Creating Narrative through Mechanics: Taking a Look at Limbo

As I continue this semester to research narrative/ and storytelling  in video games, I've found that the narrative or narrative elements in those games can be anywhere from very complex to very simple, to none at all.  In my last blog, I discussed the role and differences between narrative and mechanics within genre and even if narrative was necessary at all for gaming. In my next blogs,  I want to take a look at a few examples of narrative within video gaming by looking at some games in particular.

 Limbo. For those who haven't heard of it, it's starting to become one of those underground gaming gems finding its way into the mainstream.  I heard of it through one of my friends, who had bought it because at the time, because it was relatively inexpensive as far as games go and there was  a rumor about some of the intensity and shock value of its gameplay. Intrigued, I joined him  and some other friends one evening as they sat down to play it. 

Screenshot from Limbo showing   monochromatic
black-and-white palette,
the use of depth perception in the game,
and the concept of the game's puzzles.

The gameplay is what is referred to as " 2D sidescroller", which means that the play is horizontal and the environment and the character move from left to right across the screen as play continues. But what really is unnerving and interesting is the way that the ambiance and the mechanics of the game tie into the narrative of the story. 

"The game is presented in black-and-white tones, using lighting, film grain effects and minimal ambient sounds to create an eerie atmosphere often associated with the horror genre. Journalists praised the dark presentation, describing the work as comparable to film noir and German Expressionism. Based on its aesthetics, reviewers classified Limbo as an example of video games as art." - Limbo Wiki Page

There are no cutscenes, no in game text. There is a very minimalist style to the game, and players are left alone to figure out the systems of puzzles that block your way of reaching the goal. All that is known is that the character in the game is on his way to find his sister.

 "Limbo is presented through dark, greyscale graphics and with minimalist ambient sounds, creating an eerie, haunting environment. The dark visuals also hide numerous environmental and physical hazards, such as deadly bear traps on the forest floor, or lethal monsters hiding in the shadows, such as a giant spider. Among the hazards are glowing worms, which attach themselves to the boy's head and force him to travel in only one direction unless bright light comes in contact with it, which changes the direction of the player until it is removed by static NPCs. " - Limbo Wiki Page

Screenshot from Limbo

What I found so interesting about Limbo, was the amount of story that I understood with a very limited narrative. There is nothing to guide you through the game, only the vicious and graphic deaths of the character when a puzzle is completed incorrectly, that trigger you to start again in the same location. But I grasped with just the name and the mechanics of the game that the story was supposed to be metaphorical and vague. From the title Limbo, you can already deduce that the main character is probably in the midst of purgatory, but what impressed me the most was that in a puzzle based game, each successive puzzle and section of the story was like traveling through a bleak nightmare, with repetitive tasks and gruesome punishments for not solving the puzzles correctly. Almost like a penance,  where the character and the player complete each puzzle not knowing where the game is going to lead, or what the find result will be. If even if the gameplay has any significant meaning. I think this ties in to the idea of purgatory well, and it is not unreasonable with the horrible and eerie effects and tribulations of the game if ideas of hell and the afterlife become images in the player's mind.

 There is no record of time passing, no night nor day, only the present where the character himself is not even really a person, but more like a shadow, just barely making it through each level, sometimes having repeated each puzzle countless times until the solution is found. There is no way back, only forward. And at the end of the game, there is nothing that states the game has ended, the character only completes the last level to find himself somehow right back at the beginning where he started. All of these subtle clues in the gameplay and environment, allowed my own mind to fill in the narrative that was actually not ever really stated. Even the game's developers have left the story of the game purposefully empty, so as to neither agree nor disagree with critics and players own interpretations. 

Even having watched the gameplay, I still find it hard to describe Limbo. There is something almost poetic about its openendedness that ironically adds so much depth to the game.