Format: iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch
Developer: Playdead
Limbo was a huge hit when it was first released on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. It is a game that I personally spent a great deal of time with. It was just so unlike anything I had played before at the time and the game really did suck me in. Well not content with shifting millions and millions of copies on the home consoles. Playdead have now released there amazing game on the iOS store, but does this conversion retain all of its awesomeness.
The first thing you have to talk about when reviewing Limbo is the games art style. You simply cannot take your eyes of the screen. And I am not talking about just because you will die either. The game is just so compelling. The games story is something that has been debated by gamers since it was first released. The basic idea is that you are playing as a little boy who has entered Limbo in order to save his sister. That is all we have from an official point of view when it comes to the story, but making it up in your head is really part of the fun.
The game is set in different stages and from an art point of view in my personal opinion Limbo’s very best of what it has to offer is in the very first stage. You are in a forest and this forest is one of the creepy and eeriest places I have ever been in a video game. There are other children, but who are they? There are corpses and traps, but who left them? And there are these big giant spiders that stalk you throughout this level. In short this opening section of the game is just amazing.
But sadly the rest of the levels do not live up to this amazing start. Do not get me wrong the other levels one of which is like a city really do look amazing, but there are void of any kind of life. To me they really should have made the forest stage the last stage of the game. As I would bet that the majority of people who have played through this game will remember that stage the best.
The game play of Limbo is best described as a platform puzzle game. You will need to guide the little boy through each level. You will need to make jumps, flip switches and use traps to get through levels. The opening level has an amazing section where you must use a trap to snap off a giant spiders leg. The game does have quite a lot of trial and error going on as the first time you play it there are a few puzzles that are simply impossible to avoid which will lead to a very grizzly death. Luckily these death scenes are pretty spectacular and on more than one occasion I am sure they will make you jump.
The game uses on screen controls and while they will not ever come close to matching the precise movements you get with a regular controller. For the most part they do work very well. The jumping mechanics can take a little while to get used to, but if I am being honest the jumping in the console version of the game also took me a little while to get used to.
Limbo is a wonderful game and one of the very best downloadable console games I have ever played. And that is kind of the problem. If you have already played this game to death on the consoles then there is nothing new here. So I really cannot advise spending another five bucks on the game. But if it drops to a couple of bucks then I would say that it is worthwhile.
If you have never played Limbo on any of the consoles then this game is a must buy for you guys. Do not be put off by the five bucks as this is a game that is well worth the money. And it is one of those games where your first experience playing it will probably stick in your memory for a very long time afterwards.