Videogame review: Limbo

A boy seeks his missing sister

As far as flavor and setting goes this game is a masterpiece. Being an indie game obviously the budget is but a fraction of what they spend on the big productions but the creator smartly, instead of trying to hide this, embraced his limitations with a wonderful low fi aesthetic.

The game is all in black and white with minimal sound effects. The graphics remind one of those old expressionist movies (like Murnau’s “Nosferatu”).

The immersion in the game is total; there are no instructions, no voice over, nothing. You are simply left there, alone in a spooky forest trying to understand what to do and where to go. The hero is a little boy and he is extremely vulnerable.

There are monsters in the forest; the spider in his simplicity is one of the most perfectly realized of videogames history. They are much scarier than your normal run of the mill monsters not only for the aesthetic but also for the game play. We can’t jump on them and bash their head because they are much stronger than us and when we get to us we die in a very gruesome and graphic way. The only way to defeat them is to outsmart them.

This is another aspect of the game where the author hit the jackpot. Even if the basic structure is that of a platformer at his earth this is a puzzle game. In every scene we are presented by a problem and often to solve it we need to be creative and manipulate the elements of the game using a non linear logic.

Alas not everything is perfect. After the first part of the game in the forest we get to different settings which, while not bad per se, are much less evocative than the forest. Also the enemies after the spider are interesting but missing that primal quality of him. The experience become a little bit stock platforming, there are switch that reverse the gravity, saws, moving platform, all stuff that we saw many many times.

The other problem is that with such an intense experience we naturally expect a nice ending to tie everything up but the game instead becomes increasingly bizarre with our hero literally causing rain and walking upside down on the top of the world. This could be redeemed by a clear and nice ending but instead we get one of those ever popular open ones. I understand that this is all supposed to be metaphorical but I can’t help but feel a bit underwhelmed. I have the distinct impression that in the end, for all his wonderful moodiness, this is still a short, I completed it in three after dinner sessions, bunch of random puzzles tied together.

In the end if you can get it, it’s very cheap and an unique experience. We should support this kind of stuff especially when it comes from an Indie developer.