Are video games truly art? Name one game that gave you an emotional response, you know like art does. Was it Aerith died in your arms (why couldn't I use a Phoenix Down)? Or maybe when Dom was forced to shoot his wife to end her suffering almost an arguement for assisteed suicide in Gears 2. I had one recently, it was a recently released game for XBLA called Limbo. Not only did the developers PlayDead, get an emotional response out of me it knit the other half of gaming art: the visuals and sound went with the gameplay perfectly. Not only is this one of the best downloadable games ever, it's also one of the best you'll play throughout the entire year, ahead and past.
Limbo is the "story" of a small young boy wandering through the afterlife. I say that in captions because the game has text or dialogue plus no explaination. That plot summary is literally a guess. It could be about a boy wandering through a post apocalyptic world or his nightmares or maybe his best friends budget knockoff of SAW and Alice in Wonderland in monochrome. Any idea is valid due to the game's ambiguity. So anyway you as the young boy decide to explore this world, which is done as a continuous 2D level and soon find it to be a horrible deadly place. The game is full of deadly traps, people, creatures and machinery that intrigue and terrify. The game does a get bit weird that at one point their is signs of life in the game but later in the ruined city they disappear save for some parasitic worms. Now one thing that will strike you is the black and white art style but it real isn't film noir because: A it's not a film and B: the world isn't full of mystery just questions. The game's art style is incredibly good looking from a graphics stand point, foreground and background and the lack of music compliments it.
So how's Limbo's gameplay? Brilliant. It's one of puzzle platforming with much emphasis on puzzles but not Bejewled or push a box across a room on a switch but truly complex and dastardly ones that you are meant to die on, a lot. But not only due the traps kill you, even in black and white it's gruesome and stark portrayal of Limbo's universe. Few developers would have the balls to decapitate children or provide realistic death by drowning animations like the mocap was done by a child killer. Also the puzzles rarely repeat and each one is diffrent, challenging and adds a completely new concept, so you'll go from moving a bear trap out of the way to messing with with gravity to avoid electrocution. The game also isn't overly punishing and it's respawn locations are often right next to a trap, so treading isn't needed. The game has a bit of replay value in that it has leaderboards for percentage of completion although this could have been perfect for comparing speed runs or amount of deaths. Also the achievements are hidden in the environment so you'll definetly have to check every nook and take leaps of faith. Overall the game gives 6 hours of playtime to watch a child die in several terrible ways.
Limbo is definetly up their with game's like Red Dead Redemption and Mass Effect 2 as being one of the best of the year so far. Plus the game has one fucking brilliant ending. It comes out of nowhere, is incredibly poignant and leaves the results of what the hell you think happened in your hands. Limbo is a must buy and probably will be the best downloadable game of the year.
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