There aren't many games that can present a depressing, black and white 2D platformer. LIMBO succeeds in every aspect.
December 2, 2012
This review contains minor *spoilers* for a game that has a non-existent storyline.
INTRO
LIMBO has always received excellent feedback from both critics and casual gamers from the PlayStation and Xbox community. Praised for its unique visual style, easy-yet-challenging gameplay, and depressing setting, LIMBO is simply one of the best 2D platformers on the gaming market.
STORY - "can't describe"
LIMBO's description given by PlayDead, the developers, probably provides more insight into the storyline than the game ever does. Basically, you are a boy forever trapped in "limbo" trying to find your sister. You're not told whether you're dead and going through hell and back again to find her, but hell or not, you're going to find her. The "LIMBO boy" is the character your control throughout the entire game, which only spans about five hours for a hefty cost of $15, and he's one tough son-of-a-gun. You'll continually marvel at his courage yet also feel a little distant from this shadowy boy, but that only furthers the mystery of the game.
GRAPHICS - 10/10
LIMBO's visual style is one never seen in games, and that works well for two reasons. One is it really helps add a sense of realism to the dark world of LIMBO. Death is something that shouldn't take lightly, and when you witness a little boy being decapitated or shredded to bits in a table saw, it certainly makes you a little sick to your stomach when you see it for the first time. The game plays out in black and white with only silhouettes to guide you through levels. Even the LIMBO boy is a shadowy outline, with only two bright white eyes to help you see him when he goes behind obstructions. The game also retains a constant flicker, and to me, it presented a sort of reminder that at any time, the world could fall apart. In simplest terms, death could happen at any moment. Even the background, which continually changes from a nightmarish forest to abandoned industrial city to decrepit towns, but only blurred glances give you a glimpse of how dark LIMBO's world really is.
GAMEPLAY - 9/10
LIMBO's gameplay revolves heavily upon solving puzzles as you make your way to the end of a chapter while picking up weird white eggs that make a squelching noise when you step on them. Puzzles differ in varying degrees of difficulty. Some solutions are so obvious, it's hard not to facepalm yourself afterwards. Others are tedious and nearly require a walkthrough video to finish, as I had to use towards the end. A lot of the puzzles require timing, especially towards the end of the game when it plays it's last gravity card to make levels harder and require you to have good timing and think ahead. The scariest and most memorable "puzzle" from LIMBO is of course, the moment when you meet Mr. Spider, a ginormous eight-legged freak that towers over LIMBO boy with its hairy legs. You'll spend the first few chapters either chopping his legs off with bear traps (which can also chop LIMBO boy) and escaping his clutches. A funny feature - or as "funny" as you can get in LIMBO - is when the spider catches up with you and wraps you in a web, forcing you to hope your way through oblivion.
Most of the puzzles are environmental and are just plain odd. For example, you'll meet a shy dog-like creature that seems friendly and looking for a pal, but always runs away when LIMBO boy approaches. Makes you wonder.
The controls are simple enough of course, and with only the left analog stick to move left or right, the A/Y button to jump, and the B button to drop/let go, it all depends on your ability to figure out puzzles using your wits.
SOUNDTRACK - 10/10
LIMBO's "soundtrack" isn't on you'd normally hear in games. Instead of focusing on creepy horror music, the game instead plays on the emotion of fear to deliver genuinely scary moments when a loud bass note rings out during a stressful getaway from a spider, dodging spiked balls, or running away from insane boys who want to kill you. Ambient music is very, very subtle, but with my SteelSeries headphones, I was able to experience some rather surreal ambience when jogging through the forest. The title theme is the most mysterious, with a mix of flies buzzing around a rotten tree house, it leaves you with a sense that in LIMBO, nothing is as it seems.
STORY cont.
Of course, the ending is set up beautifully, with LIMBO boy playing around with gravity until he goes sideways to break through a wall of glass. One of the most surreal moments of gaming then plays out as the glass shards fly in every direction and the screen darkens, focusing on LIMBO boy as he falls backward into a state of unconsciousness. Reminiscent of the beginning, you must press different buttons to eventually wake him up, and he'll resume his last leg of the journey through the forest you began with. Run for another minute or so and you'll find a girl...whether she's your sister or not, no one knows. And then it ends.
VERDICT - 9/10
So it is LIMBO, one of the few games to be defined as art. While a little pricey for a 5-hour game or less, every penny is worth it, and you'll marvel at the ending of this game just as I did.
-Bayonetta2013