It’s not very often that a short game really impresses me. Most of my all-time favorite games are either huge time-sinks (Final Fantasy games, Call of Duty multi-player, NCAA or Madden football, etc), or have a lengthy single-player campaign (Uncharted 2, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas). It’s rare for me to truly enjoy a short game because I feel like if I spend my money on something, I should really get a lot of time out of it. That’s probably the biggest reason why I almost never buy DVDs or Blu-Rays any more, unless it’s something like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Firefly, or Family Guy, where I know I’ll watch them over and over again. However, from time to time a game will come along and really impresses me, even if it only takes a few hours to beat. And Limbo is one of those games.
Limbo is a visually stunning black and white puzzle-platforming adventure that puts players in the role of a young boy traveling through a hostile world in an attempt to discover the fate of his sister. The comparisons to Braid (a similar XBL and PSN puzzle-platformer) are going to be obvious. However the games are actually quite different. If you enjoyed Braid, you will enjoy Limbo. But if you didn’t enjoy Braid, you will probably still enjoy Limbo.
First of all, let me say that this game is pretty brutal. I wasn’t expecting it, but the deaths your character suffers (and there will be A LOT) are graphic and actually quite shocking. I wasn’t expecting it, and the from the first time you get your body chopped in half by a bear trap, to the last time you get decapitated by a saw blade, it never gets any less intense. Usually in games where you die literally dozens of times, you kind of get used to it and just become desensitized. But in Limbo, there are so many different ways to die, that it never loses any affect on you. It’s pretty amazing, but amazing in a good way somehow. And when you do make it through a puzzle on your first attempt, you actually feel like you’ve accomplished something.
The game-play is simple. But it’s fantastic. Most games nowadays use every button available on the controller, including holding shoulder buttons to modify the face buttons, but in Limbo, you run, you can jump, and you can push/pull objects. That’s it. You could play this game on an NES controller. The puzzles all involve timing and simple object manipulation. And it’s fantastic. The wave of nostalgia hit from the very first puzzle, and reminded me of the first few Oddworld games, Out of this World, and even some of my old-school favorites on the NES.
As I mentioned, the game is short. You can probably finish it in the time it takes to watch The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (assuming you did what I did and stopped it half way through to go do something more interesting for an hour or so). And for the money you might be hesitant to get it. But trust me, it’s worth it. It’s like going to see a really good movie in the theatres where you end up not feeling bad about dropping the cash on it because the experience was so enjoyable. And you WILL want to play through it again just to see what kind of stuff you missed in the backgrounds and environments when you were staring directly in front of your character trying to avoid yet another death.
My only gripe with the game actually involves the achievements. Yes, I am an achievement junkie, so that stuff matters to me. In Braid, the puzzles mostly involved getting the puzzle pieces (which unlocked achievements/trophies). They’d put the piece in plain sight and challenge you to get it (“hey, look at this puzzle piece. Pretty nice huh? Bet you want it. Well, go ahead, try and get it.”), and you’d sit there thinking, “how the F do I get up there?” In Limbo, the achievements are unlocked by finding hidden eggs. And while there’s a puzzle involved in getting them, finding them is mostly just blind luck. I would have preferred the game just tell me “hey bro, there’s egg over here somewhere, are you clever enough to get it?” as opposed to the method they used, which is giving a vague location in the achievement description.
Overall, Limbo is a great game. I loved it, and I recommend it to everyone. It’s simple enough to play, yet challenging enough to get stuck on. And even though it’s short, it does have some replay value and it’s definitely worth your money.
I give it 5 Oreos Out of 5.
….ok I can’t help myself.
Barbados Slim: the only man to win Olympic gold in both limbo and sex.
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