Limbo is a game developed by Playdead in 2010 for the Xbox 360 (and eventually every other platform). It’s a surreal puzzle-platformer with a dark tone and unique visual style. A beautiful game that pairs the innocence of the young boy you play as with horrifying deaths of both him and everyone around him. Is this a case of style over substance, or does the beauty go further than skin deep? Let’s find out in my Mighty Review of… LIMBO.

The story of LIMBO is mostly to be interpreted, but let me do my best to summarize. You play as an unnamed little boy who wakes up in the grass and begins to run forward. Along the way you run into traps that will kill you, other children who try to kill you, and a spider who, of course, tries to kill you. It isn’t clear what this boy’s goal is, why he’s here, or why everyone and everything wants him dead. Most of the story is told through subtle hints that I won’t spoil here, but just know that it is told very well. Also this kid has the upper body strength of Nathan Drake. 

This game is gorgeous. Obviously the game is in black and white. There’s a grainy texture over the world that gives you an ominous feeling throughout the playthrough. The way the shadows work, the animations on the boy, and the general design of this world all lead to an incredible amount of atmosphere that even triple-A developers often fail to achieve. Normally I would dismiss the black and white aesthetic as gimmicky, but it does a lot to help the atmosphere and the lighting is absolute perfection.It’s a tricky look to pull off and I applaud the developers for absolutely nailing it.

The graphics are one thing, but the set pieces are a completely different beast. You see children who hang themselves, dead bodies that you use as platforms, pulling body parts off of insects, and of course, your own deaths. It’s also great to see the world gradually shift from being in a forest with trees and water, to seeing people and stone-age style traps, to being in an industrialized box factory. By the end of the game you begin to feel a sense of isolation that almost makes you miss the kids who were trying to kill you.

Lastly, the music is fantastic. It’s not exactly something you’d listen to on your drive to work, but it does compliment the game’s atmosphere perfectly. Going from loud and boisterous to soft and quiet exactly when the game needs it. Even the sound effects are great. They’re over-exaggerated, but that helps the player to identify what an object might be in this greyscale aesthetic. I legitimately have nothing to complain about with this game visually.

Limbo utilizes simple controls for complex game mechanics. You have three things you can do in the game: run, jump, and perform an action (usually pulling something or activating a switch). You go from left to right until you finish the game. The thing is, what the game does with these simple controls is astonishing. You start off just performing simple platforming challenges, but soon the puzzles get more and more difficult. Oh, and if this is your first time playing Limbo, You. Will. Die. The game uses death as a teaching tool, but with the high amount of checkpoints and lack of any loading times this never seems unfair. Not to mention a game called Limbo is one of the few examples in which dying in a game over and over again makes sense in the context of the story.

Now on to the enemies. The only real living enemies you have are the other children and the spider. The spider is kind of like a motivator. It’s great to go through a saga until finally beating it, but it also keeps the player moving at a faster pace when the player would typically choose to be cautious. The other children start off being the ones to set the traps and then devolve into attacking you themselves. There’s also a leech type thing that forces you to walk in one direction until walking into light, which changes its direction. It can be eaten off by the beaks hanging from the ceiling.  In reality, the world is the true enemy. The clever puzzles combined with tricky platforming and timing are fun and rewarding without being unfair or frustrating.

The whole game will take about 2 to 4 hours to play through. There are some hidden objects to find, but beyond that the game doesn’t have much in the way of replay value. Most people would see this as a negative, but I think it’s the perfect length for this type of game. It’s always throwing new mechanics at the player and they’re always implemented creatively. I do think that some aren’t fully fleshed out and are used far too little, but on the other hand this keeps the gameplay fresh as no idea ever becomes boring or tedious. I also wish they had more puzzles combining the different mechanics, but in the end Limbo is a game that once played, will never be forgotten.

Limbo is a fantastic and beautiful game that envelops the player in its embrace and keeps them there until the end. It’s a game I had a lot of fun revisiting and plan to revisit again in the future. Which is why I not only give it a 9.5 out of 10, but I’m also putting it on the MightyNifty Must-Play List. I just can’t wait to see what Playdead’s next game, Inside has to offer. Now, next week I’ll be coming at you guys with my Nifty Recipe for this game, please subscribe if you want to see more game reviews and as always, have a Mighty Nifty day today!