The LV. Cap: LIMBO
“How low can you go?” is usually a question that comes to mind when the word “limbo” is brought to someone’s attention. Sweet Caribbean rhythms are played as ungraceful cocktail sipping vacationers attempt to contort their way under bamboo poles. Fun is had by all… this is not that limbo. This Limbo is dark and gloomy. It is neither heaven nor hell; it just is, as limbo is supposed to be.
Playdead Studio’s Limbo is made of the mind numbing challenges and puzzles of the games from the systems of the good ol’ days: The 90’s. The days when people threw their controllers at the TV in frustration of their own limits while taking on a challenge. Not because of the developers desire to implement challenges that can only be won over by repetition and sheer luck.
LimboXbox Live Arcade
1 Player
Developer: Playdead Games
Publisher: Xbox Live Arcade
ESRB Rating: T For Teen
Price: 1200 Microsoft Points
Simple graphics accompanied by simple controls is the way this one plays. The story, or a lack there of, follows a boy who wakes up in the grasses of what seems to be purgatory. He has somewhere or someone he is trying to get to, and while getting there he is subjected to a series of odd hazard ridden encounters and trials. The depth of any chance of a story stops there. Though you may wish there were more to it, you may find it doesn’t really matter, nor do you remember to care. The many different silhouetted environments are exceptionally entrancing, though they are completely naked of texture. Each habitat stands out as a deep layered modest work of art.
Missing is an endearing composed soundtrack to match the ambiance of the universe. That factor alone will keep most players from being completely enamored by the game. With the world of Limbo being so noir in nature it wouldn’t have needed too much in the form of musical accompaniment. Imagine Danny Elfman given nothing to work with but a xylophone and some soft pencil erasers; that would have been enough.
The first play though of Limbo is difficult enough to induce a conniption. You will die a thousand deaths, it is inevitable. It is advised you keep all individuals you dislike, blunt and heavy objects, or sharp objects out of immediate reach. Some of the simplest of puzzles will arouse immeasurable rage in those less patient individuals, but completion of challenges gives you a rewarding feeling. You will often find yourself releasing “Oooh’s!” and “I get it’s!”, as if you had just solved a perplexing problem in math class, when overcoming some of the more difficult problems.
Ultimately Limbo leaves you just there; in limbo. The entire time playing you may not be sure if you love it or hate it, it just dangles somewhere in the middle (Giggity). Limbo manages to hold a sense of intriguing adventure on a shallow ground of personality and simplistic beauty. You may find it hard to put down the controller as you will come to many points where you just have to best a puzzle whose only existence is to mock you, or so it will seem at times. Its smooth animation and art school gray scale style is never too much. If the Playstation classics Oddworld, Abe’s Odyssey, and Ico were to have a mute Xbox Live Arcade child, Limbo would be it. Surely this is a first of many from Playdead Games. In the end it is reasonable to say they are off to a good start, on the positive side of Purgatory.
