Limbo

I had seen photos and videos of this game and thought that it would be fun to play. A bit of a platform game with some puzzles to solve. I ended up getting it on the PS4 system and I will say that I enjoyed the game, but at a certain point in the game it just stopped being as fun and atmospheric as the beginnings. Basically, when you got out of the woods and into the industrial type setting, the game just lost some of what made it so entertaining in the earlier stages.

The story, from what everyone seems to deduce has a boy waking up in the middle of a creepy forest. They then speculate that he is hunting for his sister, though not sure why it could not be his girlfriend or just a friend rather than a sister. The world he awakens in, is one of quiet and eeriness. It is also one filled with danger as there are traps and other obstacles to overcome in this nightmarish landscape!

The game play is basically a side scroll game with puzzles to figure out to get through the many obstacles present in the game. You can jump, pull things, push things and activate things. It was really entertaining during the stages when you had to get by spiders and such, but once again, the game just kind of lost its magic when you were in the world simply activating gravity plates that just did not seem to fit the motif of this world that had been created.

So, not my favorite game ever, but it had its moments. If only the game play had been more like the first portion of the game throughout I would have rated it higher. Figuring out that you could rip a spider leg off then roll the spider was just more interesting than activate this thing to make crate fall in right spot. I am wondering if these stages I am complaining about are all just add on stages for the PS4 as the original Xbox 360 version only had 24 stages while this had 39 so it may be a cause of them lengthening the game, but not really putting much effort into the stages and puzzles as they had originally done.

This game is a dark game in which you complete puzzles to go to the next stage.

It is very rewarding and it is great black and white game.

It's worth your time, really. Limbo was exactly the first game ever made by PLAYDEAD. And guess what: the art, music, sound effects and puzzles astonished me more than ever. It's worth your time, just like I said. The reason I didn't add a 9/10 or a 10/10 is because it was too black and white and colorless. But the art is good. So why not give it a try, then?

Game developer Playdead's 2010 downloadable platform/puzzle game "Limbo" has quickly joined the ranks along with "Shadow of the Colossus", "Metal Gear Solid" and "Heavy Rain" as a strong contender in the argument of video gaming being a valid form of the arts. The game is a revolution for platform and puzzle gaming, and the visual style pushes it to breathtaking heights. This is one of the finest games available for download on the Microsoft X-Box 360 or Sony Playstation 3.

The story is minimalistic- you play a nameless young boy, pursuing a young girl through a hellish domain of forest and decaying cityscape, forced to solve treacherous and life-threatening puzzles to stay alive and proceed. There is no dialog and music is kept to a bare minimum.

The first thing that attracts most people to this game is the dark, unsettling visual style. Almost the entire game is played in silhouette- your character and his immediate environment is pitch black, save for the young boys paper-white eyes. Fog generally obscures portions of the background, but you will also see layer after layer of gray-scale trees, structures and buildings in the background. The game is easily comparable to old black-and-white film noir, or German expressionism in terms of visual stylings. There is a complete absence of color, leading to elements like fire, sparks and water having an oppressive, blurred white effect that is almost hyper-real, and therefore even more threatening.

As mentioned above, there is absolutely no dialog, and an almost complete lack of music. Instead of music, we are treated to the sounds of the environment- the patter of feet against the ground, the groaning of metal, or the wind whipping through the trees. Only in certain rare cases will there be tones in the background. Not even traditional music, just haunting tones that prophesize coming dangers or triumphs. Again, it has an almost hyper-real quality.

Controls are extremely tight, simple and responsive. Which is a great help for the intricate platforming and puzzles within the game.

This is a game of puzzles, more or less. The entire game is divided into chapters/challenges (although there is no official level system, there is a chapter selection screen through the pause menu), and each one increases in intricacy and difficulty. While your first few puzzles are relatively straight forward (pushing and pulling boxes, etc), over time the evolve into hellish and inhuman heights. By the second half of the game, you will find yourselves in environments that spin and have gravitational shifts, involve the use of magnetism, and involve increasingly deadly booby-traps. Combined with the unsettling visuals and disturbingly low-key audio, the deadly puzzles turn this game into an ultimate experience of horror and mystery. I have not been so frightened of a game in my life since the original "Fatal Frame", which to me is one of the single most frightening experiences of fiction in my life.

I have to give this game a perfect 10. It has something for most gamers. For those looking for a standard platforming adventure, this will deliver. For those seeking a suggestive and provocative mind- bender with an artsy flair, this will astound them. This is the rare perfect game.

Beautiful minimalist physics-platformer from Play Dead studios.

The story is very open to interpretation, given there is no dialogue or indeed and character interaction at all. You play a young boy, chasing after a girl through a deadly forest, which later becomes a more industrial (though equally hazardous) landscape. The menacing giant spiders and trigger bear traps become rising waters and murderous children and finally electrified walls and gravity traps.

Control is minimal, the boy can jump, push, pull and press buttons, but that's about it. Despite these limitations, or perhaps even because of them, and the aesthetic style, "Limbo" is a joy to play. It's vicious, almost to the point of requiring precognition on your first play though - but it does have very regular checkpoints and the game restarts very quickly - it's the perfect amount of time to get your expletives out before the game goes again.

It is short, a playthrough can be done in about an hour once you really know what you're doing - but your first run, as you die repeatedly and work out the puzzles is more likely to take 7 to 8 times that. I received this copy free with my Playstation Plus account, but maybe had I paid more for the game I would be aggrieved by that. Though any longer and the game would probably start repeating itself and lose some of the appeal.

"Limbo" really is a key game in the history of Video games, as it helped kick in a renaissance for both independent titles and the physics Platform boom that continued through the 2010's. Make sure you experience it at least once.