Every once in a while there's one of those games released, that, seemingly and immediately, become contenders as arguments for the pro-side in an "are-games-art" discussion. Limbo is one of those games. It's eye-catching, atmospheric, and very much aware of what it is, for the first few sections of the game or so. Much of the pull stems directly from the art direction of which this game is spawned, and make no mistake: What makes this game stand out among others is indeed, exactly, and almost only, that. The art direction. And that is a real bummer.
Because underneath much of that pretty foliage of what makes this game stand out from the rest, still branches a fairly basic puzzle platformer at its roots. It's obviously easy to sell a game short by cutting it down to the very basics - and for the most part I would agree that I would be selling Limbo short by doing so... But I'm not even doing that. The simplistic, laid-back, minimalistic nature of the trial-by-error platforming fits with the overall feeling of the game, and is indeed exactly what it should be for the game it is.
However, and I can't stress it enough when I say it, the art direction chosen also comes with downsides that are quite frankly detrimental to the overall experience of the game. Do not get me wrong: the first few sections of Limbo are fantastic, well-realized, atmospheric, and - by quite an achievement - manages in keeping you interested and wanting to push forward to find out what's next.
Sadly, Limbo just doesn't deliver on anything it builds up on as far as the first few sections of the game. It just isn't as well realized as one would want it to be, and most if not all of that comes from the art style that was chosen. It's like at one point they wanted this game to be one thing, but at another point they wanted it to be something else: in fact, the later sections of the game just do not benefit from the earlier ones, and vice versa. These are, in my opinion, poor gameplay design choises, which at the point of their introduction and forward, are simply detrimental to the experience.
The atmosphere is great early on, and the silhouetted graphics serve as a logical backdrop to the storytelling, but at some point it just loses its grip on you. That is, when the game quite suddenly tries so hard to be something it's really not, it is as if it moves on and leaves you behind. You're quite intrigued about the story at the very beginning. In fact, there's much to talk about, many questions are raised, and mentioning them could almost be spoiling them, but the game never actually does a great job at tying up those lose ends that it creates during the first 20 minutes or so of gameplay.
To me, the problems arise once the game tries to be something it is not, by simply falling short in its attempt to do so. Some gameplay design elements made sense, and gave the game a unique feel and touch, such as the brain worm that takes control of your movement, and you need to reach a source of light for it to turn you back around. While others, like gravity controlling switches and switches that turn the roof into the floor as if you were playing VVVVVV, simply feel out of place and as if they were ment for another game entirely.
Do not get me wrong: it's not that these elements are bad or poorly designed - in fact, they're decently well-made, but what bugs me about these later additions is that they take you out of the atmosphere which had previously been so niftily crafted and laid down by the game, as their nature seems to confirm that you are indeed playing a game.
It is detrimental, because Limbo starts out real ethereal, artsy and earthly, but slowly decends into a mechanized mess of gaming elements like gun turrets with lazers that just seem out of place, and "too game-y". A lot of the puzzles in the game involve moving objects around, timing based jumping, thinking ahead of time, and in some cases repeating something by trial and error until you figure it out, and the game does lend itself to a very forgiving (in some cases) checkpoint system to supplement that style of gameplay. And even this style of gameplay does work with what Limbo is - as failing (or, as would be the case: dying) doesn't subtract from the atmosphere at all, but rather (in some cases) add to it.
Indeed: the deaths themselves sometimes serve as points of insight, in which you find yourself going "Oh, so that's what I'm supposed to do", or "I get it now". This style of gameplay can be rewarding too, and as I said dying doesn't really take away from the atmosphere already in place in limbo.
What I'm getting at here is that when Limbo is being Limbo, it succeeds. However, when it slowly tries to become something it isn't, it simply falls short. It's as if someone said "we need more platforming to make this work", when it really didn't. Even as it begins to become more mechanical, you unravel more stuff about the world of Limbo, and as it barely has scratched on those later additions which feel as some kind of grab-bag of platforming gimmics slapped together in some attempt of, what looks like, a semblance of increased difficulty. Before it does that, however, the game does keep its mystery and atmosphere, because even with cogwheels and mechanized things, things feel messed up - in a good way. What's with the world turning around? What's with these giant cogwheels? As seems to be the trend throughout the game, many questions are raised, none are answered, and it's all reduced to a pulp of mixed gameplay elements hidden behind a canvas: simply put, this game would have been better had it not tread into waters of gravity based platforming, etc.
Sure, things like the entire environment/world slowly turning around make for some interesting platforming at times, and in fact I was okay with that too, even though the implications of a spinning world was seemingly not touched upon at all as well, but when the game went further, introducing needless elements - what they had would still feel fresh, as opposed to the additions they made, which, instead of making it more interesting, just feel out of place.
In conclusion, Limbo fails when it tries to live up to the trappings of video games instead of pushing on and being its own thing.
There's no real natural curve to the puzzle-platforming in the game, as instead of becoming harder, it begins relying on concepts that just seem out of place in contrast to the otherwise great atmosphere built by the game. Would I recommend checking it out? Sure - it's not a bad game. It's just not as realized as it could be.
