Limbo: It is absolutely beautiful
It really is.
It’s just beautiful.
Games need more that just good looks. We all know that prettiness only goes so far, but Limbo is probably the closest I have ever seen to a game that could get by on it’s visual merits alone.
It literally stopped people in their tracks. There was always a crowd of people just stood starring at whoever was having their turn at the time.
It was a fairly long demo. When I put the headphones on and fixed my eyes to the screen, the people in line, the rest of the convention, and the rest of the world just disappeared. I was playing limbo.
Let’s go back a bit though.
Lets go back to when I first saw that teaser trailer. I’ll admit it, I was sceptical. I saw that and said to myself “What a fantastic looking animation. It’s a shame no game could ever look that good in motion, or at least it would have to sacrifice having tight controls to do so”.
They only went and did it.
Limbo controls fantastically. The boy with those piercing white eyes does what he is told. He responds to the environmental, slowly extending his hand, ready to grab things as he approaches them. He walks, sprints, jumps, falls and dies with incredible realness. This is what Jordan Mechner was looking for in the footage of his brother in white pyjamas. One animator spent 3 years working on the animation of the boy, and it really shows.
From what I have played so far, you only die if you are doing something wrong. You will die a bunch of times, and are rewarded by some tragic death animations.
It is a puzzle platformer. You move from left to right, and solve puzzles along the way. Puzzles are clever, and rely on interacting with the environment in intelligent ways.
I’m sold.
I’m going to shut up about it and let Producer Mads Wibroe talk about it.
Interview with Limbo producer Mads Wibroe
Limbo is out on XBLA between June and August.
Needs to be out on something other than XBLA, especially since it was originally slated for PC :/
It’s times like these I wish I had an Xbox. Very glad that this game is finally seeing the light of day, though.