If you have a 360, you owe it to yourself to download the demo for Limbo. I'm not so naive to believe that this game is gonna hit everyone the right way, but I do believe that things like this deserve to be played.
3N3MY asked me recently why I like stuff in this artsy genre so much, specifically Limbo and Braid. Was it the aesthetic, or the music, or the puzzles, etc... It's hard to put my finger on. Puzzle platformers have been around forever, and it's always cool to see something new come out. The genre has a sense of timelessness about it, and it's always fun to be a part of it.
Limbo is a very physical puzzle game. The solutions to everything are all about timing, momentum, speed and gravity. The only surreal puzzle aspect in Limbo is the gravity, changing the direction that it pulls. It's nothing too original, but it works well enough for the game. The puzzles have a nice steady difficulty progression, keeping things fresh and interesting.
The thing that really sets Limbo apart from others is it's muted silhouette aesthetic. Everything is shades of black and white. They use an out of focus/in focus camera to draw attention to important things. At first, it's a little bit disorienting to be a part of the world... Since everything is so similar, it's hard to intuitively pick up on what can be moved, touched, interacted with, etc, but the games difficulty curve helps make the learning a little easier.
The imagery is absolutely powerful. Silhouette's have a way of communicating importance, and the posture, stance, and animation of the young male protagonist really drive it home. The main character is a black silhouette, as is the environment. Although most of the time this is a practical solution to making the black and white visuals work, it also compliments the deliberately vague storyline. Stuck in Limbo, looking for a lost sister, the boy often disappears in the background, blending in with the environment. Multiple moments in the games had my characters presence on screen only being represented by his haunting, white, little eyes. (which slowly fade out if you happen to die, which you will... a lot) There was only one moment in the game that I got stuck for a substantial period of time, and it was a silly error on my part.
Story in Limbo is... there. It's not a strong narrative, but that's part of the game. Everything seems deliberately ambiguous, anonymous, and similar. There are only a few landmarks in the game that come back again, making the player curious to their significance, but in the end, the depth of the story is almost related to the depth you let yourself be absorbed into the world. Something that helped me was turning up my volume. There is no music in Limbo, only ambiance and noise, but it works well and helps the user create their own creepy experience.
I really enjoyed the time I spent with Limbo, and for me, well worth the download if for no other reason than to support the developer and maybe get some more stuff like this in the market. At times, Limbo seems artsy for artsy's sake, but I think it's a great direction to be headed. Sure, the same puzzles and challenges could have been made using 8-bit tech, but the charm of the world is the draw here, not because we've never seen kinetic timing puzzles before. Play Limbo for the experience.
(I've decided to write about Braid another day, mostly for length.)
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Good post and while the demo was def good I just can't spend 15 bucks on a game that's as short as this even when compared to Braid's length.
ReplyDeleteI remember asking you that question, but it was more of a speaking out loud type of thing because it's all subjective.
I do praise Limbo for it's undeniably awesome aesthetic, but should that justify the amazing reviews when the puzzles are only so-so or have been done a million times before?
We have argued back and forth about gameplay over graphics with Wii vs 360 and PS3 and I wonder if the same argument applies here. I agree that it's more gameplay than anything, but graphics/artistic design will immerse you in much greater ways than gameplay will.
I applaud any new game that moves the genre forward and I guess I just don't see it with Limbo. Shadow Complex for XBLA is an astounding example of taking the old Metroidvania style of gameplay and adding new elements to elevate a dying 2D style of game to the modern times.
It's kind of like when we talked the other day about that woman that loved How to Train Your Dragon because it was in 3D and didn't like Toy Story 3 as much because it wasn't. Avatar was a decent movie, but it wouldn't have sold the bagillion tickets it did if it wasn't the biggest most badass 3D IMAX movie ever.
Well...this has been a bit of a mess, but that's pretty much my thoughts. That the game doesn't deserve super high praise when it's clear that everyone just likes looking at it more than playing it.
I guess I'm in the same boat as 3N3MY. I played the demo, liked it, but wouldn't pay to play it right now. Probably just because I've got plenty of other stuff to play at the moment. There's no doubt that it has a unique look and the puzzles were fun, though. Maybe later.
ReplyDeleteCompletely understandable, guys. I don't think this game is for everyone, but the time spent in the demo, I hope was warranted.
ReplyDeleteI think Braid strikes the chord a little harder for me, but I love it when all the gameplay elements point to the same focused end, and compliment each other accordingly. We all notice things like this, like the coarse language from the in game characters in Battlefield, or SC: Conviction - it doesn't fit, it doesn't make sense to the overall picture of the game.
Limbo, at the very least, pulls it off well, creating a cohesive, self-standing product, an accomplishment in my book when so much of the industry feels unfocused.
I agree though about the difficulty and the length. I finished Limbo wanting more, but I'm not sure of what. My first instinct was desiring more story, but it's deliberate ambiguity fit amongst the hazy style. I think it was difficulty. The hardest puzzle in the game wasn't anything more than a timing solution, and the time I got stuck the longest was mainly because the game didn't explain it's new mechanic well enough until I had to use it unassisted. These weren't gamebreaking moments from me, but some of the weaker spots amongst a solid time spent.