Limbo Rock

Last week, I was at my friend's place. It's a weekly thing, where a group of friends get together and watch Xena:Warrior Princess and play console games. This particular evening, we were all playing the recent XBLA darling, Limbo.
I say all of us, becuase we took it in turns to solve problems and provided solutions - and one some occasion share shouts of surprise/horror.

So what do I think of Limbo? Well, I'm quite impressed: Comparisons to Ico are somewhat inevitable but I can see similarities in the creation of atmosphere, the usage of subtly, the strength in simplicity and a different spin being but on the tried-and-tested 'rescue the princess' gaming formula. I like the use of black and white graphics - Indeed, it works in such an effective way, it makes you wonder why a B/W template isn't done more often. The atmosphere makes way for a tension that is paper-thin. Indeed, there were some genuinely frightening moments that made me jump out of my seat - particularly with those moments involving the spiders. And as strange as it may sound, having the option of cutting out the death scenes in favor of an abrupt cut to black makes the game all the better for it. And when a game provokes such a reaction you know you're onto something good.

Funnily enough, it is kind of interesting to see how a horror game can really bring people together. Indeed, there is some fun value in making a joint effort to escape a haunted house or something: You know, one person is using the controller whilst other people are frantically shouting out instructions to prevent certain doom.
Just like any zombie apocalypse horror movie shows, there's nothing like a crisis situation to bond people together.