Limbo

FULL REVIEW

Video Games have commonly been referred to as art, or an interactive variant of it but it wasn’t until I played Limbo did that comparison finally sink in. Limbo has got to be one of the most unique games I’ve played in recent times – both from an aesthetic as well as a gameplay point of view. The game takes the minimalistic approach in every facet of gameplay and passes with flying colors.

Now when I say minimalistic I most certainly mean it. The game has virtually no story, no dialogue and no background score yet it manages to emote so much merely through its endearing gameplay. In Limbo you play as a young boy who finds himself in an eerie forest full of hostile creatures, traps and other children who aren’t looking at befriending him. Without any sort of narrative pushing you forward, you find yourself ploughing ahead - both horizontall and vertically, in a two dimensional plain dodging all sorts of traps and solving some pretty innovative puzzles.

Limbo’s puzzles achieve a fine balance wherein they aren’t a total cakewalk but at the same time they don’t make you want to pull all your hair out. They will stump you at first but within minutes logic rears its intelligent head and you move onto the next puzzle thoroughly satisfied. Besides puzzles you’ll also have to indulge in a fair amount of unforgiving platforming a la Little Big Planet (LBP) where even the slightest of delay could mean an immediate and gruesome death. Thankfully Limbo’s young lad controls a lot better than Sackboy so you’ll never find yourself struggling with the loose controls the way you did in LBP. And even if you end up dying a lot, the death animations are so sadistic and over-the-top, you can’t but help chuckle at the little boy’s misfortune.

Visually Limbo is a pure treat to the senses. It is absolutely devoid of any color with black, white and grey dominating the world’s color palette. The boy himself is denoted via his silhouette and his glowing white eyes that add a stark contrast to his appearance. Now I could go on and on about the beautiful and haunting imagery rampant throughout this game, but this is one of the things you just have to experience first-hand.

If I had to sit and nit-pick at the game I would have to say that it suffers from a bit of backtracking and erratic difficulty brought on by some time based puzzles. Even then I strongly suggest you don’t shy away from the game. Sadly it’s only available on Xbox Live so there’s no way to purchase a physical copy of Limbo but on the bright side you can try it out first hand in the form of a demo before you sink 1200 MS points on it.