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Publisher: Microsoft
Release Date: July 21, 2010
System: Xbox 360
ESRB Rating: T
In a nutshell: The gameplay is much more colorful than the graphics.
0:00 I've been careful to avoid reading any reviews or previews of this game so I can go in as fresh as possible. All I know is that everyone who's touched it seems to love it without exception. Man, I really hope I am not the exception.
0:01 The title screen reminds me of a movie from the '20s or something, with it's black and white and fancy fonts. "Limbo contains elements which may be offensive..." says a tiny disclaimer. I leave the "Gore filter off" and jump on in.
0:02 Fade from black to a gently lit black and white forest, with trees that fade to fuzzy indistinctness as they recede into the background. Um, where's my character? Oh, there he is -- a solid gray person-shaped blob with two glowing eyes. He slowly rises on his hands and knees. I think I'm going to have to shut the blind if I'm to have any hope of making him out. Excuse me.
0:03 I run left along the 2D movement plane, figuring they wouldn't expect that. I end up stepping over a small white egg, which cracks to give me 5 Gamerscore points and an avatar award. Nice!
0:04 I jump off the end of a downed tree and down a sloping hill. The fall is about three times my height, and my body crumples horribly upon landing. Oh, right... this isn't a Mario game.
0:05 This time I slowly edge myself off the tree stump this time and slide down a hill... right into some spikes. OK, I'm learning, I'm learning...
0:06 The fluid animation and gentle lighting combine for something that's quite visually arresting.
0:07 Only when I'm up to my ears in water do I realize my character can't swim. His silent drowning, set to nothing but some distant drips in the distance, is very disconcerting.
0:08 I love how the game is letting me figure out what to do on my own. Some sort of in-game tutorial would only ruin the mood.
0:09 I step on a hidden bear trap, which turns me into a bloody mess instantly. The snapping noise pierces the silence, startling me. I try jumping over the trap next time and... land on another bear trap just past. Hmmm...
0:11 After a bit of guessing and checking I find I can pull them bear traps apart and jump them separately. I'm sorry, was that a spoiler?
0:12 There's some sort of carcass hanging from a rope, with tiny flies buzzing around it. Is it a girl. That explains what looks like wispy hair. I'm so distracted I walk into another bear trap.
0:15 OK, there's a box floating in a small pond here. I can push it into the pond, but it doesn't float sufficiently to let me hop across. It'a a little early to be hopelessly stuck, isn't it?
0:17 Desperate, I pull the box away from the lake. Only then do I notice the thin vine hanging from a tree. Stepping on the box, I can just grab it and follow it to a treetop path. You've got to move back to move forward, sometimes...
0:18 Just pushed over a cracked treetop, which I'm sure will make a bridge over the lake. Also found another Achievement egg by swinging on a vine obscured by foreground foliage. Foreground foliage would be a good name for a rock band's first album.
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0:21 So I'm skipping along merrily, chasing a white butterfly, when a three HUGE spider legs snap at me from behind a tree. It's like something out of Wild Wild West, if that was an art house movie instead of an awful Will Smith vehicle. I tempt fate by walking into the legs and am unsurprised when I'm impaled and discarded like old cheese.
0:24 Just got an Xbox message from Joystiq's Chris Grant: "HOW DO I GET PAST THE WATER WITH THIS STUPID BOX?" Nice to know I'm not alone. I can't help but reply back: "Think outside the box =p"
0:25 Back to the task at hand... there's a bear trap on a branch way above me... but I don't see how I can get to it. Backtracking only drowns me in that pond again... hmmm...
0:26 I just noticed my guy stops and subtly looks up at the bear trap when I stop moving. That's all well and good but... not very helpful! If only I had a double jump. Or a rocket launcher. But this is not that kind of game.
0:30 I send a message back to Chris: "i am stuck on very next puzzle when u get there."
0:32 So far the only thing I've figure out is that standing still for a moment and then moving at the last second gets the spider to swipe at me with one of its legs. Still not very helpful..
0:33 Oh man, I figured it out! I don't want to give it away... let's just say the thing I posted at 0:32 is a big clue. The spider has crawled away and up a tree. I send Chis another message: "nm figged it out."
0:37 So I just got stuck in some sticky sap walking along a rotten tree, allowing that same spider to climb in on the ceiling and leisurely roll me into a web ball. Creepy!
0:38 Holy crap, I'm not dead. In fact, after some wriggling, I manage to get out, still encased in webbing, and hop along down the lane. La dee da.
0:40 Only after failing to hop a small gap four times do I remember the jump button can probably let me jump even higher. And it does!
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0:41 I just rolled a large stone into a tree, which promptly fell on me. The constant death-and--check gameplay is reminding me a lot of Another World.
0:44 I'm fighting myself not to give too much away here. Let's just say the spider scared me into killing myself with an ill-timed jump. Long story short, I'm now free of the spider web.
0:45 Um... I just stepped on some shaky ground next to a little girl playing. The ground fell away and the little girl ended up HUNG FROM A NOOSE! Good lord...
0:47 Just got by a tough series of jumping puzzles only to slide into some spikes. Another spider hiding behind a tree turns out to be an automaton, run by a shadowy figure that runs off as I approach. At least I'm not alone out here...
0:49 OH CRAP FLAMING TIRE RUN!
0:50 I backtrack a bit to avoid the flaming tire, then find it's two kids who rolled it down the hill to attack me. Odd...
0:52 All these swinging bear traps and such have been made worse now because I see the shadowy people who are setting them. Do they think I'm a threat? Am I a threat?
0:57 More running away from the spider, with some exciting twists involving a boulder near the end of the chase. Again, I don't want to ruin it.
0:59 Without ruining too much, I don't think the spider is going to be bothering me much anymore...
Would I play this game for more than an hour? Yes.
Why? The atmosphere and general sense of foreboding combined with the clever puzzles have me struggling to stop playing even to finish this here write-up.
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