Evan Plays: Limbo

I didn’t waste any time getting into my new Humble Bundle games. And first up, we have Limbo.

A lot of people grew up playing Mario on the Nintendo and Super Nintendo. I did not. My parents wouldn’t let me get a console when I was a kid. I’ve probably mentioned that here before, but it bears repeating because I NEVER FORGAVE THEM. I mention it now, because by the time I really got into video games, they were primarily 3D. By and large, I missed out on 2D platformers, and the end result is that when I play them now, I’m pretty terrible at them.

As such, LIMBO is a game I never sought out, because not only is it a 2D platformer, it appeared to be a pretty brutal and challenging one. Gameplay videos I had seen showed what seemed to be a difficult series of actions requiring precision jumping with specific timing; the penalty for failure being a rather gruesome death.

Look, I’ve got nothing against challenging games, they’re just not for me. When I come home from work, I just want to slump on the couch and sort of turn off my mind for a bit. So when I run across a part of a game where I know exactly what to do, but can’t execute the series of moves and die, it really kills my buzz.

Luckily, despite my expectations, that wasn’t the case with LIMBO (at least not the part I played, I think there’s a bit of that in the later levels). Unfortunately I had the opposite problem.

See, the obstacles I enountered in the first 20% or so of the game that I played were not overcome by making quick or challenging jumps, its more about being aware of what’s in your environment and using it to your advantage.

I was pretty bad at that too, but at least I could be bad at my own pace.

There’s a point in the video where my character is trying to cross a lake and all I have at my disposal is a small crate. I kept trying to float out the crate and jump on top of it, using the momentum and lean of the crate to propel it across the lake while balancing precariously on top of it. This did not work at all, and I failed over and over attempting it. What I didn’t notice was that there was a rope to climb RIGHT NEXT TO WHERE I RESPAWNED. Once I figured that out, I managed to knock down a log and get across the lake in one jump. It wasn’t a matter of skill at all, just situational awareness.

Later, I ran into the infamous spider, and again, none of the strategies I attempted had any affect. I’m certain there is a simple solution to that encounter that I’ve just failed to notice or figure out, and once I do, it will be glaringly, embarassingly obvious. But until I do, it’s a frustrating dead end I can do nothing about.

Normally when I get stuck in a game, I’ll just check a guide on the internet to figure out how to proceed with the game. However, since the entirety of this game is apparently puzzle solving, looking up the solutions seems like it would really lessen the experience. Normally I don’t have a problem with that, but for some reason I’m being a stickler about it here, which is another problem, because until I figure it out, there’s no more game for me to play.