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LIMBO |OT| What awaits at the edge of Hell?

atomsk said:
yeah even when you know what to do, you'll still die quite a bit getting the timing right
There's only a very small window where the timing is "right" though, and you can tell if you get it wrong before you fully commit to it. It's easy to stop and try again before anything bad has happened.
 

u_neek

Junior Member
Playing it with a friend right now. It's pretty cool solving the puzzles together and watching the gruesome deaths.

Best XBLA title I've played yet :)
 

Rad-

Member
Saw this on another forum:

I can spend 1200 MS Points on LIMBO, an experience I'll complete in less than a day, or I could spend 1200 MS points on a MW2 map pack which I will play for months to come. Gee, I wonder where my points should go?

Oh my god...
 
atomsk said:
yeah even when you know what to do, you'll still die quite a bit getting the timing right
I'm not sure how someone could do
the very last puzzle
without dying five times right there. I knew what I had to do almost straight away and I still died repeatedly trying to nail the timing.
 
Rad- said:
Saw this on another forum:

Oh my god...
I can spend spend £40 on a weekly food shop which'll take no more than 40 minutes a day to eat and drink, or I could spend it on Xbox LIVE and play online for A WHOLE YEAR!!!

My stomach hurts. I feel weak.

Shake Appeal said:
I'm not sure how someone could do
the very last puzzle
without dying five times right there. I knew what I had to do almost straight away and I still died repeatedly trying to nail the timing.
There's a very audible beeping at that point, you only have to work out the timing once and you can get it every time, easily.
 
I don't know how I feel about it. I kinda felt like the elements of the game that I was really enjoying died when
you started going against machines rather than spiders/tribesmen. The part when you first rotate the level and the conclusion to the final puzzle are pretty breath-taking but by fat the best moments of the game were when you were fleeing from arachnids (especially when one pops up as you're running from a boulder) and when you were chasing the people who were trying to kill you.

I still enjoyed the game, but nowhere near as much as I was hoping to. I'm really questioning the pricing on it and whoever called this 3 hour game 7 hours long was ludicrous.
 

Gowans

Member
Grar finally got stuck round 69%

go up done ladders and there are two up n down gravity arrows. Then two platforms pushing out of the right to high to jump on.

I can get a create up to jump up one but not the second, Rar!!.. ?!?!? :(
 

xbhaskarx

Member
Gowans007 said:
Grar finally got stuck round 69%

go up done ladders and there are two up n down gravity arrows. Then two platforms pushing out of the right to high to jump on.

I can get a create up to jump up one but not the second, Rar!!.. ?!?!? :(

Yeah that part is pretty hard to figure out on your own, really the first time this becomes a problem but not the last.
There is
a second crate: link
 

TripOpt55

Member
I just downloaded it without even trying the demo which I don't think I've done before. It's so good. I think I'm at about 50%. Very cool game.
 

wizword

Banned
Limbo sucks. It isn't braid, or a geometry wars 2 where the game is enjoyable and actually fun. This is another heavy rain. A shit game that got good reviews that I can't stand. I played a good 2 hours of the game and I can't stand it. I am going back to kingdom of keflings. The puzzles are as bad as uncharted 2 among thieves. I don't think I found one good thing about this game yet. I am wondering how this game is a masterpiece. I have been bored to death with this game.
 

jacobs34

Member
"Limbo sucks. It isn't braid, or a geometry wars 2 where the game is enjoyable and actually fun. This is another heavy rain. A shit game that got good reviews that I can't stand. I played a good 2 hours of the game and I can't stand it. I am going back to kingdom of keflings. The puzzles are as bad as uncharted 2 among thieves. I don't think I found one good thing about this game yet. I am wondering how this game is a masterpiece. I have been bored to death with this game."

Cool. Story. Bro.
 

vermadas

Member
dreamer3kx said:
Grrrr, wont be on psn.

Just buy a 360, they ar-

244wot4.gif


...oh.
 

Gowans

Member
xbhaskarx said:
Yeah that part is pretty hard to figure out on your own, really the first time this becomes a problem but not the last.
There is
a second crate: link
Yeah bombed along till here, think my heads just gave up :(
 
So I wrote a li'l review of this:

“Uncertain of his Sister’s Fate, a Boy enters LIMBO.”

That’s all the plot you need, and that’s all you’re going to get. Limbo’s story is told through the experience of playing. Its quietly ambiguous ending at once brings the game to a satisfying conclusion, while leaving a little wiggle room for personal interpretation. But beyond that? Nothing. A boy enters Limbo. And so do you.

Perhaps PlayDead’s greatest achievement here is in crafting a world that has elements of the familiar yet still feels utterly alien. Eric Chahi’s Another World is the obvious reference point, but if anything, Limbo’s atmosphere is thicker, more intoxicating. Its monochromatic imagery is stark, bleak, and beautiful; inky shadows cast against a backdrop of faded black-and-white photos. Dissonant notes periodically punctuate the sparse soundscape, as unnerving as the legs of the oversized arachnid entering menacingly from stage left.

Our hero’s journey takes him from more organic obstacles to man-made hazards, each a puzzle to solve, often requiring swift reflexes as well as a keen mind. Rolling boulders and tumbling branches later give way to humming magnets and whirring buzzsaws, but the tools for the job essentially remain the same: the protagonist’s hands and feet and the player’s brain.

Solutions to the game’s most intricate puzzles can be slowly teased out, though others are solved via simple trial-and-error, the latter part of the equation usually leading to a grisly death, as the hero is decapitated, impaled, skewered or crushed. Though often disturbingly brutal, rare moments of pitch-black humour emerge: a sequence featuring two gigantic weights will see all but the most clairvoyant of players flattened at least once, while another sees the player dodge one trap only to hurtle headlong into the next. It’s only afterwards that you spot the subtle visual clues that give the game away.

Even the best-laid plans can be awkward to execute; Limbo is, at times, a little too exacting, while its impressively realistic physics occasionally conspire against the player. Happily, it’s also extremely forgiving, with regular checkpoints cutting backtracking to the bare minimum.

Most players’ time in Limbo will be short, but this is not a place that’s soon forgotten. Distinctive and unique, Playdead’s purgatory amplifies the thrill of every new discovery and the sense of wonder at what comes next, creating a tangible sense of place that few other games can match.

*****

As for the ending...

The definition of limbo is a speculative idea of the afterlife condition. So you can speculate as to the developer's intentions, what the environmental transitions symbolise, whatever. Interpret it how you will. Arguably that's not as important as the game itself, though I think there's a pleasing circularity to it. (Notice that he basically ends up where he starts?) And I don't mind the ambiguity of the ending, though I think the game offers a few clues that provide a sense of closure.

I didn't notice it before, but I was immediately drawn to the two slightly raised mounds of dirt with flies circling overhead on the title screen after the credits rolled.

The presence of the other kids (excluding the girl) might seem a little strange, but then who's to say they're other kids...?

Just speculating out loud, really, and I'd like to play it again to see what other clues I can spot. Still not sure about the significance of the eggs.
 

wizword

Banned
Oh and another thing. The game starts off awesome and drags on permanently in awful territory after the
giant spider. Than you go into water stages and simple puzzles of boredom
 

feel

Member
this game is just incredible... I'm just in awe at the perfection of every aspect. Probably will be in the running for my GOTY.
 
Is this game easier or harder than Braid? I couldn't finish Braid after reaching world 5 and I had to use guides for almost everything in world 4. If it's like the first 3 levels than that's great.
 

Popeck

Member
ChoklitReign said:
Is this game easier or harder than Braid? I couldn't finish Braid after reaching world 5 and I had to use guides for almost everything in world 4. If it's like the first 3 levels than that's great.

I'd say it's easier and that's mainly because there is no time manipulation and related mechanics.
 

derFeef

Member
Letters said:
this game is just incredible... I'm just in awe at the perfection of every aspect. Probably will be in the running for my GOTY.
Just played the trial and I can agree. Movement, sound, everything is spot-on. Like grabbing a rope or climbing up a ladder, it feels how you would expect it. I really feel connected to the world through this little boy. Morbid atmosphere and wtf moments are incredible too.

Will buy for sure.
 

Mdk7

Member
I beat it last friday, got it early to write the review for it (just for the record it's here, if anyone's interested and can read Italian... http://www.eurogamer.it/articles/limbo-recensione ).

I still don't know what to think: surely it's an amazing experience, something very moody and exquisitely original, yet i was not blown away as i expected to be.
I mean the art direction is top notch, the sound is just perfect, and the minamal and hieratic game desing surely does its work to impress...
yet gameplay-wise i felt the game was not so jawdropping (as it is something like Braid, just to name something similar that plays infinitely better...), plus two things really disappointed me:
1) the first part of the game,
the forest
is BY FAR the best. After that (and the astonishing, creepy encouters you make there...) the game in a way loses its charm, and gets less evocative
2) i didn't like the fact they didn't really tell a story. I mean the story, even if minimal, is definitely there, but to me they should have dared more, choosing to tell it through the game (and of course without any word or cutscene!).

All this said, i still think it's a game pretty much everyone should play.
 

NME

Member
I was able to play for about 40 minutes on my lunch break.

I got as far as
the part where you have to hang from ropes to raise the to weights in order to pass by them. There is a pair of circular saw blades below the first rope and there is a cart that you can move, but only a little bit before it hits a stop in the terrain.

Had to head back to the office after that, but I was stumped there anyhow. I'm looking forward to having the time to figure that out tonight. Also the rest of the game.

So far, so good.
 

Noogy

Member
Put a couple hours into it, and I think I can easily say it's my GOTY. The fact that I know it won't go on for another 20 hours has been quite a liberating experience. No filler.
 

Psy-Phi

Member
Noogy said:
Put a couple hours into it, and I think I can easily say it's my GOTY. The fact that I know it won't go on for another 20 hours has been quite a liberating experience. No filler.
20 hours is a bit too long for any side scrolling game. Unless it's some weird RPG like Odin-Sphere.

But on the other hand 3 hours sounds too short. Especially what I'm hearing about the ending and the lack of any sort of description of certain things. Yes there should be a mystique about the whole thing, but some things need at least an inkling of where they are coming from, to be touched upon at least. Else it ends up like Lost.

I'm holding out for 800 point sale. That's the magic number for me on this (and was prior to really learning anything about it other than what Giantbomb gleaned shortly after E3).
 
So at first I thought I would be skewered for having one of the first reviews on the 'net and giving the game below a 9 (an 8.8 to be exact), but now that a number of people are finished with it, how do you feel about that score?
 
othersteve said:
So at first I thought I would be skewered for having one of the first reviews on the 'net and giving the game below a 9 (an 8.8 to be exact), but now that a number of people are finished with it, how do you feel about that score?

Well, you shouldn't have broken the embargo (;)) but an 8.8 is fair. I'd personally give it a 9/10 or not bother with a score at all, because scores are just numbers for people with too much time on their hands to argue over.
 

shibbs

Member
Got the game this evening. Loving it so far!

I liked the bit where
you had to pull the leg from the spider
.
 
Hero of Canton said:
Well, you shouldn't have broken the embargo (;)) but an 8.8 is fair. I'd personally give it a 9/10 or not bother with a score at all, because scores are just numbers for people with too much time on their hands to argue over.
Sure, but in the grand scheme of things, you know how obsessed with absolute values the audience is. And hah, I was up the very first minute it was allowed! ;)
 
Mdk7 said:
1) the first part of the game,
the forest
is BY FAR the best. After that (and the astonishing, creepy encouters you make there...) the game in a way loses its charm, and gets less evocative

This is the only point I agree with but it alone makes the game rather average.
The beginning was so good, all the interactions with anything organic, your solutions to puzzles becoming more depraved (Using the spider caucus as a bridge was disgusting, having to use a human corpse as a platform over some water really shocked me, and luring the tribeskids into the traps was rather messed up) however it was never taken any further; even worst is that those moments were replaced by bare-bones mechanical platforming-puzzles.

It could have been an amazing title, the first section was. It's just that the rest wasn't.
 

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
Got to around 52%, loving it so far. Not going to ask for help at any part unlike one of the ending puzzles in Braid, in the long run it's never worth it. Also holy shit at
death via sawblade.
 
Just done something akin to a speed-run and it took almost exactly one hour from start to finish, which makes it twice as long as Braid, stat fans. I lost SIX lives, grr!

Three of those were right at the end in a really stupid place too, something that shouldn't even have been difficult.
Got electrified on the E of the second HOTEL sign.

That achievement's mine tomorrow though.

Lengthwise, replayability wise, that was my third run through and there are still more to come, I've still got a couple more secrets to find too.
 

Spookie

Member
I think I 'got' the ending.

edit: I'll put it more eloquently next time so I don't destroy all the magic around it! :lol

Regardless. Great game. Rather expensive for my tastes (read: didn't want to use credit card but had to). But I'd rather support that over map packs any day.
 

clav

Member
Played it at a friend's house, and we just completed it.

Ending is
meh. I wish there was more closure to the whole thing. Yeah sure, the girl is there, but I was already cock teased 3/4 before the game completed to see that, and then I was forced to play some timing puzzle games. I thought the girl was going to jump at the screen and scream for a surprise uncomfortable ending given how the game's been eerily silent.

Everything up to the
industrial factory
was so so so so good. Then, it just became
annoying as fuck. It decided to take a shit on itself, and the difficulty wasn't hard. It was just it required lots of trial and error for the timings. It became one of those fuck this shit moments in a lot of Japanese games like Super Mario Galaxy 2. Hai hai hai. Obediently remember the timings and do them correctly.

And GAF, the puzzles aren't that hard. The beauty is to solve it yourself. It'll eventually click. Be patient and think about it.

Overall, the game gave me chills that I have not felt since those scary DOS games back in the day. The game is good, but it's not worth it at its current price. Put it on the top of your want list when it goes on sale.

8.5/10
 
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