I picked up that the boy of the game has probably already died, as has his sister (who he is searching for), but it doesn't excuse the game's handling of death. ![]() The first problem with this, ironically enough, is the game's main theme: death. And Limbo, unfortunately, is not capable to handle this for a couple of reasons. But by slapping the player down in the middle of this beautiful but depressing landscape without providing any context at all, the game has to live or die by the experiences that the player projects onto it. In theory, this should work brilliantly for Limbo, because the setting and the visuals are so evocative. I really wish Limbo was a better game, because I've harped on and on about how developers are too quick to fill in a backstory, leaving nothing up to the imagination. That's obvious bullshit, because even when players did participate in that narrative, Mario games have always, always been about the player, and having the player project his/her emotions onto the surreal landscape (and making Mario "dark" with "emotional" themes would probably ruin this and also make for a seriously shitty game, full of Michael Thomsen-approved pretensions. Michael Thomsen gets it wrong again (shocker!) when he says that 3D Mario games are a hollow experience because the "save the princess" narrative isn't what the player participates in any more. Indeed, in most cases, the context is playing the game itself. Games, and especially 2D platformers, don't need to have a ton of context. And secondly, and perhaps most damagingly, the lack of any context actually works against this particular game, leaving nothing but a pretty shell and an empty centre. But the problem with Limbo is two-fold: first, for all of its purported "changing the world of gaming" feints, the gameplay itself is shockingly, almost insultingly derivative. This is certainly the aspect of the game that is the most successful. There's a slight film grain to the black and white images, and I think what Playdead are trying to evoke here are German expressionist films like The Cabinet of Dr. Here's my problem with the game, right up front: the visuals are indeed pretty amazing, giving the game an appropriately dour look. It's a solid 2D platformer, but it's nothing more than that, and calling it anything more than that would be specious. ![]() ![]() Note that I've said "supposed to," because for all of its pretensions, Limbo isn't really any of these things. It's supposed to put the traditional 2D platformer in a new, dark, mysterious place that, ostensibly, the game provides in the vague story of a dead child making his way through a sort of "Hell-lite." Most of all, what it's supposed to do is connect with the player, opening up a new, emotional, cathartic experience that few games have ever accomplished. Limbo is supposed to be a life-changing game.
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