Amidst the thunder of gunfire, the roar of engines, the clanging of swords, and the eye widening graphics of the games shown at PAX East was the colorless, grainy, and quiet Limbo. 

Now available as the first title of Xbox Live’s Summer of Arcade, Limbo is an indie platformer/puzzler that is completely black and white and also, except for some environmental sounds, silent. 

The title screen and pause menus give off the atmosphere of an old movie or filmstrip, with the “MMX” copyright and even the block letter font that is used.  Starting it up you immediately realize that, aside from the film grain and lack of color, the game certainly does not continue the old film aesthetic. 

You are a young boy who wakes up in the woods and, according to the description when purchasing the game, you’re looking for your sister.  If you don’t read that description, which, again, isn’t even in the game, you’ll never know what’s going on.  Not that it matters.  All you can do is move, jump and perform various actions that are all controlled by one “action button.” 

Of course it’s not going to be a walk in the park (or woods in this case) and instead you’ll end up having to figure out ways of getting past obstacles and traps.  If the top notch game play doesn’t keep you moving forward through Limbo, then motivation will come from trying to find the answer to the question “who or what are setting all these traps?” 

This game is gorgeous in it’s own special way, but where it really shines are these various roadblocks.  Instead of being frustrating, they’re all incredibly creative.  In fact, there were many times where I would finally figure out a way past something, only to discover that immediately after it was another trap, and instead of throwing my controller in anger, I would laugh at the cleverness of it.

Unfortunately this is where the game has its biggest flaw, in that for about 90% of these traps you have to fall into them to really discover where they are and how they work.  The only real way to get through this game without error is to have already played through it once.  There are so many checkpoints too that dying doesn’t feel like a penalty, it’s just an immediate “hey, try again.” 

This, by no means, is a deal breaker.  In fact this only extends the longevity of the game, encouraging more error-free playthroughs.  Speaking of death, this game is surprisingly graphic.  Even though your character is just a young boy, don’t be surprised to have your head lopped off a few times before reaching the end of your quest.

Another complaint would be the controls.  They feel a little heavy and delayed.  Also the price of$15.00 is a little much for what it is.

Limbo is gorgeous in a simplistic way, it’s fun, it’s even a little intriguing, but more importantly, it’s easily a must buy.