Review: Limbo (Xbox 360)
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In Limbo, the player's main problem is with static objects which are pulled, prodded, stamped on or activated to progress. Poorly thought out actions are punished by the character's death, and nothing is ever achieved by accident. The game is riddled with 10-minute thinkers, which are a real pleasure to solve.
Down a notch
At the time of writing, Playdead has no plans to release Limbo on PC or PS3, for what I suspect are anti-piracy reasons, or those of Microsoft's money. The decision to limit Limbo's market will certainly minimise its impact on release (download titles do not feature on best-seller lists).
While console gamers are — we're told — getting older and more mature, I don't hear of many 50-year-olds with Xboxes. A PC release would have allowed more people to see what developers are doing with technology and witness yet another step on gaming's road to "growing up".
For gamers of a certain vintage, the benchmark for platform games has always been Flashback (1992), a Sega Megadrive title and the zenith of action/puzzling — with an incomparable rate of player failure. While there is not the same variety to be had here, Playdead has come very close with Limbo, especially for being such a small studio. I think a more favourable comparison can be made with Flashback's older sibling, Another World (1991), which was more of a focused puzzler.
Despite the limited opportunity for potential players to see Limbo, I would describe it as a must-play for any 360 owners. If you don't have the console, cajole a friend into buying the game, or ask to watch. It really is that beautiful and very hard for me to pick holes in.
Stronger than — Braid (Xbox 360)
Weaker than — Another World (PC)
10.01pm - 22.07.2010 John - Las Vegas, NV, USA Report This
Oh please, your knock on this game is it's not released on the PS3? Give me a break. What of "Little Big Planet"? Should that title suffer too cause it's only on Sony? Microsoft is allowed to have exclusives and they are allowed to have those exclusives be great. Stop whining.
05.04pm - 23.07.2010 Ann Stow - Shropshire, England Report This
A student of mine showed artwork like this to me and I was intrigued to find out more. A very thorough and well-written article!
10.55am - 31.07.2010 Hugo - Leiria, Portugal Report This
ohh come on... that is a little big planet clone.. you can do that game on little big planet...
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