The world of Limbo is only black, white and all the shades of gray in between.

“Uncertain of his sister’s fate, a boy enters LIMBO.”

That is the beginning of one of the better experiences I have had with an X-Box Live Arcade title. I was interested to see how a game like this could hold my interest, because of the stark black and white design, very little sound and no music. I can say with confidence when it comes to Limbo, less is more.

It does something that many video games attempt but few are able to do, it creates an ambiance. To put this in terms that a video game player can understand, It feels like a side scrolling Ico, or Shadow of the Colossus. It almost makes you think that other games are trying to hard to be good at everything. If they would just scale back and be good at a few things they would be so much better.

So it looks amazing and creates an environment. That is great, but the more important question is, will it be worth your time?

Limbo begins with a plain black screen. No menus, no life bar, no tutorials. You can sit there for a while before you realize that you need to press a button to get things going. If you are like me you will just push them all. Then you see the two bright eyes of your character light up. The gameplay itself consists of only three things: Movement, jumping and holding/dragging things. This simple gameplay is good and the physics all work well.

Platforming in Limbo consists of trying to get through the environment that is full of traps and challenges. This puzzle gameplay is a lot of fun but get ready to die… a lot. The puzzles are not extremely challenging, but they increase in challenge as you play. There are puzzles where you will die right when you walk into them and the deaths are really gory. Sometimes this can feel a like a cheap way to do the puzzles because there is no way to know that your death is coming before it happens to you.

On that note, death happens a lot. You will see the little boy die by falling, being impaled, getting chopped up and electrocution. The first few times this happens it will be a bit of a shock to you. There are also some moments that will startle you a little in the gameplay.

As you play you will not be able to get over how great the experience is. The developers at Playdead, an independent studio, really figured out how to deliver a fun, creepy, dark, and interesting title that delivers a good experience. Limbo is a game that is as much about the platforming as it is about the puzzles. Limbo should take you 4-5 hours to complete. There is not much replay value, but if you want to get all the achievements you will need to play through at least two times.

I think this game is one you need to buy if you have an X-Box 360. I might normally tell you that you could wait until it goes on sale, but I think that you should support a small independent studio so go buy this game for the full $15 (1200 MS Points) and support the small game developers.

[X-Box 360] Limbo – SCORE: 9.0