Review: Limbo
Game: Limbo
Format: Xbox Live Arcade
Developer: PlayDead Studios
Publisher: Microsoft Games Studios
To paraphrase a recent conversation with our video editor Alan Parrish ‘When you look out your window and see a topless fat man you know that it is summer time’. As well as topless fat men, there is one other event that lets you know that summer is here; Microsoft’s Summer of Arcade.
Last year we brought you coverage of the Summer of Arcade 2009 by reviewing ‘Splosion Man, Marvel VS Capcom 2, Trials HD, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time, and Shadow Complex. This year will be no different.
Microsoft’s annual digital gaming Bonanza, which highlights five of the best downloadable games of the season, kicked off this week with possibly the least summery game ever made, PlayDead’s Limbo. Featuring a unique dark black and white visual style, Limbo is a side scrolling platforming game that would probably best be described by mentioning all of the things that are not in the game.
At this point I would normally say something like ‘to set the scene…’, but that really is not possible in Limbo. Technically there is no actual story, so no cut scenes or dialogue. The description for the game says “Uncertain of his sister’s fate, a boy enters Limbo” and that is it. However, the game’s narrative and back story is played out more subtly as you work your way to potential freedom.
Upon starting the game the boy wakes up lying on the ground of a mysterious dark forest. Immediately you are hit in the face by the game’s art design; the world and the characters within it are beautifully expressionistic, like something from classic German silent cinema. There’s a nice depth of field focal disparity between the distant backgrounds and the foreground, which always makes it clear which parts of the level you are able to interact with.
The game is an expressionistic masterpiece.
The design of the boy is bold and striking as he is nothing more than a dark silhouette; the only things you’re able to clearly see are his pure white eyes. It is fantastically creepy, and it only gets more creepy from there on out.
The environments are fantastic looking, even in black and white. You will spend the majority of your time in more natural environments, such as the woods or caves, but as you progress further through the game you start to see more signs of society, including a run down old warehouse.
In terms of controls, you use the left analogue stick to move, press A or Y to jump, and press B or X to interact with objects. Interaction with objects mostly involves pulling or pushing boxes and flipping the odd switch. The game has a decent physics engine, which means items like crates, ropes, and dead bodies behave realistically.
The game quickly turns from Tim Burton-esque fairy tale charm to something more dark and sinister. Upon walking through the woods you soon come across the corpses of other little boys that, presumably, had been trying to work their way through Limbo too. Before too long you come to realise that this creepy forest is in fact a gigantic death trap, complete with Lord of the Flies style savage boys that go out of their way to kill you.
Every other living thing in the environment is hostile
If you fail to make any given jump, the chances are you will fall in to a deep pool of water and drown, or land in a gigantic bush and be impaled on the thorns, which features a truly gruesome death animation. While you cannot make out any graphic details – seeing as the boy is effectively just a silhouette – they provide just enough detail, leaving your imagination to fill in the blanks. In some ways you could make the argument that a big part of the game is discovering and witnessing all the horrible ways for the boy to die. I challenge anyone playing not to wince or gasp when they accidentally get the boy caught in a bear trap.
Another thing that may not be obvious from the outset is the game’s audio design; Limbo rarely features any music, instead it focuses on using the sound – or lack there of – to aid you in solving puzzles. One particularly good example of this is during an encounter early on with a gigantic spider; the spider will attempt to hit you, but if you successfully dodge, the spider will stamp on the ground and make a clanking sound, which should give you a hint as to how to defeat it.
The rest of the puzzles are a mix of reaction based jumping sections and pushing/pulling boxes in order to access higher areas. They are all relatively straight forward, without being too obvious. You know the sort I am sure; the kind of puzzles that will have you scratching your head for a few minutes before realising the solution was right in front of you the whole time.
The Puzzles tend to be a mix of reaction based jumps and simple tests of logic
While some may complain about the short length of the game – I completed it in about 4 hours – I am thankful that the team at PlayDead did not artificially lengthen the game by adding in some superfluous multiplayer mode. The real strength of this game is the powerful sense of isolation and of being hounded at every step.
The only real criticism I have is that toward the latter parts of the game you swap the frightening natural world for an industrial, and less charismatic, locale filled with buzz saws and turret guns; but that is only a minor complaint.
Review Round-Up
Graphics: 5/5 There is nothing else out there that looks like Limbo. It has a really dark and grim fairytale look to it.
Sound: 5/5 While there is no music to speak of, the game uses what little sound effects there are in such a clever and unique way, aiding you in some of the less obvious puzzles.
Story: 2/5 There is no traditional story, but the back story is alluded to by the debris you come across as you progress further through the game. I personally have grown to like this less traditional take on story telling, but others that have less imagination may disagree.
Gameplay: 5/5 Despite having very simple controls, there are a wide variety of different puzzles present in the game. The basic premise is always the same – push/pull box, jump over gap, flip switch, etc. – but it never feels samey.
Longevity: 3/5 Your first play through will probably take about 5 hours depending on your skill level. However, Limbo is a game that has been designed to be replayed over and over, again and again. The game features online leaderboards, meaning particularly competitive types can compete against friends and strangers by beating the game as quickly and as efficiently as possible.
[starreview tpl=16]
Overall: 5 Floating Corpses out of 5 – Limbo is an extraordinary artistic achievement; what it lacks in story telling it makes up for in beautiful art design, challenging puzzles, and some of the best sound design in a videogame since Dead Space.
Limbo is currently available to download on Xbox Live for 1200 Microsoft Points (about £10).
Stay tuned to The Newb Review for more coverage of this year’s Xbox Live Summer of Arcade.
Oh my God, I need this game!!! AAAGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!
I need to ask the wife’s permission. I may have to do some lovely things for her.