LIMBO | |
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Developer(s) | Playdead |
Publisher(s) | Microsoft Game Studios, Playdead |
Year released | 2010 |
System(s) | Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Windows, macOS, PlayStation Vita, iOS, Linux, Xbox One, Android, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch |
Genre(s) | Puzzle, Platformer |
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Modes | Single player |
Rating(s) |
Limbo (stylized as LIMBO) is a puzzle-platformer video game and the premiere title of independent Danish game developer Playdead. The game was released in July 2010 as a platform exclusive title on Xbox Live Arcade, and was later re-released as part of a retail game pack along with Trials HD and 'Splosion Man in April 2011. Ports of the game to the PlayStation Network and Microsoft Windows via Steam were created by Playdead, released after the year-long Xbox 360 exclusivity period was completed. Limbo is a 2D sidescroller, incorporating a physics system that governs environmental objects and the player character. The player guides an unnamed boy through dangerous environments and traps as the boy searches for his sister. The developer built the game's puzzles expecting the player to fail before finding 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, using lighting, film grain effects and minimal ambient sounds to create an eerie atmosphere often associated with the horror genre.
Plot[edit | edit source]
The primary character in Limbo is a nameless boy who awakens in the middle of a forest on the "edge of hell" (the game's title is taken from the Latin limbus, meaning "edge"). The boy seeks his missing sister, and encounters only a few human characters that attack or run away from him.