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Anybody else that didn't like Limbo?

Personally, I enjoyed it as a fun puzzle game with an artstyle that was interesting and cleverly used in the gameplay. That said, I wasn't looking for a deep story, and I never really felt like the game would have much of a payoff. It had an interesting atmosphere and it was vastly more playable than its classic inspirations.

The link to the classic PC platformers is even more obvious when playing the PC version without a 360 pad. The game uses the exact same control scheme as Prince of Persia and many similar games, merging jump into the up arrow. The puzzles featured similar environmental interaction, but more modern technology meant that it could feature much more varied interactions than just standing on switches and breaking platforms.

I got it for $5 I think, and I was happy with it for that price, but I can understand that for $15 it might seem a little too simplistic. It also reminded me of a flash game I played on Newgrounds or Kongregate a few years ago that was similarly in black and white and tasked a boy with searching for a sister in some drab, melancholy woods and sewers.
 
The style, atmosphere and most of all the sounds (music) are PERFECT... the game itself was a great experience for me. I had a great time all the way through the game. But I can see why some people dislike it.. but not boring (it´s 3 hours long man) and the puzzles might be trial and error sometimes (but what game today isn´t that..?)..
 
I stopped playing once I got gibbed by a beartrap. That honestly horrified me and I unistalled the game, I really don't get why the game is so gruesome, I'm just a damn kid and I get my head chopped off by traps and impaled by gaint spiders? Kids slow as hell too.
 
i didn't enjoy it very much, so i quit playing it. My bro enjoyed it though so i guess it is not my cup of tea. I bought it because of universal praise, my fault. It is the second time it happens to me, i did the same with braid and i just did not enjoy it at all.
 
I can't believe one of the OP's complaints is, "sometimes you have to push or pull things which could confuse people."

Like, are you shitting me? Never play Braid, the hub world would have you stumped.
 
maomaoIYP said:
Still better than Braid though.
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god tier:

Super Meat Boy
Cave Story
Braid

top tier:

Legend of Grimrock
Binding of Isaac
N+

high tier:

Bit.Trip Runner
VVVVVV
Iji
Bastion

mid tier:

Spelunky
Machinarium
Aquaria

low tier (also, boring tier):

LIMBO
Superbrothers
And Yet it Moves
 
Hydrogen Bluebird said:
In terms of art style and/or presentation, Limbo stands out mainly because of it being in black and white and the violent/gruesome death animations (not usually seen in a platformer). In terms of game design though, I think it is really flawed because of the following reasons:

1. The puzzles are designed in a trial and error kind of way wherein you'd usually die and would have to start over. This can kill any form of momentum/enjoyment that a player has.

2. Most puzzles require a really specific set of moves/things to do, fail in one minor thing and you're screwed. I also noticed that some puzzles would be solved by doing things that most players won't even realize can be done (pull this, push that, etc.)

3. Platforming physics are kind of "floaty" similar to Little Big Planet.

4. Character is slow as hell and the game takes a long time to restart every time you die.

5. The game can get quite boring.

Anybody else feel the same way?
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Though I'm not huge fan of the game either, I wouldn't mark any of these particular points against it.

I don't regard having some trail and error in a game as a flaw, I disagree with that whole Portal mentality where whenever people got stuck at a certain part they need to find ways to more easily guide them through. I don't see the importance of "keeping momentum" in games, which seems to be a huge things these days. It probably has to do with the whole misguided effort to make games more like movies, where its one predefined continuous story crafted by the creator which takes precedence over your own experience and the way you'd like to play the game.

But the game did at times make some cheap kills, bordering on feeling like that japanese cat Mario game. Like there's a big crusher with a button under it, you think you have to avoid the button to keep from being crushed, then it does activate and murder you, and you learn you must jump on the button and not hit the area around it instead, so then you come to a completely identical mechanism and naturally try the same thing, but the game goes and reverse it, killing you if you hit the button and not the area around it. You can almost hear in the distance the sound of some game dev snidely chuckling at his own brilliant smartassery.

But this all pays off later when you have to remember what you learned while running through in the opposite direction, avoiding the traps in quick succession and luring the bigger kids into it.

I agree the controls could've been better, though I understand why they are the way they are, feeling restrained to help you feel more like a hopeless weakling in a horror game environment, and puzzle solving took precedence over platforming action in a game like this. But some things just don't seem right, like the fact that you often have to jump to the other side of a bear trap to move it somewhere, and this shouldn't be a challenging big deal thing to do, but it ends up being one of the hardest physical things to do in the whole game, because the maximum length of the character's jump is almost exactly the length of a bear trap and if your timing is off by a hair you're instant dead.
 
not psycho said:
god tier:

Super Meat Boy
Cave Story
Braid

top tier:

Legend of Grimrock
Binding of Isaac
N+

high tier:

Bit.Trip Runner
VVVVVV
Iji
Bastion

mid tier:

Spelunky
Machinarium
Aquaria

low tier (also, boring tier):

LIMBO
Superbrothers
And Yet it Moves
Click to expand...

Why isn't Aquaria in transcendent tier above god tier?... I disagree with a lot in your list, but that's just crazy talk. (Your god tier is good though)
 
Whenever I see a title like this the first thing that pops into my head is: "Fucking everybody, this is GAF."

This is one of the most unhappy places I have ever been to. I loved Limbo, felt like an experience more so than a normal platformer. It gave me interesting memories and I think that makes it of worth.
 
By the way, there's news about a spiritual successor of Limbo

Danish studio Playdead's follow-up to its critically acclaimed debut Limbo will be a 2.5D platformer rendered in full colour, according to a new report.
Citing information gleaned from a Danish government grant site, Kotaku has written that the game, currently codenamed Project 2, "tells the story of a boy's struggle against evil forces trying to take over the world through questionable experiments on human bodies."

Its intended platforms are listed as PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC and Mac. See above for an accompanying piece of concept art.
It also noted that Danish newspaper Politiken has described the game as "a bleak spiritual successor to the award-winning Limbo."

Back in October 2011, Playdead boss Dino Patti told Eurogamer that the game "looks crazy good".

"I'm really proud of it already. I know the art is not fully there yet, but for me it's the perfect project two for our company, because it's similar in many ways, but so different."
It's thought that the game has been in production for around 18 months.
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NmV06.jpg


Source
 
KevinCow said:
The puzzles were trial-and-error, but in a way that made me laugh when it got me instead of making me frustrated, because the checkpoints were so close together. Like there's one part where you step on this switch, and a thing comes down and kills you. So you jump over that, and see the same looking switch on the ground, and try to jump over that one. But it turns out the the real switch on the second "switch" is the floor around it, so the thing comes down and kills you again. I thought that was hilarious.
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Yeah, I got a huge laugh out of that part.

I like limbo, but I wouldn't put it up there with the best platformers though. It felt like the game had run out of ideas 90 minutes in, and actually felt kinda overlong even though its only 3 hours long or so. Gameplay-wise the game really doesn't do anything special. It just has a cool atmosphere but that's about it. Worth playing but not a must play.

It's definitely a step below Braid, VVVVVV, and some of the other instant classics this we've gotten this generation.
 
Repost from the last Steam thread:

I'm not too fond of Limbo as a whole, I find it falls a little too much on the wrong side of trial and error - there are puzzles in that game there's almost no way you'll pass first time through no fault of your own. The early bait and - literally - switch, for example, where the switch drops the rock on you, then in the second part the area around the switch will drop it. If I recall correctly there are no real visual hints at this and it will kill you.

Game's short, too, and once you enter the industrial area it loses all of its individuality and becomes just a generic block-pushing platformer that just happens to be in silhouette.

For all my complaints I did enjoy it - the beginning parts are great, the entire midsection drags and it picks up again
when the world starts rotating
. It's about two to three hours if you don't know what you're doing, and you probably won't want to play it again.

-NinjaBoiX- said:
It was hardly gruesome, it's a inch high cartoon kid. The implication is pretty grim, but the actual act in the game is fairly tame.
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I would disagree. It didn't necessarily bother me, but it is quite on-the-nose.
 
Terrible game. Slow, pathetically easy puzzles. Die to the surprise trap only to respawn two seconds back and clear it the next try. Exhausting graphics.

1/5
 
somesplace said:
Terrible game. Slow, pathetically easy puzzles. Die to the surprise trap only to respawn two seconds back and clear it the next try. Exhausting graphics.

1/5
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Im guessing you didn't play to the factory, some of the puzzles in there were really good. The last one in particular.
 
I liked it, but I thought it was overrated. It's a good game with a fantastic style. Since a lot of people only pay attention to style, it's not surprising that it was labelled as the nth coming of Jesus.

Just look at the Watch Dogs thread and you'll see what I mean.
 
subversus said:
stopped playing at the spider
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Best place to leave any game really, right at the beginning.

I thought the game was great. I had a little connection with the kid and what he was there to do. Didn't feel like it was a trial and error game either, but it didn't grab me and make me play it from start to finish, even though it's such a short game.
 
It's not fantastic, but it is a good game. Most of the puzzles are way too easy, but I really appreciate the complete lack of hand holding in the game. It doesn't tell you shit, you get to try things and discover how to play for your self, which is really fun. Modern game designers could learn a lot from Limbo.

I'm one of the few people that thinks that the game get's better as it goes on. The factory had the best puzzles in the game, it actually got kind of challenging at times.
 
I think it was a great game but I can understand if people didn't like it.
 
Neuromancer said:
Loved the first 1/3. After that it was all downhill, the environments got much less interesting as time went by and there were less 'interactive' elements like the spider and the other kids. It's almost like the developer ran out of ideas, time or money. The actual gameplay though was fine. The trial and error was fun if for no other reason to see your character die in so many different grisly ways.
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Same here. Got to the point after an hour that I just wanted to finish it to see what happened.

Wasn't worth the effort. Enjoyed Braid a lot more and I still didn't think that was as great as everyone touted.
 
Game fell apart real quick. The biggest strike against it is that you basically have to constantly fail in order to progress, and it's just slow and tedious enough that dying to know how to go forward becomes incredibly infuriating. The atmosphere also goes away after the first third of the game or so and then becomes endless tedium in vaguely industrial/warehouse environments. What was a moody, promising game in the demo portion just becomes a shitty puzzle platformer in black and white basically right after. The game is also incredibly short and has no reason for replaying. I got it with the Indie Bundle so I'm not too disappointed, but if I paid the $15 they were asking at launch I would've been very pissed.
 
I thought Limbo was quite fun. I did not care for the art direction at all though, nor for the awful character design/animation. All in all, a short (not negative) and fun puzzle game!
 
Dislike is too strong. I just thought it was very overrated. I appreciated the minimalist approach aesthetically but having nothing to offer but a rigidly linear sequence of puzzles with binary succeed/fail outcomes isn't what I consider good game design.

Nice graphics, but dull and not particularly compelling to play.
 
Played the demo and thought it was awesome. Little did I know it was all downhill after the spider part IMO. I'm not going to say it's a bad game at all. If I replay it though, I'm likely to no go much farther past the spider part. Instead of the ending have the semi-emotional impact it had on people I ws just sort of glad it ws over.
 
I wouldn't say I disliked it, but I will say that I played about an hour and then put it down and never went back. I'll finish it some day, but that's not a good sign.
 
I don't regret buying or playing it, but I didn't finish it. I'll echo what most are saying, it went downhill in the second half. Big time.

Still looking forward to their next game. Because with some minor tweaks in design and philosophy, they're more than capable of making a great game.
 
I kind of liked it but some of the puzzles are just not straightforward at all and I had to look them up online to avoid frustration. Some of it reminds me of those old games from the 80s where you'd have no clue how to do some stuff.
 
Eh, its alright but it commits the cardinal sin of having true trial and error. That is to say there is at least one puzzle I remember where the information you need cannot be obtained in any way other then dying.
 
i've been playing through it with my girlfriend and we both love the hell out of it. we start a new puzzle, immediately get crucified, laugh our asses off, and then settle in to figure out how to avoid letting that happen. it IS trial and error, but the deaths are often so clever and weirdly funny that they have their own entertainment value; additionally, seeing the grisly result of a failed attempt at the puzzle makes solving it even more satisfying when we manage to pull it off.

i just think the game is really great and fun. i'm tempted to use the word refreshing. i'm far more excited and hopeful for games when i look at LIMBO than when i walk into a game store and look at the shelves.
 
If you approached Limbo expecting a platformer like Braid or SMB, of course you'll dislike it because Limbo not a platformer:

Diomedeskun said:
I'm guessing you wouldn't like Prince of Persia (the original), Flashback, Out of This World, or Heart of Darkness very much. Limbo is a throwback to those in many ways, but it's far more forgiving with unlimited lives, no timer, frequent checkpoints, and a quick respawn.
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All these games had one common trait: learn by death. Dying is part of the experience, so much that there are tons of different death animations, but seems some people really get pissed off when they die in a game, no matter what.

I played this game knowing nothing about it. Didn't play a demo, never saw a video, read nothing about it. Loved it.
 
I didn't actively dislike it, but I didn't enjoy it. Beyond the presentation, I didn't really find myself latching onto any aspect of the game in any significant way.

I guess it's worth the asking price, but I don't really know anybody I would be recommending it to.
 
SmokyDave said:
I wouldn't say I disliked it, but I will say that I played about an hour and then put it down and never went back. I'll finish it some day, but that's not a good sign.
Click to expand...

So you finished it two times?

The game was fine, but it ended right when thing started to become interesting, gameplay-wise.
I remember thinking: Holy shit, now things are seriously getting hard .. Wait, that was the last puzzle? It's over? Wat?
 
I think Limbo is really good, but I'm not sure I love it. The pacing is magnificent though, I felt, you go to so many different places(that naturally progress into each other) and use so many different mechanics and elements to solve puzzles. The protaganist does move slow, and that did get on my nerves a few times. I don't he think he could be too much faster without messing with the tone/pacing in a negative way, however. A 2D puzzle platformer is a tough sell for me in general; not sure I even can love a game in that style. It's mechanically inferior to Braid, but artistically superior.

It has one of my favorite endings full stop, and saying the visual style is 'black & white' is an immense simplification and also undersells the work and design that presumably went in to it.
 
I loved mostly everything about it, but I thought it meandered and didn't deliver on its implicit promises. For that reason, I don't really feel compelled to play it again.
 
Rei no Otaku said:
I hated Braid and Limbo, but I'm really enjoying Rayman Origins.

Limbo just bored me.
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Braid and Limbo are just overhyped indie games that everyone seems to love, but I end up hating due to the gameplay. Limbo seemed too easy for me and Braid was just...garbage.

I have played the demo of Rayman Origins and I really enjoyed it, might have to go pick it up soon
 
I really liked Limbo. I agree that the physics are very similar to LBP, but they actually work better in Limbo. In LBP it felt like my character was running around in a world of pillows and they made him jump by hitting the pillow next to him and bumping him around rather than actually having sackboy use his body to jump. I hated the physics there.

In Limbo they limit your movement options, so the floaty pillow physics are kept in check a little bit. The game was atmospheric as hell too. I agree it's old school trial and error, but I'm not as adverse to that as others are.

It reminds me of a prettier version of the games I struggled through, but still loved, as a kid. I only paid about $1.50 for it, so that helps too.

I started Braid recently and I'm not feeling it at all, but I'm going to keep plugging away at it.
 
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