Art of Darkness

game review: limbo

There has been, for the past few years, a long and drawn out debate about the artistic merit of video games, and whether in fact a video game can be considered “art.”  The great part about this debate is that is hasn’t kept independent game developers from going ahead and creating stunning works of art, whether certain movie critics deem to be so or not.  Limbo is a stunning thing to behold, and while its puzzle platformer core shares a great deal with popular predecessors like Braid and even Mario Galaxy, it is a singularly unique adventure through a shadowy world that will leave you transfixed.

As graphics processors and raw computing power have progressed, the bar for 3D gaming has risen incredibly high (by 3D I mean polygons, not polarized glasses) the fallout of which has left the door open for developers and artists to rethink the world of 2D graphics and evolve it to new heights.  Limbo is one of the most stunning (you’ll see that word a lot in this review) looking games to be released to date.  The entire world and all its inhabitants, including the young hero of the game, are rendered as silhouettes in a faux depth of field plane.  Fuzzy glimpses of the bleak surroundings pass in the background, while blurry shapes pass through the foreground, obscuring your view and daring you to take a step a further into the unknown.

Stepping into the unknown might sound like a funny thing to fear from puzzle platformer whose ultimate goal is to get from the left side of the screen to right, and this would be true were it not that almost every unknown step leads to your surprisingly gruesome demise.  Impaled upon a spike, squished by a falling object, or torn asunder by one of the worlds many traps, the game manages to be shockingly graphic for its silhouette display.

 

If this game trips up anywhere, it’s that its attempts to make dying an aversive experience are almost so over the top, that it comes across as funny rather than horrific. There are only so many times you can watch your head get snapped off by a bear trap before you can’t help but giggle, and that ruins a bit of stark atmosphere this game otherwise nails so perfectly.  Fortunately, the game is incredibly generous with checkpoints, and rarely will dying set you back a too much effort.  There might even be some deeper connection to be gleaned about the nature of your Limbo environment and the fact that the only way to progress is to learn from the consequences of your mistakes.

Gameplay aside, it’s clear that Limbo’s special sauce is its experience.  Not since playing a Myst game have I ever felt that sense of oppressive loneliness, and Limbo plays upon that with a near total absence of soundtrack and an ambient background so desolate, that I found my self breathing quieter as not to disturb some hidden evil waiting around the corner.

 

The game also toys with your emotions, and I remember vividly one moment where I thought I had stumbled upon my goal, only to have it suddenly ripped away, and while this didn’t floor me like some moments in the obvious comparison XBLA game Braid, I was similarly caught off guard and similarly delighted.

Limbo is a darkly beautiful experience draped over a familiar, but no less engaging platformer, and while a little on the short side (about 3-4 hours), it’s an easy recommend as one of the best games on Xbox Live Arcade.

If you like this game, I recommend: