Review: Limbo

The Big takeaway: Limbo is this year's Braid minus the pomposity.

The Little takeaway: The "interpret what you want" design and ending leaves a lot to be desired. $15 price point is a bit sticky for something that will only last 3 hours. Low replay value.

Review:

Limbo is the type of game I will always be attracted to. Never falling out of love with the 2D platformer, I relish when developers find new ways to stir in something special to the genre. While no game will ever be my heart's masterpiece, Mario 3, Limbo gives it a good run for the money. No fluff, no contrived story, no sweeping theme music, just you and the game world.

With two buttons and movement, there's nothing complicated control-wise with Limbo. You will jump, push and pull...the standard fare. You will die... alot. However, taking it's cues from other games, like Dead Space, the deaths are fun to watch and are never the main frustration of the game. It has an odd floating sensation to the jumps, Limbo's protagonist ain't no Mario, but he's only like Simon Belmont in his aversion to water.

The puzzles are the main focus of Limbo. But most of them aren't mind takers, as you would be lead to believe. There may be one or two that you'll have to walk away from and later on the solution will come to you. I only got stuck on two of the twenty-five, and they weren't the hardest, I just over thought them.

The graphics in Limbo are striking to say the least. Minimalist in their approach, the really lend to the player using imagination to fill in the gaps. This also leads to the games weak suit. Leaning to hard on the player to fill in the gaps is a bit much to ask if you also just want them to focus on the puzzles. Perhaps the blurb that comes on the download screen is enough: A boy searches Limbo for his lost sister. Neat and tidy nothing more nothing less. I would've just liked to have a bit more tying things together more concretely.

The 1200 Microsoft Points ($15) is a bit of a sticking point. While Limbo is a great product from start to finish, that race is a short one. Clocking in at about 3 hours. There's little collectibles tied to achievements and an award for beating the games without dying five times, but that's all. I believe in supporting independent developers and games of this ilk, so I don't mind the price tag so much. Here it just seems like we're getting gouged by Microsoft just a little bit.

In the future I would prefer Microsoft kept varying prices for their Summer of Arcade offerings like they did in previous years. I know they may have left money on the table in the past, so this could explain the price jump. Paying $15 for Limbo and Castlevania just seems a tad out of touch.

Verdict: Grin and Bear it and Buy it.