This article is part of our experimental series, Backlog Club, where we (Nintendo Life!) pick a game that's on our list of "games we should get around to playing", and then we (NL + you!) spend the next month playing that game. This is the finale for this month, after we played Inside earlier on.
So, now that October is Oct-over, it's time for Kate to finish up Limbo...
Limbo is one of those games that you sort of have to play. It's a seminal work, one of the early capital-I indies that inspired a wave of thinky puzzles that were about more than just mechanics. So of course it was on my personal backlog — but, I'll be honest: I was putting it off.
I have played a little bit of Limbo before. A long time ago, in fact — when it was on Xbox Live Arcade — and I quickly gave up. It's a tricky game, and I am not really a patient person. But ten years must have made me a more patient person, surely? Isn't that the whole thing about aging, that you get wiser and calmer?
WELL APPARENTLY NOT.
I have never wanted to throw things at the TV and sulk as much as I did when playing Limbo. Maybe playing it after Inside was a mistake, because I feel like Inside was a beautifully executed refinement of Limbo's modus operandi, and I think that Limbo pales in comparison. Perhaps you don't agree with me, and that's absolutely okay, but at least hear me out first.
The way Limbo is structured makes it a trial-and-error puzzle. Each small black-and-white puzzle-vignette has one solution, and it's usually not obvious at first. It'll involve exact placement of boxes, extremely tight timings, and avoidance of all the game's murderous obstacles to get past each one. Failure usually results in your avatar, a little paper-doll silhouette of a boy, being killed in one of a myriad gruesome ways: dismembered by a buzzsaw, turned into boy jam by a mysterious crushing-thing, zombie-walked into a hole by a brain-worm, or riddled with bullet holes by a laser. Who built this boy-murdering factory, anyway?
But returning for a moment to what I said before: I am not a patient person. There is a limit, apparently, to how many times I can watch a game gleefully ripping apart my on-screen child self before I start to get a bit ticked off. Unfortunately for me, Limbo absolutely revels in failure.
A lot of Limbo's puzzles feel like you are in almost direct communication with the puzzle designers, as if they're watching you through a one-way mirror and cackling as you discover a new type of electricity that kills boys, or that boxes dropping on your head are very bad for your life expectancy. I can hear them. The way the puzzles are designed, unless you know exactly what to do (or you are very lucky), you will fail each one at least once, and that's what the designers want from you — discovery through failure.
And hey, I'm not opposed to that! Learning from mistakes is a vital part of being a human, and Limbo isn't that punishing — you'll just get booted back to the start of the puzzle as the designers press their excited faces against the glass and urge you to try again. Plus, I adore roguelikes, a genre that's all about learning from the mistakes you made on the last run, and perfecting your technique to make it juuuust a little bit further on the next one.
But there's something about Limbo's particular brand of "oooooh, not quite, go on, try again" that really does not sit well with me. Do you remember Bean Dad? It's okay if you don't. It was a short-lived meme of a moment on Twitter, in which a man refused to help his nine-year-old daughter open a can of beans because it was a "Teaching Moment". It took her hours to work out how to use a can opener, because he refused to give instructions. She was hungry, she was tired, she was understandably furious at her father for being a strange and riddlesome Rumpelstiltskin, rubbing his hands together and urging her to try harder instead of just helping her to open the damn beans.
Limbo is my Bean Dad. I get that it's trying to teach me things, and to test me, but it is not my kind of fun, as it turns out. I do not want to have my fragile child body tossed into pits because I didn't position the crate in exactly the right place, or I jumped for a ladder 0.2 seconds too late. And don't get me wrong, I really appreciate Limbo's puzzle design — it's fantastically clever, and there's a reason people love it so much — but a can opener is clever design, too. It doesn't help that it's clever if you just want beans. Or, in Limbo's case, to enjoy yourself.
I think that's why I liked Inside, and didn't like Limbo, in the end. Inside takes the clever puzzle design, and lets you iterate on it more freely; Limbo is far more punishing, and although it has some rather beautiful "ah-ha!" moments, it has far more "oh come on" moments. I know what I'm supposed to be doing! I just can't get the timings right! I've never been good at timings!!!
I admittedly feel like one of those people who plays a game like Super Mario Odyssey or Skyrim before the old classics, and says that the originals are all a bit rubbish, aren't they? But just like trying to wrestle with the aging camera controls and frustrating mechanics of those old classics, Limbo makes me feel stupid and slow. Perhaps if I'd played more of Limbo back when it was the hot new thing, I could better appreciate what it was doing, and how it helped to shape the indie game scene as it is today. So, for the record, Limbo is a very impressive game, with some very impressive puzzle design. But I'm too hungry and too tired. I just want to crack it open and eat all the beans.
Another month, another Backlog Club entry crossed off our list! What should we play next, fellow backloggers? Tell me your choice of games in the comments below.
Comments 28
Limbo has aged beautifully. Which is to say, it's still the same game I didn't like back in the day, with a nonsensical and inconsistent setting, and annoying puzzles. Just like I remember it.
Inside, on the other hand... Masterpiece.
I played this through when it first launched on Xbox Arcade. It was a really good game, but yes, extremely frustrating at times. It was also a very disturbing game, so for people that are easily bothered by disturbing content, this may not be their can of beans.
This game is fantastic. I loved every minute of playing it.
LIMBO is one of those games that beats you down but after you “get it” you feel like you are the problem not the game. That ending though still bothers me to this day just like INSIDE did.
Limbo already felt pretty dated when I played it five or six years ago. Its visuals do a good job of creating a gloomy atmosphere, but they reminded me more than anything of the flash games I played as a kid, and even those controlled better. The character's clunky movement tripped me up a lot more often than the actual puzzles. I've only watched a playthrough of Inside, but I honestly doubt I would like it much more than its predecessor. More recently, I played Little Nightmares, which I think executes a lot better on more or less the same concept. It does a great job of making you feel powerless and vulnerable without being outright unfair. Plus, while none of them have what I'd call a proper story, Six definitely has a more interesting character arc than either of the boys.
I no longer have time for games that are hard for the sake of being hard. Limbo was one of those games.
Aesthetically beautiful, to be sure. But just a chore to get through.
Limbo is a great game. Not as good as Inside, but still great. Doesn't strike me as a great candidate for Backlog Club, cos it's over in 4-5 hours on a first run, but anyone who hasn't played it and Inside definitely should. Just... wait for a sale if you've not bought them yet.
A third of voters haven't played Limbo? That's a bit of a turn-up. It's short and cheap (when on sale) and a classic indie - it's one of them essential thing-mes.
I recall some of the gravity based puzzles being a bit finicky and obtuse, but really good game overall I'd say.
Limbo is still a great game, but it really puts the best moments in front. There's solid moments later too, but the sequences in the first half are such a perfect balance of challenge and atmosphere.
I admit I've never played inside because the visuals kinda freak me out and I'm a wuss, but I really enjoyed limbo. The aesthetic is lovely and although the deaths can be a bit shocking, most of the puzzles can be figured out by careful investigating without dying. There are a few portions with completely unpredictable jump scares, but that just helps keep you on your toes.
Overall I found it fun and relaxing, or really a combination of relaxing and occasional shocks. However I do have a fairly large Switch directory of puzzle-platformers and I can imagine if you were not as used to the genre, you might get stuck or frustrated in some parts. Still, a well-made game in my opinion.
p.s. How does one even open a can without a can opener? 🧐
You shouldn't have played Limbo after Inside. It's like playing Portal 1 after Portal 2!
Why didn't you just play Limbo first? It's still a very very good game. It's only inferior when looked through the post Inside lens. And it's really not that hard or infuriating at all....
I feel the same way you do regarding Inside being better than Limbo: Inside has a more developed and interesting story than Limbo, and it is more artistically interesting than Limbo in my opinion. With Limbo it was just puzzle after puzzle, movement is clankier and slower.
The ‘beans’ here are the feelings of progress, especially after dying a ridiculous amount of times. Experimenting is still encouraged even if solutions are narrow because of the checkpoint system which puts you cleanly at the decision making point with minimal backtracking or time wasting. Also, I disagree with the author’s conclusion but the style and humor in this article is fantastic.
"Gleeful Boy-Murder" sounds like the name of an underground all-female punk band.
Some suggestions for next backlog (from my backlog): Cave Story, Kentucky Route Zero, Cuphead, Hyper Light Drifter
I only recall the ending puzzles bring tricky and just a few with the mindworm or whatever it was. Otherwise, to me, a fantastic game of its time that has been overshadowed by all it inspired.
@FishyS I assume the girl had a can opener, but never saw one used and couldn't figure it out while her dad just stared judgmentally. That's my assumption.
I didn't like Inside either. A short game with a bare bone mechanics. Flashback for SNES was similar, yet more complete experience. I really don't even wanna try Limbo.
I haven’t played it, but one of my favorite parts of Hollow Knight was the trial and error, so…
I played Limbo after Inside as well. Paid £1.79 for each of them on eshop sales. Loved both. The ending to Limbo made me go “huh wat” before I realised and then suddenly I was crying which didn’t happen with Inside. I googled solutions to 4 or 5 puzzles and that helped me figure out other ones on my own. Anyway. I finished Limbo because of backlog club so thanks for that.
Limbo is the kind of game an angsty teenager would make, with its dark visuals (in the most literal sense), bargain bin nihilism and disproportionate delight in killing the child protagonist and punishing the player. The "ending" did not disappoint: It was was exactly what I was expecting after the preceding 5 hours, trying so hard to be deep and failing miserably. If you've never played it, don't waste your time with Limbo.
@toadfishman Cuphead sounds like a great fit for someone ultra-patient as Kate is.
Inside is better.
I finally forced myself to finish it this year and felt the same way. I can respect it for its importance, but I absolutely hate the trial and error stuff and it gets more annoying in the back half of the game. I'm glad I finished it but it's never fully clicked with me.
I play Black the Fall which is similar to this but in that one you actually could get shot at and there are stealth and companion puzzle you had to do in able to finish the game. That one is like an adult version of Limbo but more apocalyptic or sci-fi.
They made it much better with Inside, but Limbo rarely frustrated me or anything. Not that I remember at least, and I do remember some other games as being a frustrating mess, that other people apparently LOVE, but I never took the time to push through. It's in no way perfect, but the atmosphere and esthetic and sense of dread and wonder what's ahead, carried it for me. Then again, I'm currently playing Bravely Default 2, and on one hand I'd call it an amazing game while on the other a frustrating mess... (some sidequests are even just blatantly mocking you as being tedious boring useless fetch quests, the "dungeons" are boring AND confusing to navigate, and some fights are just stupidly annoying. Still love it overall... Why? I asked myself that same question several times, and then I return, win, am done with the current "dungeon" and all is fine again. It's character building and some parts of its story and side stories, and modern nostalgia, I guess.)
@Max_the_German some things are on my backlog because I just cannot convince myself that I will have fun, and Cuphead is absolutely one of them 😅
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