It only took me a few minutes to remember what I loved  — and absolutely hated — about Limbo the first time I played it. While it has a fantastic combination of audio and visual aesthetics, the frequent and usually quite gruesome deaths of the character are, well, ridiculous is a good word. They occur with such a regularity that the game often becomes a parody of itself.

While it strives to have this serious presentation and perhaps even act as a meditation on death itself, the background music might as well be Yakety Sax for how quickly it can descend into a series of mutilations, dismemberment, and decapitations. If not for the oppressive tone and minimalist art, the game would be rather comical for its oops, died again moments.

This is actually my second session recently with the game too. In the first, I thought I was recording and was dying at nearly each new threat. After playing for about 30 minutes, I quit and went to check the video only to find out I had only about a few seconds. Starting over, I was able to avoid most of the traps and thus it looks as if I am playing much better than I actually did the first time. (It’s also shorter because I stopped at the same point each time, and it took me less time overall once I remembered where the traps were.)