I spent a few moments playing Limbo, an Xbox Live Arcade Game, at Comic-Con. It was immediately obvious this E3 darling was a game worth buying and playing through a few times. Its muted black and gray colors and echoing soundtrack evoke a dream state in the same way Ico or Shadow of the Colossus did. Limbo is a puzzle game and a darn good one too. While you might have to try a level a few (or a few dozen) times, none of the puzzles are so difficult that you can’t figure them out with trial and error. The brilliant brain-teasers use levers, weights, boxes, magnets, gravity and more to alter your character’s environment and are uniquely clever and fun in the same way that last year’s Braid was.
The game’s puzzles are suitable for most audiences, however – and this is an important point and the reason the game is rated T for teens – the character does die, repeatedly, by means of machine gun, buzz saw and giant insect, sometimes being decapitated or disemboweled. Still, these events, like the rest of the game, only occur in silhouette.
A complete run-through of the game can be accomplished in an evening. But completing all the achievements and finding hidden easter eggs will require multiple attempts. Rumor is that Limbo will be coming to other platforms soon, but for now is only available on the Xbox 360. A trial game is free, but the full game is 1200 points or $15 and is well worth it because Limbo is a really wonderful experience.
