Limbo, it's a game I'm glad I didn't miss.
2D platforming and simple, yet elegant controls make this game perform beautifully with the stunning and dark environment around your character. Playing this game I never felt like the many many deaths were anything but my error which is astounding and frustrating at the same time. I jumped too soon, hit that button too late, forgot a box back in the level, and so forth. Survival relies on your own intelligence, observation, and quick thinking to enable you to beat this game and its diverse, yet completely seamless progression. Later in the game presenting you more often than not with hellishly difficult puzzles that must be taken two steps forward and one step back every time.
Aside from the puzzle aspect of Limbo there is also the setting. It ensares you with anticipation and wonder throughout the entirety of the game. From the first act to the closing credits I was always watching and waiting, listening to everything from the ambient sounds of butterflies wings to the squelching gush of blood from being impaled in a pit of spikes, this game's minuscule amount of music only makes the occasions of sudden music push adrenaline through your veins.
The biggest surprise to me lies in the storyline, or rather, lack there-of. From the beginning of the game to the end there is no explanation as to what or who the boy is searching for, leaving this game to most as an astounding vocation of the needless "necessitates" of gaming industry's obsession with complexities and twists to hold your attention rather than with intriguing gameplay mechanics, realistic physic engine, and amazing puzzle-solving skills along with providing a profound sense of mystery and suspense. Why add a story line that people will find flaws and holes in to that?
In the recent days I have devoted my time and energy to beating this game. With no words, no color, little story, minimalistic music, and often cynical puzzles, this game should not grab the hearts and minds of the ones who play it within the first few seconds... But it does. From the moment your boyish silhouette gets to his feet and opens his stark white eyes, I was hooked.
Limbo, it's dark, it beautiful, and it's hard as hell. 5/5 stars from me.
BrainDamage101
~ David S.
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