Limbo of the Lost Review

[Neos]

Limbo of the Lost review (PC)

You've heard all the controversy, but is Limbo of the Lost a game worth playing, despite the inexcusable theft involved in its creation?

Boomtown Editor Harry Neary: We were asked several weeks ago by Limbo of the Lost's publisher to review the game. It was only once Graham began downloading the review code that the controversy over the theft of graphics from other games broke. Following the revelations the original publisher dropped the game. However we thought it was worth continuing with our review. So on with Graham's thoughts...

I can't decide who had it worse in Limbo, the protagonist or me?

Before I begin my review of Limbo of the Lost I must address the issue of plagiarism which brought this game from the department of obscurity to the forefront of the international attention. Limbo of the Lost will go down in history as one of the most infamous games ever and with just cause. Limbo of the Lost has blatantly stolen environments from PC games such as The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Thief: Deadly Shadows, to name but a few. The film industry hasn't escaped either with scenes from the game resembling the movies Spawn and Pirates of the Caribbean. Some game developers must be disappointed that they escaped the wrath of Majestic Studio’s thievery, seeing as it tried its best to rip off media in general.

It may sound entertaining bringing all these elements from excellent games together in one package, but look at it from this perspective. If you took King Leonidas from 300, mix in a bit of Rocky and throw in a Transformer for good measure what do you get? Meet the Spartans. Point proven.

So damning is the evidence against Majestic Studios that even its own publisher has failed to defend it and has acknowledge the similarities. Tri Synergy has also discontinued distribution from both retail and online stores, which I believe is a very wise decision, although it should have been taking off the shelves long before this for other reasons.

 

More plot holes then an Ed Wood film

The premise for Limbo of the Lost is that brothers Fate and Destiny are having an all out war over mankind. Fate wants to control the actions of mankind while Destiny believes that mankind should go about life however they please. So they agree to a test. They pluck Captain Benjamin Briggs from the Marie Celeste and transport him down to the Citadel of Lost Souls where he will have to face four tests divided into six chapters. His overall goal is to reunite the Seal of Sufferance with the book which it belongs to. The citadel is located in limbo which is a stop gap between the mortal world and the afterlife. Luckily Captain Briggs is not alone as he has a aid in the form of a earthly essence, which is you. Go me!

One of the first major problems of the game is that it never really fully explains this story. That's is a shame as it seems rather interesting on paper and quite original (shock). As each test is counted as a level the story is told through episodes and sometimes the game can jump from one level to the next leaving certain aspects of the story untold. It also leaves the game feeling disjointed. I am still unaware as to the reasons for the jump from Chapter three to four. It leaves me feeling confused and frustrated. For a game which is so story driven why are they making me work so hard to understand it?

Limbo of the Lost also suffers from poor voice acting with much of it feeling forced and uninspiring. I never really felt connected to Captain Briggs either as the man has the personality of a turnip. In the opening level he seems unconcerned of the events happening around him and casually greets ghouls who crawl on the ceiling. This takes the edge out of the game, if Briggs doesn't care why should we? Many of the character you meet throughout the game range from mildly interesting to irritating. Overall it seems as if a 15 year old remedial English student tried his hand at writing a Stephen King novel. (So it's like a Dean Koontz story then? - Ed.)

 

I think I time traveled back to 1997

While games like Crysis, Half-Life 2 and Age of Conan are pushing the graphical prospective of PC gaming forward, Limbo of the Lost’s De Lorean reached 88 mph and took gaming back 11 years. It's a third person point and click adventure game with graphics that barely resemble the Blade Runner and the Discworld Noir games of old, both released in 1997. While graphic do not make great games the ones on offer here are a step in the wrong direction and they can have a negative impact on the gameplay as you can often find yourself pixel exploring about the screen trying to find items needed to complete the numerous levels.

This is probably the most infuriating part of Limbo of the Lost - aside from the huge theft of others' work - obviously. Pixel exploring! I thought those days died long ago, never to be seen again. For me, and this could just be me, but I like puzzles to be solved by using the power of the mind not by going through each area and just rolling the cursor around the screen praying something makes itself known. This game makes me feel stupid for playing it this way that I’m seriously considering giving up games altogether and actually going back to LEGO.

The game seems like a port from an Atari that went horribly wrong. Captain Briggs also interacts poorly with his environment. In some instances he will interact with objects, such as a lever, from across a room by turning around and making a motion when he is nowhere near that item. He should also be appointed Minister of Silly Walks judging by his movement throughout each level as he glides across floors and even moonwalks in some cases. Some scenes play out like a Michael Jackson music video, with Briggs moon walking and jiving his way about while smug, sexually frustrated green creatures act as his backing crew. Oh and Briggs is hardly the King of Cool.

The puzzles in the game can vary depending on the level with some being moderately appealing to others being downright frustrating. Each chapter also can range in quality but with the majority of them being poor it's hard to find any highlight in the game.

The ambient music in the background does its job to a extent but with much of it being played over and over again in the same level it can be quite repetitive at times. Well I hardly expected myself to rise and do the Monster Mash during any part of the game but given how out dated this game was I truly prepared myself of a few occasions.

 

The Ouija board commands me to destroy this game

The interface in Limbo of the Lost is very simplistic. The relative simplicity of the game’s controls are actually a very rare redeeming factor and I was overjoyed by the fact that I could easily exit the game whenever the ball of rage that built up in me started spiralling out of control.

Left click will make Captain Briggs walk while right click will bring up the Ouija board. This board is a core element of the gameplay as it is used to control Captain Briggs. It divides up commands into four areas: Sense, action, take and look. Look allows examination of the surroundings, take obviously means to take items and action allows the Captain to use items.

However sense is quite possibly the most useless command in the game and for some reason Captain Briggs senses nothing. One could say the man is quite senseless. He says the same line every time the command is used "No sense. No feeling", and it makes me wonder why on earth it is even in the game.

The inventory is brought up by scrolling up to the top of the screen which can be quite annoying at times epically if you're trying to look for clues. I want to scroll up to get that clue. No. Wait. Inventory time. Next Puzzle, trying to solve how to reach the clue with my cursor without opening the inventory. My toughest challenge yet. Objects in the inventory are used to interact with some of the environment in order to solve puzzles and this is done quite easily. Oh and how aptly named is the return to game command Back To Hell? Because that’s exactly where you go.

 

Cult Classic?

Given the new found popularity Limbo of the Lost has gained over recent weeks this may go down as a cult classic. However that’s not to say that the game is so bad it's good, the game is so bad it's an insult.

Majestic Studios should not only pull the game from the shelves, if it had any decency it would erase the entire Limbo of the Lost process from the mind of anyone unfortunate enough to have played through it. The Plan 9 from Outer Space of games if you will. But make no mistake about it Limbo is a very poor game that never rewards the time that one puts into it.

But whether the game or not is any good is to some extent irrelevant. The developer carried out widespread theft of the work of others and tried to make money from it. Even if the gameplay was good (and believe me it isn't) this game should be erased from the face of the earth. For once I can actually see the point of lawyers (don't get excited Jack, not you). Majestic you really should be ashamed of yourself.



it got a 0/10, wow!

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