11 Years of Limbo
*Spoilers ahead*
“Limbo” is a horror game in the form of a black and white platformer, with no dialogue and only three basic controls (forward and backward, jump and grab). Despite the seemingly simplistic design, it remains just as effective as it was when it was released 11 years ago.
This platform scroller served as the debut game for development team Playdead, which most recently released the “Inside” series; This was a series that largely retained the art style of “Limbo,” but expanded upon the use of color and three-dimensional environments instead.
“Limbo” takes place across a variety of different locations, but begins with a boy waking up in the middle of a forest. There’s no context or clear goal, except to just… keep… going.
Of course, as you continue you are faced with different puzzles that need to be cleared in order to continue your trek. The world of “Limbo” is entirely colorless, with the sparse bursts of light through neon HOTEL signs, or through the eyes of the boy himself.
Despite being a decade old game, it still packs a poignant punch.
The game begins in silence, with only the sounds of your footsteps as you traverse the forest landscape. Not only is this effective in establishing the atmosphere as horror, but it immediately instills a sense of unease in the player and sets a precedent that this game will not welcome you with open arms into the environments with comforting music to tell you how to feel.
Instead, this is a game that largely relies on the player’s experience. With no dialogue and no outlined story for the player, you are left to try and pick up the pieces as you go without even knowing what the full picture looks like.
The game does, however, eventually provide a soundtrack for the player and their journey. Almost always ambiance, the music does a lot to make the player feel ever so slightly uncomfortable enough that they never really feel good about what may happen next.
Despite this, completing the puzzles is rewarding and they are created in a way that quickly and seamlessly explains the mechanics of the game without ever feeling like a tutorial for the player.
While not technically filed under ‘psychological horror,’ this game does have environment-specific enemies that stand as blockades for the player’s journey ahead. These enemies are often evaded through puzzles that shed light on both the environment and the entity that is the “Limbo” universe.
This brings us to perhaps one of the most effective aspects of the game: The universe which we are suddenly thrust into.
Playdead developers created the “Limbo” universe in a way that makes the world feel like its own character. The scariest part? It never feels like it’s really on your side, or against you. The universe is an entity independent of your journey, which adds more depth to the story than dialogue may have ever added for the player.
Despite being a decade-old game, it still packs a poignant punch. What appears as a simple, minimal game is uncovered to be a game that requires meticulous planning in order to evoke a specific emotion for the player at any given moment.
By the end of the game, the player is forced to grasp what the title really means. The game begins with a boy waking up in the middle of the forest, and ends with the same boy finding himself unconscious in the same forest. Again, he wakes up to find that the only way to go is forward.
What the player is left with, is both a sense of accomplishment and dread that despite the entire journey, it all leads to the same beginning. Suddenly, the lack of colors makes sense.
And thus, “Limbo” is completed. A game that heavily indicated that a platformer could still be considered horror is the same game that proved that you can tell a story with no words at all.
