Limbo

It would appear that I pulled the ‘chute a little too early the other day before I put my last post up, since I was literally 3 puzzles away from the end of the game when I quit, and fell just short of finishing it in one sitting. So my opinion won’t have changed that much from that post.

I’m a firm believer that if you have any interest in this game at all, that you should completely avoid any and all of the major media outlets… ESPECIALLY any with videos… it is a shame when any of the experience is spoiled by such things. For instance I caught an episode of “Reviews on the Run” yesterday and in the video clips they showed with their review they showed solutions for several of the puzzles. From my personal experience only 1 puzzle was spoiled before hand and I felt genuine disappoint when I got that point. That may be the first time something like that has happened to me, which should speak volumes about the level of enjoyment I had with every minute of this game, and the quality of the experience.

LIMBO is a platform puzzler, it contains no dialog, no color, and very very few characters. But that is not to say the game isn’t beautiful, and the story isn’t compelling, in fact that couldn’t be further from the truth. The game starts with a boy waking up in the middle of the woods, no preface, or pretext of any kind. Years of video game training has taught me the only thing to do in these sorts of side scrolling situations… go right young man… The media says somewhere I should have known that I was playing the part of a boy looking for his sister… I don’t know where they got that from… and i don’t care… I likened the experience to having woken up with amnesia, which helped me to related to whats going on a little better maybe.

There are 4 or 5 different types of areas that blend together seamlessly as you play, and although they were all fairly charming my favorite moments in the game were early on when the puzzles seemed to be more closely tied to the people and things found in the environment that were clearly carefully set up, but somehow felt naturally there. It made me feel like I just stumbled upon these things and that I’m coming up with my own solution even though I know thats not the case. As the game moves on I found the puzzles to look and feel more like puzzles when I approached them, and instead of using the things found in the environment to solve then, there are switches that do different things, blades, and gravity, to deal with. The puzzles are still fun and clever, but not nearly as satisfying as it was early on. Failing to solve these puzzles often ends in some gruesome greyscale murder scenes that quite literally made me cringe. That is a testament to how engrossed you get in the boy and his adventure. As a weathered gamer I’ve seen all sorts of video game murder… in all sorts of colors and context, very few if any get this sort of reaction out of me, it really was a joy to be a part of this world while I was playing.

The controls are awesome, the physics, and the weight of your character as he’s running, climbing, jumping and sliding, all feel consistent, and (for lack of a better word) ‘right’. Any time I didn’t clear a gap it felt like my fault for poor timing, not the controls.

A lot has been made of the game being short, I found it was a good length, considering the 1p in modern warfare 2 only took me 7 hours (I’m primarily a single player gamer), the fact that this game was in the 6 hour ball park, all of which was very enjoyable, and a fraction of the price. I think this game is an incredible value and completely deserves to be talked about as one of the best gaming experiences I’ve had this year. In fact I believe if the game had of carried on for another hour or 2  it would have began to feel a little stale, and the fact that their is no story based motivation for you to keep pressing on, I think it very well could have lost some people. Like most parts of this game, I found the time perfect for the genre. As it stands it left me wanting more, and that’s a good thing.

xbox 360 owners have no excuse in my eyes for not owning this game. It’s cheap, it’s fun, it’s immersive, it’s rewarding. Anyone who doesn’t have a 360 should be hassling PlayDead, begging them to get this to the platform most convenient. It’s not worth buying a console for, but this is something that no gamer should miss, and certainly not because of console exclusivity.

Limbo

The first rule of Limbo is to not talk about Limbo… I almost regret watching the previews and reviews of this title because it becomes a mild disappointment when I recognize a section. I will say this though, this game is going to be in the Game of the Year discussions, and if it’s not something is terribly wrong with the people who are involved in such things… There have been more clever moments in the first hour of this game than every other game I’ve played this year (I’ve played a lot of games this year).

This thing is the definition of polished, it looks amazing with the lighting effects and the shades of grey, there were not real instances where I wasn’t certain what was in the foreground/background. There are different environments but the creep factor sort of wears off when you get beyond the woods, which is too bad. The controls are simple and feel (for the lack of a better word) right. From the gamer’s perspective (re:mine), the gameplay was incredibly intuitive, challenging, but never frustrating. I’ve never had a game make me feel so accomplished, smart and/or stupid and any combination thereof from one minute to the next like this one has. The girlfriend was watching me play for a bit at the start, and there was a whole lot of  her saying “Ewwww!” immediately followed by me saying “AHHH!!” in a true “eureka!” moments. I like a good puzzle game, but I don’t recall one that has had this sort of effect on me.

You would be doing yourself a huge disservice by not buying this game immediately if you have a 360, and the developer would be doing themselves and everyone else a disservice by not bringing it to other platforms. Everyone who doesn’t have nightmares (or at least can’t recover gracefully from them) should want to, and be able to play this game. It’s twisted, and gruesome without the gore, and because of this, even the parts where nothing is happening keep you on the edge of your seat.

I should probably save something for the review…