Review: Limbo (Xbox 360)

[Reckoner]

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Take Braid, add a bunch of black, some wicked death animations and some physics. What do you get, you say? Well, it’s quite simple; you get Limbo of course -- minus all the time manipulating non-sense, plus all the 2-D platforming.

 

Limbo is the first of five XBLA game for this year’s Summer of Arcade. It is also a game that was created by the folks at Playdead. Although this may be their first game, they are certainly on the right track. Limbo solely revolves around a very unfortunate boy who’s seeking out for his sister. When I say unfortunate, I mean the awful deaths that little guy has to endure. A sick game to say the least, yet it plays its cards right in the darkened mood it peels off.

 

The controls are more than people friendly for there are only two buttons you’ll be using the entire length of the game. Here implies the challenge; you're going to have to actually use your head. There are traps just waiting for you at every corner. You’ll be pulling levers, flipping on/off switches and grabbing many objects (as well as a couple of insects) to move, get and cross over obstacles. I had a strong appreciation for the lack of repetitiveness. As you progress through the chapters, you won’t be confronted by the same challenges twice. There are many games out there that do happen to fall under the category of repetitive, but this always brings something new to the table.

 

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The game looks great. True, it does give off a dark-twisted feel, but as I said before, “it works”. It gives the game its unique feel. The character you play as consist of his two little white eyes over his black silhouette of a body. The background environment constantly changes to the category of puzzle you face in front of you while mixing in the different shades of gray to enhance the mood and appeal. Not only does it look good, but the physics and ragdoll always adds some humor, unless of course you take anything too serious and you deem us sick and twisted as well.

 

After I completed the game -- which was about two hours (I heard some people taking up to four hours), I noticed more and more messages popping up from quite a few people who evidently needed help. There were a few parts where I was stumped, but all it took was a couple of minutes and a bit of brain power to see the simple solution that was right under my nose. The game’s difficulty level is just fine. If you have to go online and scour the net for some tutorials, then you might as well not be playing games for the most part.

 

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With the exception of bills and food, if you have some spending money, I see no reason to not pick this up for 1200 MSP ($15). While there are only a handful of puzzle oriented games on XBLA worthy of a purchase, this happens to be very high on that list.

 

Score

 

9/10