What does it take to be a perfect game. Does it require hundreds of hours worth content, Complex gameplay. Excellent writing, high quality graphics, badass soundtrack, Kick ass multiplayer, progression systems, addictive psychological tricks and tons of additional features and modes??? LIMBO is a perfect 10 game for me and it has none of the things I described. LIMBO is the creation of a tiny developer called Playdead  based in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The game has practically nothing going for it except sheer perfection. Even though it was released in July 2010 on Xbox Live Arcade and later on pretty much everything including Android and iOS and game doesn't feel even aged.

First let me tell you about the excellent writing in the game.

 Uncertain of his sister's fate, a boy enters LIMBO. 

You saw it all. That's all of the writing this game has to offer. There is no voice dub. There is barely any music except for exceptionally well done sound design. It's a puzzle game where you learn through dying. There are zero HUD indicating anything like health, ammo, tools or whatsoever. The game has 5 inputs.

Move Right

Move Left

Up

Down

Grab Object/Interact

LIMBO is a real brain teasing puzzle game based on those simple directional maneuvers and a single button to grab stuff to pull or push and press buttons. The art style is atmospheric and minimalistic and you die a lot in this game and it still doesn't become a Dark Souls game. Dying happens when you learn stuff. Every death is a learning experience. Instead of some help text or tutorial, you learn trough your own Death in LIMBO. Here are some quotes from the level designer Jeppe Carlsen:

"You could call it a learning-by-dying game," 

 "We wanted the player to die a lot in this game, I think it really works with the theme." 

 "You don't ever really get penalized for dying, it's just how the game plays." 

 "The biggest rewards come from finally finding the solution to a puzzle you had to struggle with for some time,"  

As you can see, this game has a very unique but powerful kind of impact. When things happen, they matter. The video might be considered spoiler-ish so you might want to not watch the latter parts.

When you start the game you are in a forest and progressively you get into more and more industrialized areas. At first I counted 39 levels for the game and all of them were very well designed and also very short. Solving them is like solving riddles. The lack of available inputs really helps to focus. There are only so many things you can do and physics play a very important part in this game. In one puzzle I had to turn the gravity on and off repeatedly just let the physics work to get a box out of a certain area. The physics and timing is very important and most puzzles are much like riddles. They are short and have smart solutions that make you feel ecstatic and genius when you solve them on your own and I highly advise against using a walkthrough.

After a long time I accidentally found out that the game has not 39 but 40 levels. I'll drop the video as a gameplay demonstration.

It's a game you should be able to finish in about 4 hours without a problem and those 4 hours will be a memorable experience. After the clever but short and tricky solution to the final level you'll come across a scene and after that you'll never look at the starting screen of the game in the way you used to. The ending can be interpreted in several ways and all of them are very powerful and when the game end, you'll feel it to the core.

Where to buy

It's a T(een) rated game and unless your kids are too sensitive, I highly recommend this brain tease for them. LIMBO will also be a great way to get them to think and discuss the topics like death, hope, phobias, horror without getting into gore filled or overly horrifying images. If you are still not convinced at buying you can try the free DEMO at : https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Playdead&hl=en

It's only 104MB on Android and 136 MB on itunes. But the best place to buy is GOG.com where you can get LIMBO for Windows and Mac. It's a tiny 181MB setup and only $9.99

https://www.gog.com/game/limbo

Best part is GOG doesn't include any DRM. You can buy once and install as many times you want without any verification or whatsoever. I'm a really big fan of GOG for this reason and hopefully you'd love it too.

If you are not a gamer already, this would be an excellent entry point for you. Just 4 hours + $9.99 will give you an experience worth remembering for life.