A man once said that videogames could never be art, he then redacted his statement because of the bad press it was attracting, Ebert was right though, for the most part, videogames could never be art, as “art” is defined; the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way to affect the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music, literature, film, photography, sculpture, and paintings. Most games I wouldn’t immediately consider to be art, Modern Warfare 2 is not art, Halo: Reach is not art, Limbo, however, is art. It is a very deliberate assembly of elements that affect your sense and emotions. It is dark and terrifying, poking at every fear you had as a child, those of darkness, spiders, drowning, and falling. It is ominous and beautiful and can only be experienced to be fully understood.
The simplest way I can describe Limbo to you is as a dark fantasy film (with horror elements) made during the silent film era. The first time you boot up the game it opens with the words LIMBO being “projected” onto the screen, you press start and the game begins. You play as a small boy who awakes in a dreamlike forest and you just start going to the right and avoid death. The story is not explicitly stated to you but you are looking for you sister, there is no music, and no dialog. The world is simply silhouettes and a black and white world. You traverse left to right solving increasingly difficult puzzles and avoiding grisly death traps. And when I say grisly I mean it, the first time you die, as you will die a lot in this game, is by stepping into a bear trap and you are decapitated. It’s shocking at first because you probably have never seen a young boy being decapitated. But it’s not the worst, not to spoil the deaths but the worst I have experienced is being hit by a massive saw blade chopping me into tiny pieces.
As I said before you will die a lot trying to solve these puzzles, but thankfully it is not frustrating, you simply are respawned right before the place you died at and try the puzzle again. Some will take a lot of trial and error to figure out. Some puzzles involve you defeating foes, like giant spiders, or simply pressing levers and climbing higher and higher from raising water. Every puzzle seems to be perfectly planned out and placed exactly where they should be, it’s difficult to convey with words, but there is a perfect flow to the game that you can only understand after playing it.
Much of the game is not explained to you, there is a Lord of the Flies element occurring with other children trying to kill you. I have yet to understand where the fuck I am or how the fuck I got here. It is wonderfully refreshing not to understand what is happening, just to simply experience it.
Limbo is 2010’s Braid, that’s what they’re saying. It is brilliant. Last year we had the incredible, albeit unimaginative, Shadow Complex, prior to that we had Braid, this year we have Limbo. It is one of the most fully imagined games I have played, it is refreshing to say the least, to have to dialog, and limited explanation of story. If you have $15 or 1200 Microsoft Points, but Limbo, even if it is the only game you buy all summer, buy it because it is worth it, despite its short length of about 4 hours, buy it because the artists that made this deserve your money, buy it because it is art.
The simplest way I can describe Limbo to you is as a dark fantasy film (with horror elements) made during the silent film era. The first time you boot up the game it opens with the words LIMBO being “projected” onto the screen, you press start and the game begins. You play as a small boy who awakes in a dreamlike forest and you just start going to the right and avoid death. The story is not explicitly stated to you but you are looking for you sister, there is no music, and no dialog. The world is simply silhouettes and a black and white world. You traverse left to right solving increasingly difficult puzzles and avoiding grisly death traps. And when I say grisly I mean it, the first time you die, as you will die a lot in this game, is by stepping into a bear trap and you are decapitated. It’s shocking at first because you probably have never seen a young boy being decapitated. But it’s not the worst, not to spoil the deaths but the worst I have experienced is being hit by a massive saw blade chopping me into tiny pieces.
As I said before you will die a lot trying to solve these puzzles, but thankfully it is not frustrating, you simply are respawned right before the place you died at and try the puzzle again. Some will take a lot of trial and error to figure out. Some puzzles involve you defeating foes, like giant spiders, or simply pressing levers and climbing higher and higher from raising water. Every puzzle seems to be perfectly planned out and placed exactly where they should be, it’s difficult to convey with words, but there is a perfect flow to the game that you can only understand after playing it.
Much of the game is not explained to you, there is a Lord of the Flies element occurring with other children trying to kill you. I have yet to understand where the fuck I am or how the fuck I got here. It is wonderfully refreshing not to understand what is happening, just to simply experience it.
Limbo is 2010’s Braid, that’s what they’re saying. It is brilliant. Last year we had the incredible, albeit unimaginative, Shadow Complex, prior to that we had Braid, this year we have Limbo. It is one of the most fully imagined games I have played, it is refreshing to say the least, to have to dialog, and limited explanation of story. If you have $15 or 1200 Microsoft Points, but Limbo, even if it is the only game you buy all summer, buy it because it is worth it, despite its short length of about 4 hours, buy it because the artists that made this deserve your money, buy it because it is art.