All of this more than make up for the relatively short length of the game when it first came out, playtime averaged 4-6 hours, and even all these years later, another playthrough with foreknowledge of the game’s various puzzles and mechanics only took 2-3 hours. Limbo is an exceedingly clever, beautiful puzzle platformer with striking art direction, incredible ambient sound design, expertly directed scripting of in-world events and just enough storytelling by way of allusion and each of the aforementioned items to drive you to continue exploring and learn just what kind of sinister world the boy you control is making his way through. If you missed it, or if you simply forgot, let’s review the basics. For those of us who played back then, or on the myriad other platforms it’s been released over the years, the rest was history. This was not the sort of thing we were used to seeing in 2010, and simply by existing, Limbo made a strong case for itself. Many corners of the internet were in a fervor over this uniquely styled platform with its mysterious, moody atmosphere and visuals that genuinely looked as though they belonged in an artful animated feature. I still distinctly remember sitting down in front of my Xbox 360 to download and start Limbo the night it came out.

Moreover, audiences were ready for fresh experiences that experimented with our conceptions about what video games as a medium could be.

The late 00’s were an exciting time in games, when indie developers were gaining more exposure on bigger platforms and distribution channels were becoming more easily accessible. In the eight years since Limbo’s original release in 2010, which practically seems like another lifetime ago, we’ve seen a great deal of advancement in development philsophies, general gameplay refinements, and graphical fidelity continues to improve year over year at impressive rates.

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