LIMBO is a horror puzzle platformer featuring a little boy in a shadowy world.
Challenging Play
Great Graphics/Art
Great Music
Click a title to learn more about each topic.
Story & Themes
LIMBO doesn’t have much of a plot. The writers left the story purposefully mysterious in order to add to the eerie ambiance. The game was presented with only a simple tagline: “Uncertain of his sister’s fate, a boy enters Limbo.”
The protagonist of the game is a silent little boy (think Calvin from “Calvin and Hobbes”) who wakes up in a strange forest in Limbo. He slowly makes his way through the landscape, overcoming puzzles, traps, and obstacles (dying gruesome deaths upon failure). It is unclear why he is there, or what he is doing, but he has unlimited lives.
Occasionally the boy comes across other “humans,” but they always run away from him and sometimes try to thwart him by leading him into traps. The ending of the game is ambiguous.
If LIMBO has any themes, they would be monotony and perhaps despair—the boy’s adventure never really ends. He cannot die, but he cannot return to life either: i.e., Limbo. It is not a happy game.
Save Points
Savepoints occur after each and every puzzle; when the player fails a puzzle (which will happen often—it’s a trial-and-error sort of game), the protagonist is transported back to the beginning of the puzzle. Thus, players can abandon the game at virtually any point and return at will.
Difficulty
LIMBO is relatively difficult due to the high degree of physical coordination it takes to complete some puzzles, with increasing levels of difficulty as the player proceeds.
Heads Up!
Violence LIMBO is very violent; the game’s protagonist, a silent shadow boy, is killed in a variety of ways when the player fails a puzzle. These include decapitation, piercing, slicing, and dismemberment. There are also corpses in cages and occasionally hanging from trees. However, there is no red blood or gore since the world is presented as a sort of cartoon silhouette.
Scary Imagery LIMBO is a horror puzzle game, so the fear factor is pretty high. The atmosphere is extremely unsettling, and the protagonist must face a variety of abrupt and violent deaths as he makes his way through the eerie, shades-of-gray world.While jump scares are present, most of the scariness comes from the atmosphere. Giant spiders are a consistent threat, so arachnophobes should beware.
Conversation Starters
- What do you think LIMBO’s story means? What’s happening here?
- Did you ever feel like continuing the game was pointless? Why did you keep going if this was the case?
- In some ways, the main character is helpless. Most games are about giving the player power—how did this switch make you feel?
- What did you think of the atmosphere? Why do you think it was so uncomfortable? What do you suppose the creators’ inspirations were?
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