Limbo

Limbo did turn out to have a few more surprises in store for me. For one, a sort of... not really a narrative, but some Half-Life-style real-time events that give a greater insight into the game's ambiguous story. Unfortunately these scenes are pretty scant.

The other surprise was the ending, which pretty much came out of nowhere. I knew Limbo was going to be a short game, but the single-take gameplay really succeeded at making me think it would never end -- up until it did, very abruptly. I wouldn't call it a disappointment, but it did feel a little unsatisfying.

There were a good amount of genuine brain-scratchers in Limbo's puzzles, and also a good amount of hectic action sequences. I want to complain about how generally imitative its accomplishments were, and how the imperfect controls made some precision platforming more frustrating than it needed to be. At the same time, I want to praise the overall effectiveness of its cocktail of mechanics, and its user-friendly checkpoints and environmental hints.

Limbo is a good game, and you'll almost certainly have fun with it. But it's simple, and unlike some other simple games, it won't make you think differently about the medium.

Better than: LostWinds
Not as good as: Braid
The last surprise: was the game's credits. I expected a team of two or three (plus Microsoft production), but apparently this was a somewhat major undertaking.

Progress: Complete