Two white fireflies are chasing each other in circles. After moving the first one, I can now jump over it and then the second one with ease.Ġ0:30 – Deeper into the woods, the mist appears more dense. I hold the B button to grab the spikes and, as I drag it away, I realise it’s actually two spiked animal traps lying next to each. I step back towards them and he extends them again. Hey, did he just extend his hands? I step away from the spikes.
I’m not sure if I can jump far enough to clear them, though, so I edge forward, slowly. I climb that until I’m able to hoist myself up to the top of the cliff.Ġ0:26 – Entering another dark forest, I spot some spikes – smaller than the ones that killed me earlier – on the ground. I climb it up until I’m able to jump from it onto a rope hanging from the top of the cliff. I can now climb onto the boat and clamber up onto the ridge.Ġ0:23 – A vine snakes up the cliff-face above the ridge. Remembering this section as the one I got stuck in at E3, I jump out of the boat, grab hold of the bow and drag it further up onto the beach. Moments later it reaches the far shore and comes to a halt several metres shy of a ridge.
I jump in and it immediately sets sail – despite having no sail – across the fog-shrouded waterway. There’s a tiny single-mast boat docked on the near shore. Indeed, aside from a faint ambient drone, like the whirring of some distant machinery, and the scuffed footsteps of the boy, there’s no audio at all in the game.Ġ0:20 – I run through a small cave that leads to a lake. Both of my deaths thus far have been accompanied by an eerie silence – no cries of pain or muffled gasps for breath, no game over sound effects or music. I drown instantly and respawn on the wooden structure back at the top of the cliff. It’s noticeably stronger, too, when you jump from a greater height.Ġ0:17 – I experiment with jumping into the well at the foot of the cliff. There’s a real sense of physicality thanks to some subtle vibration in the controller when you land. From the ledge I can jump down to the ground to my right over a small well. I can jump down from here to a ledge on the cliff to my left. I’m now able to climb onto the trolley and then onto the platform from where I can jump out onto the rope.Ġ0:15 – Shimmying down the rope brings me to platform hanging in mid-air. Under the platform is some kind of trolley or cart which I can grab by pressing B and pull by holding B and moving back to the left. There’s a raised platform I’m unable to reach and, above that, a beam jutting out over the sheer drop with a rope attached to it. I respawn back on the fallen tree at the top of the cliff.Ġ0:12 – Beyond the gully I encounter a wooden structure on the lip of another cliff. Are those spikes? I mistime my jump over the gully and skewer myself on the spikes in painful Prince of Persia fashion. It quickly gives way to a slope which I slide down, coming to a stop before a small gully. The only way is down, so I jump.Ġ0:09 – The cliff isn’t very high, actually. Emerging from the forest, I find myself standing on a fallen tree at the edge of a cliff. It’s a floaty kind of jump – analog, too, in that the longer you press A, the further you’ll jump. There’s nowhere else to go so I turn back and run to the right.Ġ0:07 – I run to the right, hitting A to jump. “Achievement Unlocked – Wrong Way” says the pop-up. I find a glowing gem in the grass and collect it. I run behind a tree and – yes! – the level scrolls to the left. I run left, swimming against the tide of platformer design. I press A again and a figure – a small boy with white dots for eyes – get to his feet, blinking as if just awoken from a deep sleep.Ġ0:04 – With the analog stick I can move the boy left and right. Wait, is that a light? A pair of white dots appear near the ground in the clearing. Nothing happens.Ġ0:01 – Is it still loading? I think to myself. Sunlight (or is it moonlight?) penetrates the canopy and highlights the fine mist swirling around the black tree trunks. I’m looking at a forest clearing in silhouette. It’s not a review, it’s my first-hand impressions of what I’ve played so far.Ġ0:00 – White light dissolves then comes into focus. Below I’ll describe what I saw, what I did and what was going through my head at the time. And it’s coming to Xbox Live Arcade, of all places, this week. It’s quite the oddest game I’ve seen in some time. Limbo is unsettling, creepy, unrelentingly strange and utterly alien.
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