Oct 06, 2010 “Imagine if Fritz Lang made a Super Mario Game” -Chris Baker
Limbo is a puzzle-platform video game, and the premiere title of independent Danish developer Playdead Studios. The game was released in July 2010, on Xbox Live Arcade. Limbo is a 2D sidescroller, incorporating a physics system that governs environmental objects and the player character. It challenges the player to guide an unnamed boy through dangerous environments and traps, while searching for the boy’s sister. The developer built the game’s puzzles expecting the player to fail several times, before coming upon the correct solution. Playdead called the style of play “trial and death”, and used visually gruesome imagery for the boy’s deaths to steer the player from unworkable solutions.
The game is presented primarily in monochromatic black-and-white tones utilising lighting, film grain effects and minimal ambient sounds, to create an eerie atmosphere most often associated with the horror genre. Journalists praised the dark presentation, describing the work as comparable to film noir and German expressionism. Based on its aesthetics, reviewers classified Limbo as an example of “video game as art”.