I really wanted to try Limbo, one of the great Xbox Live Arcade hits of 2010 that has monopolized almost all the nominations for indie game of the year, and I was finally able to do it. To give you an idea, Limbo is the first game from the Danish company Playdead and was released on July 10, 2010 for Xbox Live at a price of 1200 Microsoft Points (€15).
I’m not exactly a player who is good at platforming, in fact, you could say I’m pretty bad at it; Even so, I have always loved playing them. It’s probably masochism but, when you finally make that blissful impossible jump in which you only have a few millimeters of error and that has had you stuck for the last 10 minutes, it is extremely gratifying. And I have to admit that the final part cost me a lot.
Now that I’ve finished it. Does Limbo deserve the success it has received? In my opinion, yes.
History
The story (the only mode of the game) puts us in the place of a child who wakes up in a dark forest and walks without really knowing where, or why he is in that place. But he will soon realize that if he wants to continue living he must avoid the dangers he encounters, since the forest hides traps of all kinds. You will quickly have a reason to keep moving forward, survive. All the action takes place as a 2D horizontal scrolling platformer.
The first thing I want to talk about is the duration, since it has been harshly criticized in some media. Limbo is a short game, yes. In about 4 hours (A little less if you are more skilled and a little more if you are like me) the game will be over, but it is a game that is enjoyable from start to finish. I find it funny that people criticize a €15 game for lasting 4 hours, but if a €60 game lasts 16 hours everyone says it has excellent length. In my opinion it is much better to create a good game and leave the player wanting more, than to add screens and filler phases to end up boring the player.
The setting of the game, as you can see in the screenshots of this analysis, is quite dark, and even somewhat sinister. Throughout the story the lighting is minimal and we will enjoy a very simple black and white world, in which the protagonist’s white eyes stand out completely in the shadows that surround us.
As soon as you start playing you completely understand why it is a game rated by PEGI for 18+. We will walk through stages full of death, and sometimes we will have to take advantage of the corpses on the stage to be able to advance. At times it can be even unpleasant for certain people. That said, I thought it was a great proposal, very far from anything I had played recently.
A cool detail about this game is that there are no loading screens unless the character dies. That is, from the main screen when we start a new game, we can go through the entire game in one go without a single loading screen if we are able not to die, (I assure you that that will be really difficult, and even if you succeed, they will give you an achievement for it) which helps a lot to get into the game.
The sound is faint and only enters the scene when something is going to happen, or you want to give emphasis to some element on the screen, such as the flies. Sometimes the sound will help us, for example, to catch the rhythm of certain puzzles**. There is no ambient melody** that accompanies us throughout the screen like on other platforms, but believe me, you don’t need it. Playing with a 5.1 at night the experience is totally immersive as it is, and it is clear that Playdead has taken great care of the sound section.
The deaths are quite gore. For example, when we fail a jump or similar, the character will die in various very explicit ways, but it is implemented in a great way with each type of death being different, and in some cases very realistic. As I mentioned before, this may not be a dish to taste for very sensitive people, but it must be recognized that it is quite realistic, although no less harsh. Of course, all deaths are due to human error, since the gameplay is perfect and the character responds with great fluency to the player’s controls.
The autosave system is very good, and helps the player not to get frustrated since it usually leaves you very close to where you last died. Many parts of the game, in my opinion, are impossible to pass the first time, and you will have to learn to overcome them through trial and error. Many of the deaths will be due to not paying attention to the surroundings, since it is easy to miss some detail that will help us advance. Trying to take the most direct, and almost certainly deadliest, path is usually not a good idea. In my game, no puzzle got me too mad, but I have to admit that the first confrontation with the spider kept me stuck for much longer than it should have.
The ending clearly will not leave you indifferent. It is an ending for everyone to understand however they want. Perhaps it is not the typical happy ending of every video game but close, however you understand the ending, the game in an excellent way.
Note
- Presentation: Its atmosphere is incredible. It seems hard to believe how much you can feel through a black and white game with hardly any sound. 9.5
- Graphics: The graphics are perfect, there is a lot of detail in the areas where you want to focus the player’s attention. The animations of the character are also very good. 9
- Duration and Engagement: The story mode lasts about 4 hours, which is a perfect length for this type of game. The engagement is totally ensured since it keeps the player glued to the screen, thanks in part to the fact that there is nothing to distract us, not even loading screens. 9
- Final Note: In my opinion it is a game that deserves all the good reviews it has received. With an incredible setting that leaves the player with a great feeling that video games can also be art. 9