Limbo Review

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 3.

A full year since its release as the most popular title of the 2010 Xbox Live Summer of Arcade series, Limbo finally lands on the PlayStation Network.  Its monochromatic color palette, melancholy environments, haunting music and mind twisting puzzles has delighted hundreds of thousands on the Xbox 360, and now it’s time for PlayStation owners to have a crack at it.

If you haven’t played Limbo, then you should know that this isn’t your typical platformer.  The lack of narrative elements leaves the game open for debate and many people have tried to conclusively determine what it is about.  However, at the most basic elements, Limbo is about a young boy who wakes to find himself alone in a forest.  Seeking the whereabouts of his sister, he happens along creepy gigantic spiders, some very antisocial natives, and many nerve wracking puzzles and traps.

There is no dialogue, but the environments and backdrops set the tone for a dark and moody game.  Adding to it is the music that comes at the most suspenseful moments, making your heart race as you run from beasts, dodge giant saw blades and avoid getting trapped between bone-crushing gears of a great machine.  If ever Edgar Allen Poe were to have designed a video game, this would have been it.

You’ll find that there are only a handful of actual enemies in the game, as the real adversary is the environment around you.  Twisted puzzles will have you wracking your brainfor solutions, challenging – no, daring you from caving in and opening up a walkthrough on the internet.  This is where Limbo truly becomes addictive, because even though you’re playing in a 2D space, you really need to have three dimensional thinking to complete some of the tougher areas.  In the later levels, Limbo will literally turn the world upside down on you, and you’ll need a sharp eye and a quick tap in order to make it through in one piece.

Did I mention that there’s a trophy for completing the entire game without dying more than five times?

Since we’re on the topic, you will die.  A lot.  But don’t worry; this game is all about trial and error.  Try new things – hell, try the impossible.  Sometimes the solution to an area is the most absurd, and that’s what truly makes this game great the first time through.  However, once you`ve finished the game, the novelty slowly wears off when you revisit it for achievements, and that’s where Limbo falters before awesomeness.  After you`ve gone back and found all of the eggs to complete your trophy collection, and memorized the entire thing to earn that “No Point in Dying” trophy, you most likely will not be playing it  again until you get that nostalgic urge to have another go a year or two later.

For $14.99, Limbo provides an exciting and suspenseful romp through a truly unique and memorable world.  While the game lasts only a few hours, it is definitely a classic to be experienced and reminisced for years to come.

This game receives a 4.5/5