Limbo Review (Riot)
It's been ages since the last time I decided to play LIMBO and each time I do it seems more and more unsettling. I really miss the spider.
Limbo is one of the older titles on Steam that fits into an atmospheric category unto itself. Like its name suggests, the game takes place in a liminal space of perpetual gloom and frustration. You play as a little shadow-child, continuously attempting to move forward (and more often than not, backward) toward a goal that can only be described as the end of the game. Originally I had purchased this title here only to shortly after obtain it for free on the PS3, which concreted that this title is designed to be played with a controller, and any person willing to attempt this on keyboard should be marked as the sociopaths they happen to be.
Because of how simplistic this game is, I feel it would be a disservice to break this game down too much, as it is on one hand bloody beautiful and on the other, one of the most frustrating experiences of my life. The majority of the game cycles between moments of platforming and expertly timed puzzles. While the puzzles don't tend to be incredibly difficult to solve, getting the right groove to finish each puzzle is a bit of a chore. Thankfully, the developers had enough forethought to give decently placed checkpoints before and after each puzzle. That doesn't take the frustration of attempting the same thing repeatedly with minimal change in results, but it does mean you aren't force to repeat multiple puzzles to reach the same issue you have been contemplating destroying your monitor over.
At the end of all this I can honestly say that I came for the atmosphere that Limbo offers, and stayed because it felt incredibly selfish not to honor the memory of the giant spider I shamelessly dismembered in the name of progress. After all, the spider was polite compared to some of the horrors that await anyone willing to delve into this title.