time you’ll travel in silence with only the environmental effects of the world and your small heroes breath to accompany you. 

When all is said and done, Limbo is an excellent adventure that will take you 3-6 hours to complete on your first play-through. I know this makes many people run away due to the steep price point of 1200 microbucks but it really is a great title that should not be missed. Adding to the titles defense; the game provides excellent replay value in the form of egg hunts. If you really keep an eye out while playing you will come across secret eggs you can collect, especially from the second playthrough and onwards. There are a total of 21 known eggs to find, with people frantically hunting for more right now to rank up in the leader-boards. There are also rewards for completing the game without dying at all, which is going to take several runs to master.

Limbo is a clever mature title that does a lot with a little. It’s a title that leaves an imprint long after the credits have rolled, sure the price is steep for its length but if you do shell out the microbucks for it you won’t regret it. Next to Braid and Shadow Complex this is one of the best titles that XBLA has to offer - and one of the best platforming titles I’ve ever played.

by: Ernesto Rivera