what is this? looks creepy :D

looks good (and very very creepy)

I like the dark atmosphere.

Love these kind of platformers. I'll keep my eyes out for this.

LATEST IMAGES

View all 11 images

LATEST VIDEO

View all 2 videos

March 27, 2010 - Limbo is one of those games that makes everyone stop and say, "Whoa, what is that?" as soon as they see it. It's a 2D puzzle platformer with a haunting black and white aesthetic. We instantly liked it when we first played it at the Game Developers Conference a few weeks ago, and today we got to play through a new section of the game here at PAX East. Limbo won the award for Technical Excellence at this year's Independent Games Festival and is one of our most anticipated Xbox Live Arcade titles.

When we last saw the boy with the white eyes (the star of Limbo), he had used a bear trap to chomp off the legs of a giant spider blocking his way. Today we continued from that point into an underground cave area where it looked like some mining was being done. The first thing you encounter is a group of children running into a pond and drowning themselves. Are they fleeing from something? Are they insane? Limbo is a pretty grim game.

We came to a pit that was being watched by a giant slab of concrete hanging overhead. A tripwire lined the bottom of the crater and would release the rock above if we jumped into it. So we headed back to the dead kids floating in the pond, dragged one of their bodies to the pit, and threw them in.

Next, we were chased by some mean kids with blow darts. Perhaps this is what the other children were running from. Deeper in the mine we could see giant gears rotating in the background.

And then we met the Somber Worm. This little invertebrate drops from the cave ceiling onto the boy's head and limits his ability to move. As long as it is attached the boy can only run in one direction, but every time you encounter bright light it will burn the worm and allow you to change your trajectory. By exploiting the worm's weakness you can maneuver the boy underneath some hanging creatures that will happily pick it off the top of your head for a snack.

Our hero, the boy with the white eyes, approaches the Somber Worm.

Limbo's developer describes the gameplay as "trial by death." You will die many, many times during the game, but hopefully you will learn from your deaths. The developer doesn't want it to be frustrating, and it hasn't been for us, so far. On the contrary, it's usually a delightful surprise to be decapitated or impaled out of nowhere. The basic flow of gameplay seems to be: encounter a puzzle, be killed by it, and then respawn right before it with an idea of how to get past it.

You should definitely keep Limbo on your radar. For now, check out our new offscreen gameplay videos in the gallery.

No release date?

I'm creeped out. Very cool, I have to say XBLA does have a pretty damned good selection of titles.

wow im impressed
gonna keep an eye on this

watching this intently now