Short Take- Puzzle Games

For this weeks short take, I wanted to talk about my favorite type of video game –or actually my favorite type of game in general– puzzle games. I find puzzle games to be a really interesting type of game, one because they can be really difficult to figure out. Portal was the first puzzle video game I ever played –you know, other than simple ones like Tetris– so I just wanted to say, thank you portal. Since playing portal when it was released in 2007, I have played numerous puzzle video games, however none as interesting and difficult as the one I’m going to talk about.

in My favorite puzzle game of all time was released in 2010 on XBox Live Arcade, and has since become an iconic classic. Limbo Is a puzzle-platform video game in which the user plays as a little boy –essentially as the title suggests– trying to escape from limbo. The principle character in the game is a nameless little boy who wakes up in the middle of a forest in confusion, and has to travel through a series of dangerous and haunting places in search of his sister. Throughout the boys journey he encounters other human figures who either try and attack him, run away, or are dead. I remember at one point in the game the boy has to walk across a series of human bodies to get across a river. The game is brutal and haunting in a way similar but different to what one would call “horror genre.” I find the game to be particularly interesting in that the game has no levels, and no ending –again a reiteration of the title. According to the developer of the game, the game was built in a way that would make it nearly impossible for the player to figure out the puzzle before dying at least once. I find this idea interesting, because it forces the player to watch this little boy die over and over again in really brutal ways. The following video shows such an example. It shows the “spider chase” part of the game, which I think literally took me forever to finish without getting killed by the damn spider every single time.

Limbo upon it’s release was given great reception. IGN gave the following review in 2010 upon the games release that I think perfectly characterizes the game as an art form.

“Video games are an art form made up of visuals, sound, and a mysterious little something we call gameplay. Limbo is the perfect example of these three crafts working together in harmony to create something astounding. With no text, no dialogue, and no explanation, it manages to communicate circumstance and causality to the player more simply than most games. This black-and-white 2D puzzle platformer is one of the best games you’ll play this year on any platform.”

I think that the aesthetics of puzzle games are extremely important to the player’s enjoyment of the game. I know I wouldn’t have made it through Portal, Limbo, or the numerous other puzzle games I have played –because honestly, they are really damn frustrating– if they hadn’t been so visually pleasing.

So theres my rand about video games I like. Hope you all enjoyed.

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