Backlog Raider #4: LIMBO

After having a hard time realizing I’ve been a notorious swine when it comes to impulsive buying of games on Steam, I’ve decided to approach the whole thing differently. I will dig deep in my Steam backlog and every now and then find a game that’s been lying there, all alone and forgotten. And then I’ll play it and you’ll have something to read.

That’s about it. Join the Backlog Raider group on Steam here. Follow my curator page here.

LIMBO

“Uncertain of his sister’s fate, a boy enters LIMBO.”

Uncertain of my mental ability to handle mysterious puzzler while I work on numerous interview questions for tonight, I’ve installed LIMBO anyway. For the first time this wasn’t completely my decision, but a result of teamwork — one of my Steam friends that goes by the nickname Turd On A Stick (beat that) recommended it to me. So I said: yeah, why not?

It’s a strange thing how I got my hands on LIMBO. A friend of mine sent me a key as a present for my girlfriend’s birthday and instead of sending it forward, I’ve activated a game. Boo me, boo…

Anyway, LIMBO. No backstory, no nothing, just you — small, not so frightened boy lost somewhere, in black and white world that reeks of death. You start with no instructions and realize soon enough there are only a handful of commands to work with — use arrow keys to move and jump, use control key to, believe it or not, control interactive parts of LIMBO’s world.

LIMBO is part puzzler, part tough as nails 2D platformer. It’s an interesting combination and it works pretty, pretty well — basically, in most cases you will need to solve mind-boggling puzzles under constant pressure. One mistake — you die. See, it starts off pretty easy, but as you continue and by the end of your journey through LIMBO, you will die. A lot. Everything and everyone in this game might be Grim Reaper in disguise. You will get pretty annoyed unless you’re some super-duper puzzle/platforming expert. I’ve died over and over again and basically, I’ve learned through my mistakes. Most puzzles have logical solutions, but if you don’t want to view any walkthroughs, you’ll need to think out of the box and move from side to side to see what elements game’s providing for you.

LIMBO’s selling point is unrealistically good art and the atmosphere it provides gamers with. Background music cannot really be considered a background music — ambient portions of sound dictate the atmosphere and work around your nerves to prepare you for upcoming problems you need to solve. For arachnophobes out there, there’s a huge ass spider that’ll be terrorizing you through the first part of the game. You might think of this announcement as a spoiler, but if you’re afraid of the spiders just like I am, you know there’s nothing worse but encountering spiders without prior warning. So there it is.

I’ve needed 3,8 hours to finish the game, you might do it faster, but if you’re an achievement hunter, getting them all might provide you with some more game time. The one especially hard considering comments made by gaming community is ending the game in one sitting with five or less deaths. Why? Oh, you’ll see.

LIMBO is a prime example of beautiful indie title that’s striving for impression instead of just delivering few hours of entertainment. That said, it is well worth your time and money. Or just getting it installed from your backlog, just like I did.