Nothing but respect for this. It asks for so little from you in price, length, and skill that it's such an accessible game, while at the same time being challenging enough to be a memorable and engaging puzzle platformer, and wearing its artistry proudly and non-obnoxiously for those who look for and want to understand that artistry in video games.
For me, it's just a tad bit too abstract and speculative for my liking. I enjoy reading about people's thoughts on it, but I would've liked a few more breadcrumbs to understand either the Limbo itself or this boy if I were to be more invested in its plot and themes. But then again, its abstract nature is entirely the point, and the game's best elements work because of that abstractness.
What I did really like, and what I think holds me back from liking it more, is how great of a horror game this is, and how that element falls to the wayside as it goes on. I love how Limbo starts in a forest, its presentation so quiet and focused on its black-and-white, staticy, barely out of focus aesthetic. It's immediately engaging and intriguing in a way that so few games are. And as I began to move forward, so many questions arose in my mind. Not just questions of "who is this kid?" and "what is this place?" No, questions with deeper, more sinister implications. Questions like "why do I keep going forward?" "Well, there's nowhere else to go, I guess..." "These are... bear traps! Why are they here, and... wait... someone must have set them here. I'm not alone. But who? And are they hostile? Or are they just as scared of me as I am of them?"
Damn, that first hour is really spectacular. Everything with the spider and with the booby traps, and with these strangers with unclear motives, everything about it induces this primal fear. You are unsafe and alone in an unfeeling world, and all you can do is keep running, and use your wits to survive as best you can, because better they die than you.
Once the setting changes to become more industrial is when the game begins to lose me a bit. There are still dangers aplenty, notable set pieces, challenging puzzles, and some really cool uses of total darkness, but that primal fear becomes lost. I think the game is striving to explore fear in more evolved capacities, but the lifelessness of this manmade world is far less compelling and scary to me than what the game started with, and that's what holds me back from fully loving this.
But despite that, still so so good, and easily worth the handful of hours it takes to complete.
For me, it's just a tad bit too abstract and speculative for my liking. I enjoy reading about people's thoughts on it, but I would've liked a few more breadcrumbs to understand either the Limbo itself or this boy if I were to be more invested in its plot and themes. But then again, its abstract nature is entirely the point, and the game's best elements work because of that abstractness.
What I did really like, and what I think holds me back from liking it more, is how great of a horror game this is, and how that element falls to the wayside as it goes on. I love how Limbo starts in a forest, its presentation so quiet and focused on its black-and-white, staticy, barely out of focus aesthetic. It's immediately engaging and intriguing in a way that so few games are. And as I began to move forward, so many questions arose in my mind. Not just questions of "who is this kid?" and "what is this place?" No, questions with deeper, more sinister implications. Questions like "why do I keep going forward?" "Well, there's nowhere else to go, I guess..." "These are... bear traps! Why are they here, and... wait... someone must have set them here. I'm not alone. But who? And are they hostile? Or are they just as scared of me as I am of them?"
Damn, that first hour is really spectacular. Everything with the spider and with the booby traps, and with these strangers with unclear motives, everything about it induces this primal fear. You are unsafe and alone in an unfeeling world, and all you can do is keep running, and use your wits to survive as best you can, because better they die than you.
Once the setting changes to become more industrial is when the game begins to lose me a bit. There are still dangers aplenty, notable set pieces, challenging puzzles, and some really cool uses of total darkness, but that primal fear becomes lost. I think the game is striving to explore fear in more evolved capacities, but the lifelessness of this manmade world is far less compelling and scary to me than what the game started with, and that's what holds me back from fully loving this.
But despite that, still so so good, and easily worth the handful of hours it takes to complete.