There is little to no story in this game yet it makes up for its odd presentations and puzzles. When you start the game you’re immediately immerse into the story and you appears to be unconscious at the beginning. You play as a kid waking up in the middle of a dark and eerie forest that happens to be in the borders of hell, also known as Limbo. And you don’t know who you are or why you’re there and that’s it. There’s no cut scene or anything in this game; I actually think this is a good thing– not to have an open cut scene… it really gives you a sense of mystery and makes you want to find out who the kid you’re playing is. Throughout your journey in this game you will came across various life forms from oversized insects trying to kill you to children; the other kids are all either hostile towards you, or dead. And speaking of death– Limbo has pretty morbid depictions of sad expiry that some people might find very disturbing; the thing that shocked me the most was early in the game while trying to get across a gap of water a kid walks towards you and lets himself fall into the water and drown, I then had to jump on his corpse to reach land.
Now the best feature of the game is the graphics. As you can see from screenshots everything is presented entirely in black and white with a 1950’s noir film style and your character doesn’t have a face or anything, so straight away you get this eerie scary feeling almost like you’re watching a horror movie. Almost everything in the game is obscured by the darkness, thus rendering your character and his surroundings to silhouettes. All these visual elements together provide a somewhat melancholic, scary, and beautiful looking game. All these visual elements put together provide a somewhat melancholic, dark, and scary looking game. Overall, it’s a very artistic looking game with the contrast in many different shades which gives you that feel that you’re always in a constant danger which basically you are.
This is the type of a game where you get stuck in a certain section for a while which I didn’t find it extremely annoying. The puzzles are many creative, interesting and challenging puzzles; most of them will have you die a few times before you finally realize what to do but once you get passed the hard section there’s this huge scent of accomplishment.
One thing I’ve noticed straight away was that it’s not a very complicated game to play, there are basically just two buttons and the joystick to use; you can move, jump and drag things and that’s it. And those 3 actions can make this a very exciting gameplay believe me or not. I finished this game in about 6 hours which I think it’s pretty good for an arcade game and I can see myself go back for a second or third time for hidden collectables and maybe for trophies.
Overall, I’d give this title a solid 10/10. This game is the most bizarre and eerie game I have ever played, a must play for anyone who is looking to experience something different and unique.
Limbo is now available on the PlayStation Store for $14.99 and $11.99 for PlayStation Plus members. This title has been out for the Xbox 360 for a while and I believe it cost 1200 Microsoft Points to own it and it will soon be available for PC players.
Space Ogres 