izigame.me

Before I got Steam, a computer, or even a console, I had an IPad that I got as a Christmas gift over a decade ago. Limbo was the first game I've ever played. Well, I had played some free app store garbage before like the many pseudo-gambling games where I would bet all of my in-game starting coins on a single slot spin before losing everything and deleting the app. I haven't even gambled any real money then or since so I don’t know what compelled me to do that. However, Limbo was the first paid game I had and the vivid memories of it compelled me to pick it up again and finally finish it.
It was likely the style that drew me in. Monochrome and dark in tone with a few opportunities for death that even give me goosebumps today. The simplistic art direction and controls were limitations posed by a medium that wasn’t really designed for gaming in mind that ended up in service of the experience rather than a hindrance. Now there are less restrictions than ever before when making a game. Hardware is at its best and development tools most accessible, but that freedom also means the ability to coast by with the minimum amount of effort possible. The asset flips, explicit porn, and scams that fill up the front page of Steam probably take in the GDP of a small nation with the frequency they continue to be churned out.
Limbo is what I refer to as the popularization of the “go right horror” genre. Common characteristics include no instructions given beyond the basic controls consisting only of a jump and grab, controlling a small and powerless human in a hostile world of monsters, and no dialog. Main gameplay is a mash of platforming, puzzle solving, time sensitive actions, and spectacle. None of these are the core focus though, and elements of each are cycled and combined in the course of the run time. Inside had improved on all these elements compared to Inside while Little Nightmares didn’t have great platforming and puzzle solving in exchange for the best time sensitive actions and spectacle of the genre (very much apparent in the chases and wide shots after the high points of the action.)
But the silhouettes of Limbo build an atmosphere that is on par with its modern contemporaries solely on the virtue that the player fills in the details obscured by the shadow. It's what turns a couple hundred polygons into a 20 foot tall spider; a magic circle where the path forward is something to be feared and conquered with only a jump and grab. I hadn’t beaten the game until fairly recently. Always got stuck on the brain worms and went back to chopping legs off the spider. I have now and can say the rest of the game was much better in terms of platforming, especially the hotel and the gravity factory near the ending. Surprisingly the kid doesn’t become a god of death like the other two games I’ve mentioned.
Good game. Could do with some ambient music.