Leveling Down

Limbo is a very dark game – in more ways than one

A young boy wakes up in a dark, desolate forest. He blinks twice, then stands up. The eerie sounds of the forest surround him, only to be broken up by the sound of his footsteps as he embarks on a long, dangerous journey. This is the world of Limbo.

If I had my druthers, I would still be playing Starcraft. But for you – the readers – I made a small $15 dollar investment in the indie title Limbo on XBLA, a game by Playdead that burst onto the scene after making big waves amongst indie developers. Was it worth the money and the time away from Starcraft? You’ll have to hit the jump to find out!

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Throughout “winter break”, Steam had been running a monster sale on various PC games, knocking off up to 80% many titles. I must have bought over a dozen games during this sale, but they were so inexpensive at only a few dollars a pop that I really felt like a kid in a candy store. I have to give Valve major props for arranging their crazy holiday sale: I don’t remember the last time I’ve been so excited during the holiday season and I have the Steam sale to really thank for it.

My buying got so bad that I actually wondered to myself if I actually enjoyed buying each game more than actually playing it. After all, it looks like I’m all excited to find new deals, add them to my cart, buy them, but end up not spending too much time playing them. Is this what happens to a hardcore gamer as he gets older?

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The stock market has dropped below 7000 points, people have less disposable income, and video game studios all over the country are filing for bankruptcy or shutting down altogether. Though video games have been touted as “recession-proof”, that really isn’t the case; consumers are buying less titles and taking less risks, staying away from question marks and sticking to sure-fire franchises.

In this first of a two part feature, espion4ge and I have compiled a list of our favorite mainstream titles that you can get under $30 now. If you’re trying to save money and haven’t played these games yet, I’d definitely recommend picking some of them up. In many cases you can buy two of these games for the price of one new title today so if you’ve missed out on some of them, there are great deals to be had.

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Braid was one of many hit titles to release on XBLA in 2008

Braid was developed by Jonathan Blow, an independent game developer. It has been cited as an example of an indie game that is a major success: it was highly rated and tons of people bought it. Jonathan Blow did end up sinking $180,000 of his own money into the project, which tempers the indie triumph, but I think he’s still doing okay for himself.

What Blow has created in Braid is one of the most unique games of 2008. Some people even considered it to be the game of the year – high praise for a Live Arcade title. The game has been praised for its innovative puzzle/platforming gameplay and its deep story. While I for one did not make much sense out of the story, I must say that the gameplay was so slick and satisfying that it didn’t even matter.

Hit the jump for my Blow by Blow review (pun intended!).

The Good
- Innovative gameplay is a mixture of platforming and puzzles
- Puzzles are deep and incredibly satisfying when you solve them
- Music fits perfectly with the game and reacts perfectly to gameplay

The Bad
- After reading tons of forums and racking my brain for hours, I STILL couldn’t make any sense of the story
- Not much replayability once you have solved all of the puzzles
- Can get incredibly frustrating if you can’t figure something out

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