Home

 › 

Articles

 › 

Limbo Review for Xbox 360

Limbo Review for Xbox 360

Survival Horror

In Roman Catholic theology, limbo is defined as a place between the realms of life and death. Here, believers that were never baptized and those who were born before the time of Jesus Christ must quietly suffer, wanting nothing more than to accept God’s grace in order to gain passage to the paradisiacal afterlife. In Canto IV of The Inferno, Dante Alighieri, describes limbo in similar terms, outlaying the area’s geography with a forest, fields, and brooks. Though peaceful themselves, they do not reflect the silent inner torment over those lost souls that must forever be separated from their evangelical savior.

Limbo screenshot

Playdead’s Limbo subscribes to a decidedly more secular world view, although I suspect interpretations of the game may vary wildly from one person to another. However, the thematic center of being caught between one state of existence and the next is largely the same. By extension of the game’s name itself, a thematic base is also essentially all that we’re given to go on. If you look at the description given on Limbo’s XBLA profile, we’re told that “Unsure of his sister’s fate, a boy enters limbo.” This is the only clue we’re given from the outset and the game proper contains no text or dialogue. All we have to unravel the tenets of the story are the foreknowledge of that description coupled with the boy’s visual journey.

It would seem that in Limbo, your only option is to press on, if not by virtue of its linear design, than by the motivation driving you towards some form of progress, though any sense of purpose or reasoning remain inscrutable. Playdead stubbornly leaves easy answers (or any answers at all, really) at the door. Is the boy’s purpose to find his sister, to escape his fate, or maybe to pass through the plane of the reality he now occupies? Reality, metaphorization, metaphysics, and the existence, or non-existence, of any of it is fair game, making much of what you take out of Limbo depend heavily on personal interpretation. It’s even entirely possible that the story, such as it is, is irrelevant, overshadowed simply by a scattering of themes that the game seems to be based around. Like The Inferno, Limbo also begins in a wooded area, where the boy comes to in the realm he may or may not have actually chosen to enter. Unlike Dante’s descriptions of a peaceful world, however, the atmosphere here is foreboding.

Limbo screenshot

The initial feeling of isolation that surrounds you after waking alone in an unknown world quickly erodes as you discover this is more than just a deserted, ramshackle wasteland. Instead, it’s a place without mercy, pity, or reason, and one where you are never truly alone, either, as death is your constant companion. Throughout his journey, the boy encounters grisly sights and creatures that will probably unnerve you; if not worse (arachnophobes beware). Even the human-types you encounter, who may actually inhabit this land, are your enemies. They seemingly taunt the boy at the outset of his travels, watching him, throwing rocks, and setting vicious traps in his path, if not outright attacking head-on. But even these figures aren’t immune to limbo’s perils. Their lives can be carelessly cut short as easily as the boy’s own. These acts happen quickly, often in horrific ways, yet as soon as the deed is done, they are tossed aside with complete disregard. If there’s one thing to be said about death in Limbo, it’s that it’s cavalier.

Limbo is grim, something that is only magnified by its striking visual style. I applaud any game willing to run the “risk” of being made entirely in black and white, and few apply it as well as Playdead has here. In fact, I’d bet that countless essays, features, and blog posts picking apart Limbo’s aesthetics will be written in the coming weeks and months. Somehow, the game managed to skirt harsh review from the ESRB, only garnering a Teen rating, but the imagery is at least as horrifying as any you’ll find in a Mature-rated game. The trick here is Limbo’s use of silhouetting, throwing everything in the foreground into shadow, which tastefully circumvents direct shots of brutal violence while heightening atmospherics. Coupled with the shallow depth of field, soft focus effects, diffusive lighting, and vignetting (which darkens the borders of the screen), Limbo takes on a visually surreal character whose ethereal qualities foster the game’s unique and creepy feel. These ideas come through well enough in screenshots, but until you see the grain moving on the picture or witness how the lighting adjusts to the darkness on-screen, the full effect can’t be understood. When it comes to interactive artistic endeavors, Limbo should be required viewing.

Limbo screenshot

I don’t usually go out of my way to talk about the use of sound in games, but in Limbo it bears some mentioning. There are parts of the game where all you hear is the clanking of machinery or the sound of distant thunder in the wilderness. There are fleeting, punctuated moments of cacophonous din – I would hesitate to call it music – and moments of background noise. The most effective of all, however, is dead silence. It can heighten suspense, as in the earlier sections of the game, or contrast the fury of anything you come across that does make noise, which will seem comparatively thunderous as a result. If you happen to get skewered by the set of black, spindly legs that slowly uncurl out from the trunk of a large tree early in the game, you’ll know what I mean. The creepiest part about the silence, though, may be that not even your enemies are outside its influence, giving them an eeriness all their own.

Limbo screenshot

Interestingly, Limbo’s design even takes after the idea of limbo itself. The boy’s path is constantly blocked by an enemy or obstacle, and failure means repeating tasks until they are completed successfully. Since the game is a puzzle platformer, it’s just a matter of figuring out how to navigate each obstacle in your path, whether you have to kill it, open a passage, or escape death. Though the puzzles start out easy, they don’t stay that way (though they rarely stray into the impossible). Regardless, failure most often results in death, meaning you must try again. In the rare case that you fail to properly execute a puzzle (a particular incident involving two moveable platforms and a rolling tire that must be balanced on them springs to mind), you’ll simply have to repeat the task again.

Limbo has no HUD, score, counter for lives, or any other game design convention that interferes with gameplay. Because of this, even death may be metaphorized as getting “reset” in limbo, forced to perform the same action repeatedly without penalty, but without end, either. This makes the boy akin to a digitized Sisyphus, since as soon as one task is complete or peril is avoided, another takes its place. Of course, the same could be said of all game characters, forced to endure design obstacles until the programming is complete and the game is over. We also know that the game will obviously come to an end at some point. However, the rate and frequency of the parade of trials that make up Limbo do create a feeling of being stuck. Even when moving forward, your only sense of ‘progress’ is the changing scenery. You are powerless to do anything but move forward. Interestingly, this is mirrored in the game’s camera, which is one continuous tracking shot until interrupted by death, at which point it cuts back to the last checkpoint. The sense of perpetuity is evident. Thus, Limbo is at its best when it actually does take away control, leaving you equally powerless to stop whatever impending doom may befall you, at least until you figure out the exact actions needed to save you from death.

For this reason, Limbo isn’t always fun in a traditional way, but it is effective on a deeper psychological level. Much like the best survival horror games, it’s more of an experience than something that directly entertains (although some of the puzzles can be real brain busters). There’s no doubt that this kind of gameplay isn’t going to appeal to everyone, and it also bears mentioning that the game can take as little as three hours to complete. Yet, this a beautiful, haunting game that will leave its imprint on your mind long after its completion, making it one more deserving of its admission price than countless big-budget retail disc releases.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 5.0 Graphics
Limbo’s arresting visuals are nothing short of flawless. It sets a new pinnacle for visual quality in downloadable games. 4.5 Control
With only running and action buttons, anyone can play this game (though not everyone will understand it). 4.5 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Limbo doesn’t have much in the way of sound, however, that makes what is there that much more affecting. 4.8 Play Value
Hardcore fans of Braid may complain that the puzzles aren’t as difficult, but as a cohesive unit, the game is deeply engaging. 4.8 Overall Rating – Must Buy
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.

Game Features:

  • Embark on a psychological journey through a twisted, treacherous world.
  • Online leaderboards.
  • Unlockable achievements.

  • To top