With its intelligent puzzles and stunningly somber visuals, LIMBO is a perturbing, yet beautiful game.
Immediately evident is LIMBO's stark aesthetics. LIMBO's world is black and white, with shades of gray. The world is dark and hopeless, perfectly portraying the boy's dire situation. The boy himself is little more than a detailed stick-figure. But his white and glowing eyes, perhaps representing hope within his otherwise dark frame, always radiate in the blackest of moments. There is little more to point out. LIMBO is a hauntingly dark game.
To make good his escape and find his lost sister, the boy must pass numerous puzzles in the forms of hungry predators, hostile natives, and natural and man-made obstacles. All of these can be quite deadly and many can end the child's life in gruesome, disturbing manners. From traps that instantly tear him to pieces, to machine guns that mow him down in his tracks, and even to giant blades that rip him to ribbons, many of his deaths are horribly perturbing. The puzzles are very well thought-out, and the difficulty increases greatly at the end of the game. Some of them can even take quite a few minutes to complete, keeping the game from being a total pushover. The physics, especially common for puzzles in the second half of the game, are also superb.
Along with the puzzles that must be completed are others that are scattered throughout the world of LIMBO and hold little bright orbs. Collecting these orbs result in the unlocking of Achievements. Needless to say, these puzzles are more difficult to find and solve, but add a great amount of replayability to a game that is already fun to play through at least twice. The campaign should only take several hours on a first play-through, but constant cheap deaths can drag it out a bit more.
The environments' role in these deaths is worth noting. Sometimes, you will find the boy steamrolled by a boulder, or shot dead by native, but what you won't see is some earth tumbling down the hill towards you moments before the impact, or a waggling rope up ahead which the native uses to get in position to fire. While it's true that these hints are often much too subtle to be noticed, extremely acute players may pick up on these and dodge the obstacle. While deaths resulting from some of the quickly-timed puzzles should still be labeled as cheap, the subtle way the environment reacts to these obstacles is very clever.
As are many of the puzzles. From a bug that controls the boy and forces him in one direction (forcing the gamer to make some hasty decisions to save him) to the interactions with levers and platforms, the game was very intelligently assembled. All of this convolutes into an emotionally-charged adventure, probably more so than any other arcade game that I have played. LIMBO is very much on par with full-scale masterpieces such as Ico and Portal when it comes to its emotional impact. The game's moderate pacing, the boy's gruesome deaths, and the heavily environmental puzzles all intertwine to really make the gamer feel in-touch with the young hero. It's just a bit unfortunate that the game ends so abruptly.
Along with the game's aesthetics, the music plays a powerful role to the game's theme of survival. It is beautifully soft and just a background hum when it's audible at all. It's perfect. But it will sometimes leap an octave when something exciting happens. Along with the soft pitters and patters that often serve as the game's sound effects, the music is absolutely perfect for the game, especially the way it stays low and out-of-the-way even when the boy is slaughtered, uncaring for the violence that is obviously this Limbo's norm. Brilliantly somber like the game's aesthetics, the soundtrack also helps make LIMBO unforgettable.
Without any stops throughout the entire game and invisible checkpoints (which also serve as save-points if you decide to quit) after every puzzle, LIMBO blasts you through its world mercilessly while still forgiving you for your mistakes. The lack of constant stoppages plays into the game's theme perfectly, for a quest of survival through a nefarious world doesn't include nap times between each obstacle. Nor does this aggressive world hesitate in its hunt for the poor child. Even without color or copious amounts of blood, the boy's quest feels very real. LIMBO is one hell of an adventure with its dark visuals, clever puzzles, and intelligent design. One of the most entertaining arcade games ever made.