Limbo, a
platform based puzzle adventure indie game, is a simple yet stunning piece of
work from Arnt Jensen. Platform games have evolved since the early 90’s
classics such as Prince of Persia and Mario Brothers, to more recent richly
themed 3D titles like Rayman Origins, LittleBigPlanet or Sonic. But somewhere
along the way, platform games lost the classic arcade style and simple gameplay
which had us hooked for hours together. Limbo takes us back to the old days,
add to that a fantastic theme of artsy black and white, creepy music and a
storyline that is so depressing and beautiful, it pulls you into its weird
world before you know it.
The story
of a boy, unnamed, who wonders through the mysterious world of darkness, facing
horrors in every turn, solving puzzles and outwitting creepy spiders and
mysterious hunters, to reunite with his lost love, is simply breath-taking. The
eerie lighting the game offers, plays with your emotions of loneliness and
sorrow, yet has you captivated in moving along from puzzle to puzzle. It was
the moment, when I had to creep up slowly towards a humungous dragonfly,
feasting on a human corpse, so that I could catch hold of its legs before it
took flight, to get to a higher platform previously out of my reach, that I
realized the sheer degree of audacious creativity the creators have. Some of
the puzzles took me ages to solve, but not in a way that makes you want to
cringe and curse at your computer. That is what separates Limbo from the likes
of Braid and Machinarium, two other indie-platform games which use similar
physics, but had such a high level of difficulty that it just puts you off
after a few tries.
The game
certainly wasn’t flawless though. Having primarily been made for consoles, the
PC port is anything but annoying, especially whilst using a keyboard. Even
though the controls are simple, certain actions in the game have been mapped to
the same keys on the keyboard which causes annoyance at situations. The game
could be completed in less than a couple of hours, which is a little
disappointing considering how good the game is. Some of the puzzles towards the
end become a little monotonous, and you start to wonder if the developers ran
out of ideas for more!
Overall,
Limbo for me was a visual treat, a work of art, and a benchmark for future
platformers to compete with.
