Limbo (Mac OSX)

Limbo has finally found it's way to the Mac after being released on nearly every other platform imaginable. It was originally released on the Xbox 360 in July 2010. Limbo is a puzzle platformer that sees you playing as a boy in a very dark world.

The gameplay is reminiscent of classic puzzle platformers like Another World or the Oddworld series and like those classic games Limbo has a punishing difficulty. Miss that jump by a fraction of an inch or miss-time your run and you could be impaled, crushed or end up the dinner of something big and nasty. Watching your poor character die a thousand deaths is part of the fun of the game but it does get quite frustrating when you are stuck in the same place, seeing him die in the same way. The game sort of counts on the fact that you will get stuck in places because it is very short. Sure it has things to collect and acheivements to unlock but it is over far too quick.

Graphically the game is entirely in black and white which adds to it's overall dark tone. It's really quite creepy; your character is animated in a cute cartoon like fashion but the rest of the world is quite sinister and hostile. The spiders are some of the most terrifying things in the game and when you see one of these coming for you, you will definitely run! The animations of your character dying are also quite brutal; without a doubt this is not a game for children.

The game ran smoothly and I had no problems with bugs under Lion. However the game would constantly crash in Snow Leopard when tabbing out of the game. Overall it is a good game with plenty of strange mechanics (such as brain worms) and a creepy world that does really suck you in but it is far too short to be a premium title 7.5/10.