Joe Gamer

…a boy enters Limbo.

So goes the only story you get from the new Xbox Live Arcade game Limbo.  Released July 21, 2010, Limbo is a minimalistic puzzle platformer that is a dark, often violent take on the theological idea of “Purgatory,” or “Limbo,” as well as a boy’s love for his sister.  I am not using hyperbole when I say Limbo is one of the best games I’ve played in the past couple of months.  Its dark, silhouette heavy art style and pared down control scheme make this little game from Playdead Studios as much of an experience as a game.

As the game begins, our young hero’s white eyes flicker as he lay in a dreary forest.  He stands and the player urges him forward.  There is no fanfare, no opening scene.  Just the overwhelming sense of “wrongness” as you guide the child through the empty woods toward an unknown and likely violent fate.  The statement above (“Uncertain of his Sister’s Fate a Boy enters Limbo”) is taken from the download screen, not mentioned in the game at all.  The lack of story is one of the huge draws for the game which is odd since I play games almost specifically for the story.  Just knowing the bit about the sister intrigued me and made me want to see the boy’s journey through desolation.

The art of the game is beautiful, every scene akin to a black and white painting.  The screen darkens here and there depending on the mood of the particular area (dark and darker) giving Limbo a claustrophobic feel as you, the player, wonder what horrifying fate hides in the shadows for the boy.  Locales change once in a while, starting in the forest the boy wakes in on to what seems to be a city and then to a factory setting.  There is no other form of life except that which desires the boy’s death.  From silhouetted children that try to kill you with cleverly placed traps to the scariest spider I have ever encountered in a game, the denizens of Limbo are lethal and uncaring, paralleling the nature of the world in general.

Limbo’s gameplay is part puzzler, part platformer.  No jumping on monster’s heads or shooting lasers, the boy simply has to figure out how to get from point A to point B.  This is accomplished with the simple use of the “A” button to jump and the “B” button as a universal “action” button for hitting switches and pulling levers.  Limbo definitely has a difficulty curve, with few stumpers at the beginning.  However, as I entered the last portion of the game I had to pull out the walkthroughs to try and make sure I could make it through.  The brilliance of the game is that I’m sure someone cleverer than me would have made it fine.  Several of the more hair-pulling puzzles were solved by standing on the other side of the object I was using, or trying that one thing I hadn’t tried yet.

The payoff, the climax is brilliant.  Without spoiling the ending, the event after the final chapter is a watershed moment, simple enough to give you a feeling of completion, but the event itself is enough to spark (and has sparked) a multitude of internet debates on what the heck just happened.  Watch after the credits.  The background moved me in a way that was not entirely pleasant, though I admit feeling torn like that from a video game does much for the industry’s desire to be art.  This game is art, no questions asked.

In conclusion, Limbo is absolutely worth it.  The price is a little steep (1200 Microsoft points) but the experience of having played it was well worth the asking price.  Will I play it again?  Probably, for completion’s sake (there’s an achievement for dying 5 times or less.  It’ll be tough), and the game’s 5 to 6 hour play time makes an additional play through entirely possible.  As I increasingly desire games that give me a full experience in a short sitting, Limbo was well worth the time and money.

TinyRating: 9 (9 is an excellent game that has at most one or two minor flaws that prevent it from being “perfect”)

© 2010, Jeff Hollingsworth. All rights reserved.

I have to admit that I haven’t played Magic the Gathering in a very long time. In fact I have sold a lot of our Magic the Gathering collection. The collectible card game was just too much to keep up with when I went back to school. Having a full-time job and full-time school work just didn’t leave much room to learn new rules that were released with each new set.

When M10 was released, I bought a pre-constructed deck that came with an unopened booster pack. Inside that booster pack was a Baneslayer Angel that I later sold on eBay for $30. Needless to say, my interest in new Magic the Gathering cards was renewed. I bought more M10 but never pulled another Baneslayer Angel. I did buy a few packs of the next set but didn’t enjoy it as much as the core set.

So I’ve learned that I really do like the MTG core sets much better than the expansions. The expansions seem to always have these funky rules that I don’t care to comprehend. The core sets seem to stick as close as possible to the basic rules. Also with M11 I have more chances to pull another cool rare card that hopefully bring me big bucks to pay for even more cards.

© 2010, Lynn Little. All rights reserved.

I DM a homebrew DnD 3.5E campaign on Wednesday nights and occasionally someone cannot show. When it is our host or I who cannot show, there just isn’t a game. When it is one of the other players however, we typically game. Our most recent game was canceled because the current adventure is supposed to highlight the two rogues in the group and the primary one could not show. It is always disappointing to call an entire game. I considered running a one-off for the other players, but I don’t want to get too far away from the central story. I joked to the other players via IM chat that they should all take the Leadership Feat like the character Clay, and then when someone doesn’t show the players could all play a follower or cohort on the side. At this point I realized that Clay, with a 19 Leadership Score, has nearly fifty low level followers (40 1st; 4 2nd; 2 3rd; 1 4th; 1 5th). Currently the group is half a continent away from their base of operations, but that doesn’t mean things stand still at home. With that in mind we gathered for a night of character creation.

We have five players in addition to the DM, so when one is missing we need four characters. Clay’s 19 Leadership Score provides exactly 4 2nd level characters, and I thought this was perfect. During the course of the night we created the 4 2nd level characters, 2 1st level characters, 1 4th level character, and 1 5th level character. Additionally, Mori’s protege was detailed as was a hireling for Kitty!

Now when someone can not game, we don’t have to continue the main story without them, we can pick up a side game in the same story with characters that add depth, pathos, and (dare I say?) verisimilitude to the story. Most importantly it spares us an otherwise boring Wednesday evening.

Do any of you do anything similar for your canceled games?

© 2010, Joseph Little. All rights reserved.

Your friend Jeff here with the scoop on a new RPG I played when I went to Mobicon a few weeks ago.  Having gone to play 4e DnD but having not signed up for Living Forgotten Realms (the official Wizards Realms campaign) in time, Elizabeth (the Queen of the Tiny Kingdom) and I went looking around, checking out the cool gamer merchandise.  While we were skulking about we ran into a booth run byThe Wandering Men promoting a game called Untold, a card based role playing game I’d only heard of in the periphery.  We had some time before anything was going to go on, so when one of the team members mentioned he was doing a demo, we both agreed pretty heartily.  The first game was a lot of fun with my character freaking out on the rest of the party and the big barbarian guy throwing a charmed enemy at something we needed that was out of reach.  The game was so much fun we ended up playing in another demo the next day and would have played more if not for some of the other activities at the con.  Needless to say we enjoyed ourselves quite a bit.

To explain, Untold is, like I said, a card based role playing game.  It’s a tabletop RPG in the vein of Dungeons and Dragons, but all the player needs is a deck (representing your character) and one 20-sided die.  When making a character, the players assembled a deck of cards like in Magic the Gathering or games like it based on an amount of Untold Points as determined by the GM.  Each card has a value in Untold Points so if the GM declares you have 30 points to make a character, you have that much to use.  Each card represents something about your character.  There is the Race card that gives you the basic stats for your race and type, Aspect cards that increase each stat (Body, Mind, Spirit) and then the Swap Cards.  There is Story Swap (you must either have a story for the card or fulfill something in the story to acquire it), Site Swap (have to be somewhere or have something specific to use it), and Time Swap cards (takes an amount of time to equip, use, or ready the item or action).  It is important to not use all up all your UP with these cards because there is another set of cards you can have call Hot Swap cards that represent actions or spells that aren’t always active.  If you have 25 UP used toward a 40 maximum, you can use Hot Swap cards up to 15 UP.

The cool thing about Untold is everything is story based.  Your Apoc Churl (human barbarian, essentially) has a powerful tribal bow?  How did you get it?  Questions like that are essential to gameplay.  Let’s take an example real quick.  My first game I played a steampunk robot called a Klik Roller.  One of my Swap cards was “Diplomatic.”  After a series of embarrassing situations and harassment from the other players, I asked the GM if I could remove my Diplomatic card.  My character was stressed to the point of breaking and decided he had enough and was no longer Diplomatic.  Because of the freeing of some UP by removing the card, I was able to increase one of my Aspect cards to have higher stats.  But only because I could justify it in the story.

Untold is very customizable for both the GM and the player (giving it Untold possibilities!  See what I did there?).  I bought a bunch of cards and plan on buying some more.  I have a character in mind that I’ve already written up a story for and have a pretty good idea of the cards I’d use too.  It’s very easy.  I hope to do more articles on the game as I get more in to it and after we play it some.  The full rules are on Untold’s website along with setting information and a very helpful forum.

© 2010, Jeff Hollingsworth. All rights reserved.

Google is celebrating Pack-Man’s 30th anniversary with a very special logo. Just go to Google.com and wait for the game to load. Then press ‘insert coin’ to play. Once it loads, press insert coin for two-player action with Ms. Pac-Man.

Of all the various logos Google has showcased, this one has to be my favorite.

© 2010, Lynn Little. All rights reserved.