I know this is old news, but I have to give a shout out to Limbo. This game for xbox 360 has such killer mood and great simple story telling. No dialogue. No instructions. You just slowly figure the game out in a wondrous act of discovery as things start to make sense. The game has a truly disturbing aesthetic, the depths of which are merely hinted at below.
That looks amazing. So is it anything like Little Big Planet? I see the darkness and know that is the anti-LBP … but maybe only on the surface … LBP is itself insane.
I am terrified by that. It’s like if Richard James made a game. Also, I am enthralled by it. Imagine that game circa 123 High or Waupelani…
The only downer I’ve heard about it is that ‘the death factor’. The game purposefully kills you off (a lot i hear) to teach you how to get through the puzzles. All games do this, but most hide it well. Limbo throws death in your face, mostly as a learning tool, but a lot of gamers seem to think Limbo goes over the top with it. I’m looking forward to checking it out after I finish Deathspank.
Cole: the Game is LBPesque without a doubt.Adam: The youtube video doesn’t do the visuals justice. The grain, lighting effects, vignetting, depth of field, it is all so perfect.Bart: Yes. You die constantly. but there is also no penalty for death. You have no limit to the amount of lives and the game always puts you back right where you left off. Watching some other people play, they seemed to get frustrated at first by dying. I think it is a reaction based on playing so many other games where you really don’t want to die. Eventually I think people get chilled out. Death works differently here. Another example of screwing around with the death idea in games was another innovative small game, Braid. There you couldn’t die. You could always rewind time and replay. At first glance the inability to die might make the game seem pointless, but there is a different mechanic going on. Overall, I don’t care if most gamers don’t get it. Does that make it a bad game? I don’t think so. If games are only meant to tap into some psychology that effects the majority of people in a certain positive way, then perhaps games aren’t art.
I was really intrigued after playing it for a bit (thanks kozleks!) I haven’t had time to play video games for a while, but this game in particular is one that you can pick up at any time. It is definitely creepy and mildly disturbing, not for kids, but I kinda like that about it.
I wonder if this is an example of an art form (hi, Roger Ebert!) throwing its established fans for a loop by going off in a new direction with that art form. Like a smaller version of when Dylan went electric or when “Nude Descending a Staircase” debuted at the 1913 New York Armory art show. The kneejerk reaction to change in art can happen without thinking – ugh…..change bad…..grunt…..no want change. Then after a bit, one thinks about it and appreciates it more. This handles “dying” in a game not in the usual “accepted” way, but in a new and somewhat unsettling-for-a-gamer way. In addition, there is all kinds of philosophical stuff going on here on several different levels. Never played it, but am intrigued.