Limbo

[vimes]

Thread revive! ... since I'm catching up on 360 goodness.

I think that's a perfect game. I have literally NOTHING bad to say about it. Everything is top notch -to borrow from Rab - from design to fucking execution : controls, animations, sound design, storytelling and, god, the puzzles. Those are better than Portal's, better than Braid's, better than Samorost's, better than the best of the Mysts', better than anything I know or can remember. It's all about trial and errors but it's very fluid, never frustrating, it builds on previous things you've seen or done without ever turning trivial; it never points to the solution yet the clues become noticeable at the proper pace ... and because of that, I never noticed the underlying structure even once. And I never tried anything reckless because the death were so damn traumatizing. I still can't wrap my head around the fact that they seem to have tailor every little things or never stopped at 'good enough'.

God, how I wish I had made that game.

Also, if the second part didn't move you, it's because you've never played in abandoned factories or on-hold construction site - which I did for a few summers when I was around 10. I can tell you, there's nothing quite as exciting or terrifying as snatching diesels from a neighbor's lawn mower, attempting to start an old machine and succeed in doing so then shitting yourself because you've got not clue what it's doing or or how to stop it. To this day, I don't what the fuck it was doing, but I'm thankful it was somewhat bolted to the floor.

[thorn]

In case you missed the news, Limbo is being ported to Windows (via Steam) and PS3. Wikipedia says the release date will be July, but the citation is the link below, which doesn't state a date, so take that with a grain of salt.

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/06/30/limbo-coming-to-steam-and-psn-playdead-handling-the-ports/

[colinp]

July 19 on US PSN store, 20th on EU PSN store and August 2 (I think it was) on Steam.

Woo!

[elmuerte]

hurray

[colinp]

Picked it up today and played for a bit. This game is so disturbing- I love it! I hope there is a satisfying ending and questions are answered, but ah what a journey so far. That damn spider... Shit, this game is insane. This and Flower just bring emotional experiences in gaming to a whole new level. I think I feel genuine dread when I am going through this game now... Wow, it's so fucked up.

[Gwardinen]

As far as I recall the ending doesn't really answer anything. Sorry!

The game is still totally worth playing and finishing, though. One of my favourite XBLA titles.

[Lu]

So I finally played it and finished it and thought it was quite interesting. All in all it's kind of minimalist in terms of both gameplay and audio/visual, but manages to feel very rich regardless. So many tiny little details that were paid attention to, really, really cool; major respect for that. Sometimes control felt a little too loose, where my character would climb down or up something when I really didn't want, but that can probably be blamed on analogue stick control. Jumping, latching and general movement felt pretty tight. In retrospect, I probably wouldn't have had those frustrations if I had played it with a keyboard.

Limbo was the perfect length for me too! I finished in about 2.5 hours, which was also right about the moment where I "had enough". It ended and I was satisfied and it was enjoyed!

[elmuerte]

Have you played the secret level? To get there, find all those white things, and then go back to the place where you found the "alone in the dark" white thing and keep walking to the right.

[Lu]

I have not. Is it worth it to replay finding all those squishables in order to see that level, or am I better off youtubing it?

[elmuerte]

I have not. Is it worth it to replay finding all those squishables in order to see that level, or am I better off youtubing it?

Just youtube it, some of them are everything but obvious and the secret level is really worth it

[syntheticgerbil]

So I finished this game finally about a week ago. I finished the regular game before that, then did the secret level, then got the trophy for playing the game in five deaths or less.

I mean, what can I say? I love all the cinematic type platformers with the puzzler stuff. Where terrain is used organically. This is one of the games I love.

The downside is like most people said in this thread, it gets pretty boring the last third. Then the twitch stuff is not so interesting. Crate puzzles grate. There's not the type of ingenuity in Abe's Exoddus for instance. I don't get some of the animation praises in here either because that's actually one part I was very disappointed. It was good but not really something that wowed me. It's just tween stuff in silhouttes and the kid has ragdoll physics where his limbs just fly out and some blood particles. Every death is nearly the same save for a few. I mean, I could be biased because I do the tween stuff everyday, but it's not amazing like Heart of Darkness that has some of the most ridiculous kid death animations I've ever seen.

But man, the Limbo secret level was insane. The checkpoints were varied, but that was cruel in the most fun way ever. The end parts where you are just going by sound in stereo was brutal, but I finally got it by turning the volume up loud. That was definitely worth getting all the eggs for in a relatively short game (Think I was doing less than an hour playthroughs trying to get the five deaths or less one).

[toblix]

First of all: congrats on getting the <5 deaths thing. That's the sort of thing I get exhausted just thinking about – the ever-increasing level of stress must be soul crushing.

Also, this secret level – never heard of it; was it added to the PC version, maybe?

[elmuerte]

The secret level was added to the PS3 and PC version, not sure if the xbox version got an update for that

[syntheticgerbil]

Oh I didn't realize it was added. I would have never known it existed had I not read about the trophy, since it involves you going back to a location in the middle of the game. Does this mean the eggs aren't in other versions?

[Erkki]

A lengthy interview with Limbo devs at gamasutra.

Did you spend a lot of time prototyping the character motion?

AJ: Yeah. It was an ongoing thing for three years.

DP: That was one guy full time on it. Only the boy. He didn't do anything else. I think he would do water, or something, but only the boy. A coder, full time. And an animator, not full time.

Wow! One guy programming just the player character for 3 years. Sweet.

[Thrik]

Limbo with a flashlight.

[Ben X]

I saw an image a while back that did that exact same joke, specifically with the spider, but better.

Was that on these forums?

[Donk]

Looked like some pretty awesome level design there, with the rotating level.

I just got to that level, was rather impressive... good game so far.

[ThunderPeel2001]

I saw an image a while back that did that exact same joke, specifically with the spider, but better.

Was that on these forums?

I believe so... but I can't find it.

[Nachimir]

http://weheartit.com/entry/13862183/via/Jackalope

[Ben X]

Ah, thanks Nach. So this was Dorkly expanding on their own idea, I guess?

Meanwhile, I agree with Ron "Dave" Gilbert that Limbo is not an adventure game.

[ThunderPeel2001]

I'm playing this at the moment. It's pretty good, but I can't forgive the trial and error learning. Most infuriating!

[toblix]

Oh man I just finished Limbo, going for that No Point in Dying cheesemint, which requires beating the game in one sitting with at most deaths. It's one of those cheesemints that presents an actual challenge, instead of just "collect all the doohickies", although Limbo has enough of those, too. And even they aren't that bad. I got most of them pretty easy. The names are hints, and you basically have to go off the beaten path to get 'em. Then once you get 'em all there's a hidden secret level (that I had to look up on the internet, 'cause what).

Anyway, what I'm trying to say, is what the fuck is Limbo about. Am I dead, or is the name just a trick. Am I trying to save myself or the girl. Why do these kids hate me for no reason. My problem with the game is that it is literally open to whatever interpretation I feel like applying to it. I mean, I guess that's fine. There's plenty of stuff like that in the world, but it's never been my bag. Get outta here!

So, the Limbo Experience was shit. But the game was great! Otherwise, I never would've gone for the aforementioned no-dying-more-than-five-times cheesemint. Which, by the way, was a great challenge. The game is short enough that I didn't feel TOO frustrated when I failed the first few times, and in fact only felt more motivated, as I knew I could do it with enough practice. Kept making it further and further. Finally made it to the very last jump with no lives left... and failed. Next time, made it all the way, though I had died one too many times... but didn't! YES. Feels good.

Oh, also, given all that praise for the mechanics, I should say that I was kind of surprised. I really didn't expect it to be so mechanically sound. I thought it was all artsy fartsy from the way people talked about it. But no! Pretty slick, that Limbo.

Those kinds of achievements I never even consider. How long did each playthrough take you? How many hours have you spent in all working on that achievement in particular?

[ThunderPeel2001]

My problem with the game is that it is literally open to whatever interpretation I feel like applying to it.

Yep, I agree. It's the sign of pretentiousness. Braid suffered from it, too. I LOVED Braid, though. I found Limbo massively overrated in terms of gameplay.

[syntheticgerbil]

Those kinds of achievements I never even consider. How long did each playthrough take you? How many hours have you spent in all working on that achievement in particular?

It really wasn't that bad compared to some other achievements/trophies I've had to mess with. It lengthened (artificially though) a game I spent about 3 hours maybe beating the first time up to 6 hours I suppose. I think it took me about 5 near full playthroughs to get it.

It would have been nicer had you not had to play the game in one go and just not die along the way but save each section? I suppose they did it this way since the game takes like 40 minutes to beat easy once you know what to do. Had the game taken 2 hours every playthrough, this achievement would have sucked. That said, I'd rather not even do achievements like this since I have too many games to play as it is. It's a completionist OCD thing that prevents me from ignoring these things.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say, is what the fuck is Limbo about. Am I dead, or is the name just a trick. Am I trying to save myself or the girl. Why do these kids hate me for no reason. My problem with the game is that it is literally open to whatever interpretation I feel like applying to it. I mean, I guess that's fine. There's plenty of stuff like that in the world, but it's never been my bag. Get outta here!

I thought the Limbo part was pretty straightforward actually. I took it as you were some kid who recently died, woke up, and is stuck in the inbetween hell and heaven purgatory type thing. Stuff is a weird mishmash of things from the real world, much like Wristcutters, and some people have been there so long that they get feral and violent.

Really it seemed like the game was trying to be more vague about something that didn't have much below the surface.

At the end I imagine he meets a girl who is more fresh into the world and is his possible friend or will bring some kind of happiness in the dull and tragic life in limbo. Then you are back at the start because you are stuck there. Again, much like Wristcutters. I guess Limbo is just Wristcutters with more violence, giant spiders, and no comedy or Tom Waits.

I guess I was pretty disappointed in the ending, as it just said nothing. I was imaging there would have been someway to exit limbo, but I guess that would have been too "cliche" for the artsy designers. Either that or too much new art required that hypothetically wouldn't have been a bunch of black and white.

At least it's not as obnoxious as Braid I suppose. I could have done with more plot like Another World though.