This dark and foreboding game will suck you right in, and won't let go easily.
This is how the game starts. No clues, no narrative, no story. Why is the boy there? What is this place? All solid questions, but they will have to wait, as something on the edge of the screen could be another very deadly trap.
Limbo is a puzzle- platformer, all in black and white. You are a nameless boy with shining eyes, trying to survive this VERY deadly world, solving puzzles to get that little bit further, all the while dodging very deadly traps and adversaries.
For make no mistake: virtually everything around here is out to kill you. Why? You don't know. But one thing is sure: they're doing one hell of a job. Unless you're very, very careful, death will soon follow, and it's usually gruesome. Not that it's explicit, with red blood pumping all over the screen, but the way you die will make every warm- blooded person cringe, mostly because of the very realistic sound effects.
There's not a lot of music in Limbo, but the sound effects are nothing short of fantastic. The way everything reacts to outside forces is also very believable, and that's what sucks you right into the game, especially with this kind of dark artwork.
The boy can't do much: he can jump short distances, grab something to pull or push it, and swing on ropes or chains. That's it. Annoyingly enough, he can't even swim or hold his breath longer than two seconds, making pools of water a deadly obstacle to overcome as well.
In total, there are 40 "chapters", all quite short but each one deadlier than the last. You start in the forest, but soon you'll find an empty town and go on into an abandoned factory. The puzzles get harder and deadlier as you progress, but it's a very forgiving system: when you die (and you will. A lot), you will respawn just before whatever killed you. After a gruesome death, of course.
This makes sure you won't get overly frustrated, as you can easily get back to where you were in a matter of seconds. Also: you now know what killed you, and how. This time, evading it will be much less difficult and you can go on to the next deadly part.
The puzzles are hard sometimes, but always logical. Sometimes you have to search around for a solution, but with a bit of thinking you're sure to find it. And even though you might find yourself in a similar situation sometimes, the puzzles are always very different.
With a mood this dark, and puzzles this original, this cerebral platformer is sure to keep you hooked for a while. It's not very long: you'll get to the (very short) ending in 3 - 4 hours, but it's a lot of fun getting there. There's also a reason to start over, as there's hidden collectibles in the form of eggs you can find if you look for them.
All in all, despite the sudden ending and the short while it takes to get there, Limbo is an amazingly immersive game which guarantees a lot of fun, and even more deaths if you're not careful. This original platformer is highly recommended as far as I'm concerned.