Limbo Game Review

Review by IGN 9.0/10 Outstanding

Videogames are an art form made up of visuals, sound, and a mysterious little something we call gameplay. Limbo is the perfect example of these three crafts working together in harmony to create something astounding. With no text, no dialogue, and no explanation, it manages to communicate circumstance and causality to the player more simply than most games. This 2D puzzle platformer in a film noir style is one of the best games you’ll play this year on any platform.

You control a young boy who wakes up in a forest with no indication of who you are, how you got there, or where you’re going. You set out to explore this bizarre environment but soon find it to be a dangerous place, at which point your motivation becomes clear: you need to get the hell out of there. No cut scenes or loading screens will interrupt the action, making it easy to be swept away in Limbo’s disturbing world.

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Review by Eurogamer 9/10

Limbo, the moody, monochromatic game that kicks off Xbox Live Arcade’s Summer of Arcade this Wednesday, looks gorgeous. Any screenshot will tell you that, and playing the game drives it home. The developers, Playdead, execute their aesthetic – like a gloomy Eastern European animated short seen through misted glass – with beauty and consistency. The game’s real success, however, is in refusing to be satisfied with looks alone.

Creativity thrives in limitations, and Limbo is rigorous in its self-imposed limits. It has no colour, no dialogue, minimal music, no cut-scenes, no on-screen health meters or other clutter. Yet you can’t expect limitations alone to make your masterpiece for you. After cutting away the fat, the obligation is to use what remains as convincingly as possible.

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Review by 1Up (B)

Limbo does a great deal with very little. Stark black-and white-visuals and a simple two-button control scheme (“action” and “jump”) highlight the power a talented developer can wield by keeping things simple. While the game’s story (and its abrupt ending) leaves a bit to be desired, the framework surrounding it provides more than enough reason to explore the game’s haunting world. At its heart, Limbo is a puzzle game: you interact with the environment and overcome obstacles while trying to avoid an untimely (and messy) death…but you’ll die a lot anyway.

Learning to find the dangers cleverly concealed in the game’s shadows keeps you aware of your simplistic surroundings, and draws focus to the minute details of the landscape. Limbo presents it’s fair share of platforming and precision button pressing as well, but unlike, say, Mega Man, you’re never forced to start back at the beginning of a stage.

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