Author: Jaime Wolf  <q2b6>    189.171.2.45 Use this link if you want to link to this message and its entire thread of discussion. Post a Msg
Date: 7/26/2010 7:03:03 PM
Subject: Limbo

Or: Another World. (Without laser pistols)

This platformer is so dependent on trial and error gameplay that you just can't help and laugh when the game screws you for the millionth time. Case in point, and I'll spoil this one little kick in the ass just because no one deserves getting murdered like this: There is an area with a glaringly obvious ceiling mounted crushing mechanism, on the floor below is a slightly raised platform surrounding something that looks like a button in the middle. So you figure the button is what activates the trap and decide to try and jump over it, but nooo... It's the *platform* around the button that activates it.

Ok, so you just got turned into a pancake, it's cool though because the game auto saved just before the trap and it loads in an instant. You now decide to jump the platform entirely and land on the button... Voila! The trap didn't activate and you're on your way.

Just 5 steps ahead is an exact duplicate of the trap.

Now, there are two kinds of people at this point: The first are the kind of poor innocent bastards who are just playing the game for the first time and haven't yet realized that the people who created it are a bunch of sadistic motherfuckers. These people will immediately think of the same "Step on platform, land on button" routine they just went through, only to be flattened yet again because the rules for *this* trap are backwards.

So you kick yourself for not seeing this coming a mile away, you restart and correct your mistake... Only to get your face stuffed with poisonous darts 5 steps later.

I mentioned Another World, the two games are rather similar in many different aspects from graphics to overall feel, but the one thing that really sticks out is the trial and error gameplay. In Another World, it was perfectly possible to run through the game without getting killed once, though not on your first run through the game, for your first run through the game you were basically destined to die spectacularly in many different ways. Hell, the game even encouraged you to kill yourself just to see the gnarly cutscenes that accompanied most deaths. And so it is with Limbo as well, your little character will be falling into spikes, getting crushed by a myriad of heavy objects, etc etc... All in its full graphic glory. I'm starting to think the whole shadowy vector based graphic style was chosen specifically to hide all the gore.

What's the problem with this type of gameplay? Exactly the same problem that plagued Another World: Extending gaming time by making the player repeat sections because they were killed unfairly only makes for a very angry game on the first run, and a very short and shallow game on subsequent playthroughs. And like Another World, Limbo is visually very pretty, and as such a game best seen being played instead of playing it yourself and getting slapped around by it.

For an even more extreme version of this type of game, see: IWBTG.

For what it's worth, the game is pretty, it's very moody and gets even moodier as it progresses. Whether it's worth the asking price is up to you, to be honest 15 bucks is a bit steep for the amount of game you're getting.