Hell is beautiful
You are a young boy looking for his sister, and you are willing to go to hell and back to find her. And you will.
The world of Limbo is beautiful for about 2 minutes. Then it suddenly becomes a struggle for survival, since every step you take could be your last. You are constantly challenged with not only lethal puzzles, but also various enemies trying to stop you. You control the boy. He runs at a constant slow pace and can only jump a certain height, which means you will quickly be familiar with the controls. You need this familiarity for the puzzles, since they quickly ramp up in difficulty. Not only do you have to dodge falling logs and giant boulders rolling towards you, but also gigantic spiders looking for lunch and a tribe of "Lord of The Flies" inspired young boys trying to get rid of you.
The pacing is very deliberate. You are never allowed more than maybe 15 seconds of respite before the next puzzle presents itself. You constantly have to be vigilant, since you never know what's coming up. Throughout the game, you will never see the same puzzle twice, which means you never really have a chance to get comfortable in the world. Though the puzzles in the beginning are quite easy, you will quickly find that the difficulty increases. Whether you're running from a rising water level or jumping over spinning saw-blades, even the most experienced of puzzle gamers will find a challenge at some point in the game. Especially towards the end the puzzles become pretty brutal, since they require absolute perfect timing to solve, and even though I'm a patient man, I did notice my blood started to boil after the 7th failed attempt at a puzzle.
Graphically, Limbo is minimalistic yet elegant. There is no color, and every enemy and piece of scenery is only a silhouette. However, if you stop to look at the scenery you will see a surprising amount of detail around you; reeds bend in the wind, white butterflies flutter around, a stark contrast to the gray and black world around you. The constant noise filter adds a certain grittiness to the world, cementing the fact that while pretty, it is not a nice place to be.
In the sound department, you will quickly notice the lack of music. You only hear the sounds of the world around you, birds chirping, frogs... frogging, and the gentle whine of a saw-blade slowing down a tiny amount while it cuts you in half. The lack of music is actually a brilliant touch, since its absence makes you notice more of the world.
Limbo is an absolute masterpiece, and goes straight into my personal Top 3 for 2010. However, it is awfully short. It took me about 2.5 hours to complete, but I missed almost all of the achievements. I'm guessing you can easily add another hour or 2 if you're hunting down achievements on your own. Also, I now have a ton of questions about the world, yet absolutely no answers. Personally, I would have liked to have a bit more of a resolution to the story, or just a clue about what kind of a world Limbo is. I'm definitely hoping for a sequel.
So, to recap:
The good
- Graphics
- Atmosphere
- Sound
- Pacing
- Amount of puzzles
- Variety of puzzles
The not so good
- Short
- Veteran gamers may run into a few frustrating moments, but generally the puzzles aren't difficult at all.
- You are left with more questions than answers in the end
