Cpt Blackadder
New Member
30 years ago, the main games of the day were platforming side scrollers, like Manic Miner, Chuckie Egg, and Jet Set Willy, that had children and adults grimace in frustration at the finite timing sometimes required, to get the little old lifeless 8 bit character from one side of the screen to the other. In the day it was glorious and subject to many a conversation on the playground. The current generation of games consoles have certainly moved on a long way since then but, there is still something quite quaint, unique, and well.. fluffy.... about playing a side scroller today.
The reason is with technological advancements, sometimes, as proven with other games like Journey, less can be most definitely more. It's really refreshing to play games that use the current generations CPU's well, but are very simple and non complicated to play. Add to this, if you can capture a gamers imagination and interest with simplistic, yet utterly stylish artwork, you have a sure fire winner.
Welcome to the game LIMBO.
Limbo, is a very dark and broody looking game. The entire palette is nothing more than black or white and... get ready for it.. the 50 shades of grey in between ! ( ha ha couldn't resist that one ) That could sound boring, but it's very striking and conveys and excellent sense of foreboding and menace. It's also very bizarre that a game that projects menace can be delicious to look at in a relaxing sort of way. The lighting angles help this immensely as they are also impressive and used to fabulous perfection.
The story, if indeed you can call it a story as there are no words or cut scenes, is you are a young boy who for reasons unknown awake in a dark forest, all alone, and you have to find your way out.
On this journey, you encounter other living things that do all they can to stop and kill you. It's a little disconcerting to be honest that people or other children in the game would want to kill an unknown child approaching them in a lord of the flies feel, and its this discourse which isn't explained at all, that may not sit well with some gamers.
The platforming and puzzles themselves are paced brilliantly. Things get harder to figure out as you progress, and to be honest, I personally didn't really enjoy the last 20 minutes gameplay as it was frustrating in the obtuse trying time after time after time again to time jumps and leaps right. However what came before was wonderful and rewarding to complete.
The visual clues to what to use to solve the puzzles range from the blindingly obvious to the you just have to know it's off the screen a way back where you came from. Thank goodness for youtube walkthroughs! The few times you may need help in solving things, you'll no doubt groan with a " DOH " it's so easy really, remark!
Your grey matter will certainly get a workout as the physics involved will require you not only work puzzles out, but also do that when gravity, magnetism, or indeed the entire platform your on, turns everything on it's head.
Conclusion
I wonder if Manic Miner ever thought his grandson would look like this ? Limbo could be described as a whole game of moving art. Every second of what you look at is picture perfect and stunning. The fact that this is a game and not something you can just look at but actually get involved with is just "pinch me please" perfect!
Depending on how quick you can figure the puzzles out will of course matter as to how long it takes you to get through the game. I figured most the puzzles out myself, but still got about 4 solid evenings worth of gaming pleasure from Limbo, which for a budget price is excellent value.
It's a shame there is no real coherent story to follow in the game, as elements are there to tease you that their might be. Because of which you can loose you sense of purpose other than to just finish the game.
Either way, it was a delight to play, even if the subject of playing a little boy meeting many a gruesome death from anything he met on the way irked me.
Rating 8.5/10
Superb, solid, simple, artistic, atmospheric, puzzle platforming fun.
