An eerie landscape of a forest comes into view as a young boy shrouded in silhouette opens his eyes, two bright dots on a shadowy figure. The introduction to Danish-based developer Playdead Studios’s Limbo is only a couple seconds long, brilliantly conveying a state of wonder and mild apprehension for the player. There are no explanations, no written plot and no color. The immersion is derived by the player’s thoughts on what to make of this shadowy world. Is it purgatory? Hell? Maybe just a dream? All you know is that a little boy has awoken in a strange realm, pitted against violent death traps and thoughts of despair.

Playdead Studios has essentially designed a rehash of the 2-D side-scrollers of late, supplying that concept with great visuals, incredibly clever constructed puzzles and an atmosphere that is both unsettling and beautiful. As you progress through this linear path, you’ll come across a plethora of malevolent forces ready to send you deeper into Dante’s Inferno. Make no mistake about it — after playing this game, you will experience death at every corner. You will drown, get squashed, impaled, incinerated, dismembered, decapitated, electrocuted, electrocuted then decapitated, and this will occur a few hundred times before your adventure ends. This is a game of trial and death. This is a core concept of Limbo, as the game is adequately supplied with checkpoints, usually offering spawning points right before where you died. This allows the game to progress forward in fluid motion, preventing frustration.

The controls are simple. You move with the left control stick, jump with the A button and execute tasks using B as the action button. Tasks include pushing and pulling objects and pulling switches. Later in the game, your character will leave the forest, entering a factory setting. While still retaining all the platform elements, the puzzles become more complicated and require more complex thinking. I found myself getting stumped at a few points near the end but always managing to find the solution, a feeling of success well-earned. The puzzles are expertly crafted and built in progression of complication, guiding and training the player for the challenges ahead.

With a world devoid of color complemented with eerie ambient tunes, the film noir styled presentation evokes a feeling of immersion never felt in a 2-D side-scroller before. I mentioned there was a lack of plot but in actuality, there is a story element; it’s just very subtle. Later in the game, you’ll find an almost hidden plot direction alluding to the character searching for something ... or someone.

After progressing through the factory, the game ends in an abrupt but fantastic demonstration. Limbo is roughly six hours long and is priced at 1200 Microsoft Points. Sure the game is short, but more important, it doesn’t drag on, and every second of gameplay is exciting and extremely fun.

My only quib (I have to have one) is that you spend most of the time in the factory setting, and I preferred the creepy forest. Not a giant complaint, especially considering the more complex puzzles keep the game fresh.

I have never felt so strongly about an Xbox Live Arcade game as much as I feel about Limbo. It is truly a work of art that deserves recognition in high esteem.