Gaming as an art form has more merit now.

The first 60 seconds into LIMBO and you already become immersed into this black-and-white world. You begin to ask yourself, “What is this place?” and “Why am I here?”. Through the entire game you ask yourself these questions over and over again. Matter of fact, even at the end of LIMBO you still continue to ask yourself those questions. LIMBO is a mysterious and engaging 2D puzzle platformer that is simplistic in gameplay, but excels more in the immersion and world in which you are playing through. Did I mention it being creepy? Eerily creepy.

Is there a story in LIMBO? I guess, since the game has no story dialogue nor text to read. All you know is you are lost and you want to get out. The developer Playdead mentioned you looking for your sister, that’s about it. However, after completing LIMBO you find out a very sad but awesome ending(which I won’t give away) that hints at a possible part 2.

Gameplay wise, the whole goal in LIMBO is to get the heck out of this world that you find yourself in upon waking up. You start off in a forest, but by the end of the game you have gone through warehouses, rooftops, and other creepy places I can’t even describe. Spiders chase you, some kids are trying to kill you, and it seems as though even the world is purposely coming after you to kill you. So how do you avoid dying? Sometimes you can’t. LIMBO purposely kills you at times. Believe it or not, that’s the fun part of the game. You die brutally throughout the course of LIMBO. Whether a bear trap snaps your head off or some kid drops a trap on you, you die a lot. Figuring out the puzzle behind not dying is the basis of the gameplay in LIMBO. There are switches, boxes and more throughout LIMBO and your mission is to figure them out to move forward. At first these puzzles are fairly simple, but later on into the game I found myself completely stumped for a while until I figured things out. This is a puzzle game at its core, similar to games like Braid and even The Lost Vikings by Blizzard a while back.

I will admit, LIMBO is a fairly short game. It took me about 4-5 hours to complete the game, and there really isn’t much to explore other than a couple of hidden areas to find some hidden eggs. Also, there isn’t much replayability unless you want to try to get all of the achievements. The 1200 MS points that LIMBO will set you back isn’t cool either given the length, but I would still play LIMBO again and again just to experience the world. As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, LIMBO gives the argument that gaming is an art form justice. Buy this game!

Storyline: B (8.5)

Gameplay: A- (9.0)

Graphics: A (9.5)

Sound: A- (9.0)

Replayability: B- (8.0)

Overall(Not an Average):

A- (9.0)

Buy LIMBO on the Xbox Live Marketplace here.