Limbo wakes you up in what I can only suppose to be the titular plane of semi-existence. Another World transports you to just that, an alien planet where it seems an analog to the Roman Empire exists, but with lasers. It characterizes each world as hostile, dangerous and oppressive. Each death teaches you something about the properties of the puzzles and by extension the world. The point is you learn from your mistakes and try again. They contrast this with a liberal checkpoint system and near instantaneous reloading. Another World and Limbo are brutal games with nearly everything capable of killing you with the slightest touch. If you don’t die and can work your way through the puzzles quickly the games are 2-3 hours apiece. Are the spiders the mystical guardians of torment and redemption or the transformed beings of those trapped so long in the cycle they’ve become feral? Answer: why are you hurting my brain with big words?īoth games are short. Who are the savage children? They disappear after a while, so it’s never explained. Why are we traveling left to right? Hell if I know. The environments are detailed, even if black and white, but the detail isn’t matched with anything else. This clashes with the otherwise minimalist presentation. The art, while stylized, is highly detailed. After the set up point you get the feeling the game doesn’t know what to do with itself other than more puzzles. The first third is strong with set up for the hostile, unforgiving, mysterious environment where it takes place and then does nothing with it. Limbo, on the other hand, falls flat on its face. The game’s silence allows the player to fill in much of the details as the game itself treats most of the setting with broad strokes and simplistic iconography that the player is more inclined to identify with the avatar than not. Another World portrays a friendship with so few elements that bigger games with all their material can’t seem to equal, even in good games like Uncharted. A theme can be a message or an opinion or an exploration, but sometimes a portrayal is enough. That’s something that gets lost when the word theme gets brought up. The game is not explicit in what it’s about and it certainly isn’t offering any profound sentiments. Afterwards, I had to pause for quite a bit. But where Another World utilizes this a basis to dive into other matters and themes, with Limbo it’s the whole show.Īnother World is a classic that I’ve been meaning to play for a while and finishing it left me with something. Both games exude an air of loneliness and oppression by the world at large and end ambiguously. Both games are silent environmental puzzle games that tell their story through imagery and mood more than anything else. I finished Another World and Limbo in single sittings on back to back days and I find it remarkable how similar they are and how one gets what it’s doing so right and the other gets it so wrong.
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