In Between, LIMBO
Uncertain of his sister’s fate, a boy enters LIMBO
A friend recommended this to me since I was interested in a story-rich indie horror game at that time. July 2020, in the middle of the quarantine void.
I did a second visit to LIMBO (Playdead, 2011), the game I bought exactly three years ago.
A boy rose up from the ground. His figure was rather small, and his whole body was pitch black, leaving two hollow round holes in what’s supposed to be his eyes. We don’t really know who he was, where did he come from, and where exactly he is now. There wasn’t really anything else other than the boy, at this very moment.
We are the Boy
If you missed out on reading the game synopsis, you might never know how the story supposed to be (watching the trailer doesn’t really help, too). Because that happened to me. But to think about it, I was too used to being spoon-fed with long background narratives even before the real game starts. Thus, this is a new feeling for me, like stepping into the unknown.
LIMBO consists of 39 short chapters and can be completed in less than 10 hours of playtime. Being a 2D puzzle platformer, you will have to deal with sorts of mechanisms at every level.
The levels, even the game itself, look simple but exceptional in detail. Every movement in the puzzle requires your rational calculation of momentum. Mostly we deal with violent contraptions that will impale, mutilate, chop, break, or destroy the sh*t out of the Boy, literally. On some other levels, we are dealing with gravitational force and electricity. Oh, did I mention brain-eating maggots that are weak to light? How about a giant fly?
Yes.
Heads up, there are so many things that could get you killed.
Speaking of LIMBO, its noir presentation left a striking impression. Its environment being only black and white, creating dystopian eerieness that was enhanced by the ambient sound playing in the background. Everything is minimal, but interestingly its minimalism amplifies the player experience. Are we still alive? If we are, why everything else felt ruinous?
You know what else left a striking impression? Death count
As mentioned before, we are dealing with assortments of lethal puzzles. It’s not that easy, but it may be easier if you made friends with reflex movement, logic, and momentum.
Physics is another key element that made this game feels amazing.
The developer has succeeded in portraying the physics of materials.
Be it light, motion, weight, and gravity, as though most of the objects are either pitch black or monochromatic. That’s why at some points I feel this game is really more than what appears before our eyes, which is enchanting as well.
Violence is also an element worth noting, the element that made this game qualified to be attached with #horror tag. Is the “real” limbo actually this violent? Are the puzzles our purgatory (lol)? Why are the other “humans” wanted to kill the boy? Who are they even? Why, though? It feels like we’re running through a long ~endless~ nightmare.
As for its replayability, I don’t intend to do so, but if you are curious about the achievements or want to exercise doing a cleaner run, you can easily revisit the particular chapter and reload. I’d also like to treat this game as a detox game to mute down other games with heavy graphics and eye-popping colors. It’s very refreshing to play this after hours of playing a three-dimensional game.
Personally, this game left a lot of question marks. We didn’t have much to begin with, yet there are a lot of unanswered questions. If I am allowed to say, you have to experience the complete run to shed a light on the mystery, because the key lies in between the very end and at the very start of the game. If that makes sense…
LIMBO is not a walk in the park, but it’s worth experiencing.
Play LIMBO on PC: https://store.steampowered.com/app/48000/LIMBO/
