Game Review: ‘LIMBO’ (XBLA)

I am proud to present the first game review on DESTROY THE BRAIN! When I saw the preview/trailer for the game LIMBO, I knew that we had to cover it.
It is a stylish game and even though there is no red, or color for that matter, in the game…it can be considered gory enough for you horror fiends to love the hell out of it. Read on for the review…

I’m not a huge gamer. I own a XBOX 360, but I mainly use it to watch Netflix and play multi-player sessions on the small catalog I do own. However, I am a huge fan of PORTAL and other puzzle games. I can play these games in short spurts and not really have to worry about missing a piece of the story if I have long periods of time between playing.

When I initially saw the graphics and the monochromatic look of LIMBO, I was intrigued.  Then, MajorNelson (Larry Hyrb) had a piece on XBOX’s Summer of Arcade and it showed game play from LIMBO.  I was super interested, to the point that I knew I had to get it. I was able to pull some strings and the lovely folks at PlayDead provided me an advance review copy.  While it took me about 3 days (1 hour max) to play the game, I had a huge blast.  One may say that a lot of the Arcade games you buy through the XBOX Game Marketplace are not worth the price for the time you spend playing the game.  To that, I would say that with LIMBO, my friends and I had more fun playing the game than we did with some other games that cost four times that amount.

While LIMBO is a $15 game, don’t write it off as a cakewalk.  You will need to use your brain to it’s full capacity.   You need precise timing to avoid things like beartraps that will decapitate you, giant arachnids that have no problem sticking their dagger-like legs through your body and saws that will….saw you in little pieces.  LIMBO’s environment is unapologetic.

I had a couple of friends over one night and they all got hooked.  One mentioned the game BRAID, which was a game I wasn’t too familiar with.  However, in that mention, they said that LIMBO is waaaaay better than BRAID.  Therefore, I need not to seek after that game.

I’m in love with everything about this game.   The sound and music design is ominous yet has definition.  One puzzle was so frustrating for me, that I had to come back the next day to try it again.  Sure enough, the music was stressful as well.  Everything in the game LIMBO deals with environment and how everything adapts to what you are going through. The only gripe I had with LIMBO was that I didn’t know there was an actual story to the game.  The game doesn’t include it in a prologue or anything, so I found out after I finished the game that it is basically about a boy that is trying to find his sister in this very bleak and, at times, sadistic world.  Knowing that now, makes the ending more poetic – even though at the time when I finished it, I fell in love on how the ending played out and, I have to say, it struck a chord with me.  I was genuinely touched.  For a game to do that, it means something.  I just wish it was longer.  However, I can’t wait to go back and play through it again.

I highly recommend that you buy this game for 1200 MS Points ($15) when it comes out tomorrow, July 21st.  It is well worth the money and definitely a game to show off to your friends.

For more information, visit the LIMBO Game Site at http://www.limbogame.org/.