Limbo

How quirky it is that the official opener to Xbox Live's "Summer of Arcade" event is a creepy and enigmatic 2D platformer that can either have people say it's one of the best games of 2010 and others will think that it's just simply a great game and nothing more. In fact, Limbo's kind of the odd man out in that nearly all of the games are bright, colorful, have multiplayer or their very essence of gameplay is having a blast of a time; Limbo's gameplay seems more akin to an art film you should be watching with the lights off, sound cranked and anything else in the house dead quiet. Already receiving praise from nearly every major game website, a lot of people are comparing the game to Braid, another indie 2D platformer released during the Summer of Arcade that got heaps of adoration. Is Limbo a stunning achievement in game design or is it just simply a really good game? 
 
One thing that Limbo has that isn't present in Braid is an incredibly vibrant and colorful visual style. Braid seemed to designed to almost be a playable watercolor painting with not only detailed art but use of big and bright colors to make it almost fairytale or even storybook-like in its presentation. Limbo on the other hand goes for the "less is more" approach; not only is it in full black and white but it's not a very "detail" based game and it doesn't need it either. Having everything be entirely in silhouette with the barest amount of light makes Limbo almost nightmarish in its presentation. There's nothing hopeful about it; it's dark, it's foreboding and it's very much a place you'd rather not be in. That doesn't mean the game doesn't have some cool moments as the spiders are some of the freakier ones around and the gore animations upon death are almost shockingly realistic in their results. Sure games like Deathspank or Comic Jumper have a bit more "oomph" in the graphics but Limbo does what it needed to do: completely immerse you into a world that you have to traverse through, saw blades and all.
 
If anything, I'd describe Limbo as kind of a Rorschach painting: people will interpret it however they want, not only when it comes down to the intentionally vague storyline but also the incredibly simplistic controls. The boy in Limbo (is that really what I have to call him now? "The boy in Limbo"? Anyway...) only has 2 major commands: jump and drag. Because of this, the world itself needs to be manipulated in order for you to move on, or at the very least, manipulate yourself through it, rather than having a bunch of abilities and toolsets to accomplish your goal. And it's here that Limbo does its damnedest to completely stump you but in the best way possible. Too often in game designs, puzzles feel like you have to stumble across the answer and whether they're poorly explained or you're not given a clear explanation on what is required for you to actually solve it, Limbo's puzzles are deceptively simple, so shockingly obvious that when you realize what made you pulled your hair out was actually pretty easy to do in the end, you'll smack yourself going "grah, how did I not see that?" Some of the puzzles will stump you however but you never feel like the game is hiding its solution buried under weird design quirks; the answer's right in front of you and you just got to think it through.
 
But that starts one of my bigger gripes about the game which is the mid-game shift from its mysterious and quite intriguing plot premise to puzzle after puzzle after puzzle and just to change things up, there's more puzzles. Granted they're really well thought out but the initial start of the game has you encountering strange figures throwing flammable tires at you, running away scared or even chasing after you throwing spears. Who are these guys? Why are they trying to keep me away or even try to kill me (not like everything else isn't trying to but still...) and who built all these weird contraptions? That balance between puzzles that test your thinking and that intrigue that makes you wonder just what exactly is going on disappears and all that's left is one puzzle after another until you get to the ending. However, the ending is also wonderfully chilling and frustratingly abrupt as well. After solving one puzzle, it starts in slow motion which, when it happened, I practically felt the air suck out of the room and it was so mesmerizing for something so minimal. But then, like a film, the game then cuts, rolls to credits, leaving the audience going "umm.......okay then, guess it's over." 
 
Granted the game doesn't need a big explanation but that's partly Limbo's problem for me: it doesn't tell you anything. Braid never explained much either but Tim's mistake and his hope to rectify or even erase that mistake left you with just enough information for you to base opinions off of. Same with games like Ico and Shadow of the Colossus: they tell you what they feel you need to know so you can interpret the story you're on way; Limbo on the other hand tells you nothing at all and it's hard to make heads or tails of the story when you don't know a thing about it. But on the other hand that can also be part of the appeal of the game too, letting the game stew in the player's minds. For years people wondered what the guy on the street in the music video for "Just" by Radiohead was and if the band suddenly said an ice cream flavor, the truth ends up becoming less satisfying than the endless theorizing you spent. 
 
One thing that I'm sure a lot of people have asked is: is Limbo worth 1200 Microsoft points (15$?) Well it's kind of a strange answer in that I don't think I wasted my cash on it yet I think the price is too high. Something like Blacklight: Tango Down, Deathspank or the upcoming Monday Night Combat promise endless amount of hours so yeah, those games are 15$ sure. Limbo on the other hand which is roughly 3-4 hours first playthrough and considerably less the 2nd, Limbo doesn't "feel" like it should be priced at 15 but by no means is it a wasted purchase. It's good for what it is but it didn't exactly light my world on fire either....it just made my head explode repeatedly.