Why does it sometimes seem that despite all of the AAA blockbuster games
with mammoth marketing campaigns that come out every year, it's often
the small download-only games that have the best sense of identity and
atmosphere? We saw it with Braid, we saw it with Flower,
and now we see it with Limbo. Well, PS3 and PC players do. 360 owners
got to play it last year. I'm not one of the people who have decried
this gaming generation's lack of originality and innovation, but even
the people who do have to admit that if nothing else, online consoles
and download services like Steam have created a new market for smaller
games with specific aims and purposes, something that has resulted in
great little games like this one.
Much like Braid, Limbo is a 2D puzzle-platformer that uses the level and
art design to help tell its brief but intriguing story. There's not
exactly a lot of plot to the game; you play as a young boy who wakes up
in the woods and appears to be searching for something, as he wanders
deeper and deeper into a place that is both unexplainable and
frightening. Traps seem to be placed everywhere to stop him, he has to
avoid collapsing logs and boulders, and watch out for monstrous
creatures. He gets a few fleeting glimpses of other people, but they
either avoid him or try to kill him. The boy can run and jump and push
and pull objects and climb ropes and ladders, but that's all he has to
protect himself besides his wits and the player's skill. The game only
lasts a few hours but fully explores the scope of his abilities,
including some more mind-bending puzzles once he stumbles on a few
unexpected things.
The game would be a lot of fun with just these elements, but its
strongest asset is probably its presentation. It has a very stark and
minimalist aesthetic, with only black and white used to create the
haunting environments you find yourself in. The boy is just a black
shape with two pinprick white dots for his eyes, and like everything
else in the world is easily identifiable but still mysterious. The sound
design also contributes to the creepy feel of the game. There is no
dialogue at all, sound effects are sparse and pack a punch, and the
music is used very sparingly to great effect. If you turn the game on
and play through it without pausing, you would never once see a hint of
any sort of user interface. The options that are there are actually
probably too minimal, as I couldn't get my gamepad to work and there was
no way to try to fix that in the game, but I appreciate how everything
about the product is designed to facilitate the single purpose of
playing the game and experiencing the strange world it takes place in.
I liked the first half of the game more than the second, where the
puzzles felt more video-gamey and occasionally got a little frustrating.
The design is just a bit more intuitive and appropriately harsh in the
beginning. I was hoping for a little more from the ending too, which I
can't say didn't fit the rest of the game's tone, but still seemed to
lack a bit of payoff. These are small complaints for a game that I
mostly loved for the three or four hours I played it. I've been
neglecting playing some of the downloadable games that have been coming
out, but Limbo reminded me that a game doesn't need to have an advanced,
cutting edge graphics engine to impress me.
