The limbo Review
by UnkemptStatue
08/01/20
This award-winning puzzle-platformer from 2010 provides a singularly unique gaming experience.
In Limbo, just about everything can kill: gravity, water, bear traps, saw blades, other children, electric rails, giant spiders, and too many others to list here. The deadliest thing of all, however, is probably you, the player. The level layout of this game looks a lot like a traditional platformer, and it can inspire some typical platformer decision making: run fast, jump far.
Except those types of decisions will get you killed in a plethora of gory ways because in Limbo you can neither run fast nor jump far.
At best, your speed can be described as a light jog. You can only jump between knee- and waist-high, but you can jump longer than you might expect. You can also survive a fall from higher than you might expect, (not too high, though, or those legs will shatter), but your character is not a nimble ninja or action hero.
You will die in this game. A lot. First, you die while trying to figure out the solution to the puzzles. Then, you die while trying to execute that solution.
At times, it is maddening. But with careful eyes and ears, you’ll notice that the game does quite a good job of preparing you for each challenge to come. Everything on the screen is important, whether you can interact it with it or not. What might at first seem like a grim detail or eerie sound effect might offer the solution to an upcoming puzzle. Limbo can quickly inspire accusations of “this game’s not fair,” but if you take your time, the ever-increasing challenge of each puzzle will only make them more satisfying when you solve them.
There is no clear distinction between levels in Limbo. Each puzzle more or less just flows into the next, but there are some that feel more boss-like than others. These “boss” puzzles sometimes signify a change in the setting’s theme, from say, creepy forest to derelict city. Structing the games narrative as a single linear experience without any interruptions was a wise decision on the developer’s part. The way the game is presented really keeps you in the shoes of the nameless protagonist.
The graphics in this game are beautiful and unsettling. The whole thing occurs on a palette of white, black, and every shade between. Somehow its lack of color seems to bring out more detail, and while I can’t quite put my finger on it, something would definitely be lost if color were to be added.
Perhaps that thing would be the sense of unease and dread which Limbo is so good at evoking. In color, our eyes could see all the wondrous horror of Limbo in more detail, but it’s the very obscuring of those details that make the game so horrifying.
If you’re just looking to beat the game and move on, Limbo is pretty short. But you’re hunting achievements, it will take significantly longer. It took me 30 hours to earn all the achievements. By far the hardest is the one in which you have to beat the whole game in one sitting without dying more than five times. While the game is a relatively slow-paced puzzle-platformer, there are plenty of puzzles where you just have to practice and “git gud.” Once you’ve figured out all of the puzzles and have practiced the most challenging parts, a near-perfect run of Limbo will take about an hour.
Limbo, which is often on sale on Steam, is easily worth its meager ten-dollar price tag. It is a powerful and affecting gaming experience and one I think every one should try.