Limbo is a visually fresh, original puzzle-platformer that’s sure to both boggle your mind and provide a lot of fun. This game tells the story of a young boy caught in a world of Limbo while searching for his little sister. Limbo takes off with a very simple premise — relying on clever puzzles and truly unique visuals to bring the world to life rather than using a rich plot.

The thing that caught my eye in this game was the fact there is NO color. The graphics are purely black and white and have a very polished and smooth look to them, as if the player views only the silhouettes of the world and its characters. The background is very fuzzy and grainy, almost as if heat waves are distorting it. This keeps the eye focused on the foreground and what’s happening in the game. This entire look gives Limbo both a very dark, foreboding feel similar to one you get while watching a horror film and an engaging design that makes it fun to play.

The gameplay is kept very simple, following suit with the rest of Limbo. The player uses the analogue stick to move the character around, supplementing this only by using A to jump and B to activate objects. This again helps focus the game on the puzzles and the action at hand, rather than complex control schemes or dazzling graphics. In the course of your journey through Limbo, you will encounter all manner of traps and dangers. Spikes, large pits, lakes, electricity and even large spinning saws populate the path to your lost sister. Brutal deaths and decapitations await any failure to avoid these perils, and more often than not, I found myself dying many times trying to complete a section of the game.

The puzzles cover everything from pulling ropes and moving mine carts to navigating anti-gravity fields. There are occasional enemies, including a giant spider and indigenous tribesmen, which change things up a little and add some variety. The game takes a while to complete as well. This is nice because it means you can take a break and come back to Limbo rather than finishing the game in one sitting. I found it useful to take breaks and come back to puzzles with a fresh eye, especially after I’d spent a lot of time in one area, completely baffled about how to move on.

The sound is important to this game as well. Like the visuals, the sound is very simple, and very sparing. The only sounds you hear might be your footsteps, water lapping at a cliff side or birds chirping quietly. The normal near-silence is seldom interrupted — and then only by techno-like throbs that accompany a new danger. The way Limbo makes use of these various subtleties is excellent and heightens the gameplay experience.

Limbo gets a big thumbs up in my book. It takes a fresh angle on the classic platformer style game and provides a lot of challenge and entertainment in one small package. The subject matter is a little dark, and thus the TEEN rating is an adequate one. I think anybody above the age range would enjoy this a lot and be very glad that they made the purchase.