Limbo PS3 Review

Last Year, Limbo released on the Xbox marketplace to critical acclaim with its wonderful mixture of gameplay, visuals and sounds. It offered addicting gameplay as well as a shocking twist at its conclusion. It received very good reviews from most of the reviewers out there (JPS gave it a 4 out of 5). Here we are almost exactly a year later and the game has been released on the Playstation Store for those of you who only have Sony’s home system.

With the release of the game on the PS3, can we expect it to keep the same quality that it had a year ago when it released on the Xbox 360? Or did something happen to it on its way over to the Sony console? Does it still hold the same impact on gamers? Here are the Hots and Nots of Limbo.

HOT

Simple Gameplay Is Addicting
The best point of this game is that it doesn’t throw a slew of complicated button controls at you and expect you to pick it up due to a learning curve. No the controls are simple and that surprisingly makes for a more addicting game. There are only two buttons that you will need to press through the entire game, X and O. The gameplay itself is made up of trying to figure out the various puzzles contained within the title through trial and error that get increasingly more difficult as you progress through the title. It’s about survival, but expect to meet a gruesome death many times over before you finish the game…

Story
The story of the game follows a boy who wakes up in the middle of an eerie forest and must survive the horrors he comes across to save his sister. You are thrown into the beginning of the game with no clue as to what is going on around you. There is nothing in the way of cutscenes, dialogue, or background music. Yet the game manages to tell an amazing story filled with dread and a quest for survival through the most basic mediums of art. The combination of the various sounds in the backdrop, combined with the desperate fight for survival and the creepy tone of the game, it didn’t need music or dialogue to suck me in. As soon as I started it up, I was hooked from beginning to end.

Atmosphere
As mentioned in the section above, the game tells its story with a great mix of diferent medias. The use of eerie noises and unsettling silence combines with the black and white graphics to create a feeling of dread in the player that stands on par with some of the great horror games out there. The developers did an excellent job creating this world where the player knows that they must do their best to help this boy through his quest to not only survive but find his missing sister. The gruesome ways that this boy is killed throughout his adventure are plentiful and you will see them quite a bit through your time in the game.

Trial And Death
We have all been taught throughout the history of video games that dying is a bad thing. We are punished for dying in various ways such as loss of progress or a harder difficulty. Limbo changes this perspective on death by encouraging players to die in order to learn how to pass the puzzle at hand. After you are killed, you will simply start right next to the puzzle you just attempted, allowing you to attempt it again and again until you finally complete it. It definitely is not the least bit frustrating and actually helps add to a fun and engaging experience.

NOT

Price
The $14.99 price tag slapped on this game seems a little steep for the somewhat short story given with it. As great as the game is, some people may find it difficult to purchase with money being hard to come by these days. But if you have the extra money and you want a fun 2D puzzle platformer to play, then definitely look into this title.

VERDICT

With so much going for Limbo, it is a definite purchase for those of you who can afford to pick it up. The price point may be a turn off, but you do get a great game that tells an amazing story for what you pay. This can easily be marked up as one of the greatest downloadable titles ever put out there and I personally find it to be one of my favorite games that I have played so far this year. A must purchase for those of you could use a new PSN Game to play.

[Editor’s Note: Limbo was reviewed on the PlayStation 3 platform. The game was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes.]