Simplicity can be effective. But almost too effective.
The story is as follows - you are a young boy who has awoken in what we assume is Limbo. We don't know why he's there, or where he's going, but you soon pick up that it is your responsibility of getting him to his right-sided destination - scratch-less. By looking at text on the game description or looking online, you discover that you are actually after your beloved sister. Although, the game itself never explains that - which adds to its incredibly simplistic appeal (key word being simplistic - and I can't stress that enough). And WHY is she in there? And just HOW did he get there as well to save her? All these questions are never answered - and instead, you're sucked straight in to try and learn it all the hard way. The simplicity of the plot I find very effective, such as the simple plot to the recent film 'Unstoppable', and others such as 'Snakes on a Plane' and 'The Breakfast Club'. It just works. Even if nothing else is explained - it really doesn't need to.
As far as presentation goes, I first saw it and felt empty. Then spell-bound. Like a kid watching a magic trick for the first time. How the game could get away with this visual style and walk away with all of its praise began to loose me. Then after a few minutes, you begin to see why. The monochrome colour scheme is ingenious - creating the haunting and immersive atmosphere that it really needs. And again, it adds to the simplistic appeal. In the early stages of the game, you solve a puzzle here and there and then wonder why this is supposed to be 'amazing'. Then, from nowhere, SWISH - BANG. A boy-hungry spider tries to plunge his sharp feet into your poor little noggin. It's here that the visual style begins to make sense. Everything is a shade of grey, meaning camouflaged traps and enemies create the huge sense of distrust and worry - making the game immediately important and creating a desperation to keep your boy alive. And that is what more games need nowadays. The sound is also very immersive - with simple, yet realistic urban and rural sounds, and no score. For a game to succeed in black and white with no music is astonishing, and I could almost describe the feeling as what it was like the first time Pong was released as a home gaming system. Monochrome, and no music. Genius.
Design is simple. Again. It's a 2-D platformer. You use the analog stick, the X button, and R1. That's it. Move, jump and grab. With this (quite frankly) incredible arsenal of abilities, you are to protect your boy from gruesome deaths and solve fiendishly difficult physics puzzles. Wow. You're now most probably questioning the notion of these gamer and critic reviews. But that's the point. Crash Bandicoot for the PS1 is an example. A great game (despite insane difficulty), and all you do is run, jump and spin. Don't be too surprised. And the control feels like it should - it really does feel like your controlling a weak and innocent little boy with the in-game character physics - and 3-ft jumping is always fun too. No items, no weapons, no powers, we don't NEED any of that bull to escape purgatory. THIS is pure and raw gaming at it's modern finest. And when other games try to be subtle and art-sy, often failing, just play Limbo and wait for the long and lonely boat ride down the silent swamps. Brilliant.
For gameplay, THIS is where I thought to get picky. Despite the premise, visuals and design, I didn't understand the award-winning formula of the monotonous trial-and-error puzzle solving. Although, like most things, you have to get into it before you can enjoy it. The majority of the game is like that, but I found there was something lacking in the 'run right, explore, die, try again, survive, try a puzzle, fail, try again, succeed, run right, explore...' etc. While I suppose the simplistic approach was the best idea, I'm not sure. Even though the puzzles were mind-bending and fantastic, and even the trial-and-error formula was all in favour of the victorious "EUREKA!" moment (which was very clever), there's only so many times you can push, pull and jump before spotting an actual pretty mediocre pattern with an okay execution. The puzzles were nice and varied, but after the panicky and genuinely chilling spider part, you expect a little more variety and you constantly wait for the next big, outrageous thing to happen. For me, personally, while the experience was all well and good, the hype and critical success somehow felt a little anti-climatic. Also, while playing it and getting lost in its world, I thought I would try a chapter select to see how I was getting on. I was 3 checkpoints from the end in less than 2 hours. Maybe that was intentional, but for the unknowing consumers who assume it's an epic adventure might just not do it in one sitting, which is what I think the game tried to do for game length - get immersed and then finish it, feel complete, feel like you've accomplished something, and then reflect on the game. Maybe this should have been explained for the best effect.
There's not much more to say about Limbo, other than get it and see for yourself. But one more thing I'd like to point out is what I think you're actually paying for. Play it, and you'll realise that you spent £10/$17 for a great game, but for one that you could easily find on the internet. On a free flash game website. It wouldn't be as good, obviously, but if you take in to consideration about every nit-pick I mentioned up in gameplay, you don't get too much out of the investment - not to mention the insane critical appraise that drew you in in the first place. Even the demo left on a scripted death, yet it still drew you in to see how everything would pan out. It's hard to explain, but believe me when I say that it its very clever sub-conscious advertising. Overall, 8.5/10. I apologise, but I really couldn't avoid this hanging feeling of pretentiousness of the developers, one where it almost tries too hard to be simple that it becomes somewhat disappointing. Don't get me wrong, it was an incredible experience and a great little game, but if it wasn't for my ridiculously optimistic anticipation and high hopes of it being a masterpiece, PLUS the nit-picks mentioned above, I would say it is an instant classic of modern gaming.
Signing off,
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