Review: Limbo: For better or worse, the hype machine gets it right
Posted on 26. Jul, 2010 by Chris Evans in Console, Featured, Gaming, Reviews, Xbox 360
I’ve been waiting for Limbo for four years, from when I was first shown the original trailer and concept art. Since then, it’s all been worryingly silent, to the point where I feared the project would never see the light of day. Imagine my surprise then, when I woke up to find that same trailer and artwork plastered all over the internet, with the announcement that Limbo would be the lead title in this years Summer of Arcade. Unsurprisingly for a game of this style, the hype machine quickly got hold of it and game journalists everywhere gushed over its every nuance.
For once though, the hype is deserved. Limbo is as wonderful and beautiful as it is dark and brutal. The silhouetted monochrome landscapes go far beyond the 2D plane you traverse, with blurred shapes passing in front of the screen and stretching far into the distance. The puzzles and challenges will kill you first time in most cases, in a variety of graphic and violent ways, but the challenge is pitched near perfectly – always enough to test you but never tiresome or frustrating. The audio is hauntingly minimal yet massively atmospheric There is no text or cutscenes, yet Limbo is somehow more emotionally engaging than most games with a fully formed story, leaving it up to you to interpret the experience. You need to have read about the game in advance to really understand what little story there is, in a case of minimalism perhaps going a little too far, but regardless of this, the presentation remains breathtaking.
I’ve always gone along with the belief that it’s better for a game to leave you wanting more than to outstay its welcome, a category Limbo certainly fits in to, but there’s no ignoring the fact that you’re being charged 1200 Microsoft points for a game that takes four or five hours to complete. It’s a game you still shouldn’t hesitate to play, but it’s hard to see the price being quite so high had it not been given so much hype, or had been released at any other time of the year.
Pricing issues aside though, Limbo is a wonderfully rare thing, delivering in artistic achievement and original, non-repetitive gameplay in equal measure. It’s hard not to fall into the ranks of those throwing unconditional praise around, but then games that are deserving of it don’t come along every day. Limbo is a near perfect example of every facet of game design.
mark_cullinane
Jul 26th, 2010
It's definitely not cheap. Then again, I considered World of Goo a bargain at 15 euro. Sometimes I think we just expect downloadable titles to be dirt cheap regardless of who develops them, how long they spent making it, and how good the game is.
I do agree with your point though that had it not been for the hype, this would've been priced lower. On the other hand, that's capitalism- and it's harder to criticise a cash-strapped indie developer than a behemoth like EA.
Tarnya_Smith
Jul 26th, 2010
Limbo is beautiful…but brutal! It's not very often you see an in-game child get slaughtered 60% of the time! The lack of noise makes it creepy and the shadowed art style makes you wary of everything that look even remotely spiky etc, however this gave the developers the perfect opportunity to mess with your mind. I really recommend people to play this!!!
Chris_Evans
Jul 26th, 2010
It seems to me that Microsoft are doing with Limbo the same thing they did with Braid – hike the price on a something that is guaranteed to sell then present that as proof that games will sell at the inflated price. As you say though Mark, it's hard to begrudge paying higher prices if it's going to a smaller developer. I'd sooner spend my money on this than on some online multiplayer!
JamesDilks
Jul 26th, 2010
Playing this now. Whether by chance or design, Tarnya is right; the simplicity of Limbo's look allow for some really neat, rewarding puzzles. The inventiveness of the challenges and the way they force you to fail and fail better by hardly ever being cheap points to great design. So too does the ICO-esque humanity that the character animation gives.
I think the humanity is enough of a story, too. Presumably the bit about his sister in the marketing guff is precisely that. I think ambiguity is a trick that games should use more. Braid did it well, and so has this. At the other end of the spectrum, don't you think Gears of War could have been a little less literal?
mark_cullinane
Jul 27th, 2010
@Chris- Microsoft are definitely taking advantage here, they have a long history of controlling XBLA pricing that may not be in the interest of the developer.
@James I completely agree, developers need to be brave enough to realise that sometimes it's good to leave things like 'story' to the imagination. Ambuguity can be a great thing.
Chris_Evans
Jul 27th, 2010
Anyone seen Inception? Ambiguity works wonders.
Tom Walters
Jul 27th, 2010
I'm about half way through Limbo at the moment, and thoroughly enjoying it. It's got some very welcome shades of Oddworld Inhabitants about it, what with the just-shy-of-frustrating puzzles, symbolism and pitch-black humour.
Oh yeah, and Inception was awesome