Skip to content

Memento Mori

“One girl's adventures in gaming.”

17 June, 2012 Final Words: LIMBO

This entry contains SPOILERS of the game LIMBO.

I, like many people, recently shelled out some money to purchase the amazing Humble Indie Bundle V which includes the game LIMBO. I heard about LIMBO when it was released and while I was intrigued by the concept and art direction, I never gave it a try.
I don’t know why I didn’t give it the attention it deserves because in a matter of days, LIMBO has become one of my favorite games.
I don’t want to go into a full review of the game here but I do want to take the time to go over the ending and the “story” as a whole, which literally kept me up at night trying to interpret.
The creator’s obviously left it open to several interpretations.

The last chapter of the game is real quick and ends “abruptly.” Upon finishing the last gravity puzzle, our protagonist is whisked into a wall of glass. Time slows down as the glass explodes and our Protagonist is thrown back into the forest where he first began his journey. His landing back onto the forest floor is violent and jarring but once his body finally settles, time speeds back up again and the boy slowly stands up.
At this point, noticing the familiar surroundings, I figured the game would start back at the beginning. Meaning there wasn’t an actual “ending” but rather the game just progressed with the boy continuously traveling through Limbo over and over for eternity.
That wasn’t the case though.
The boy starts walking and slowly makes his way up a hill that is lit up with a bright light and there, surrounded in a glow, is his sister kneeling in the grass. Upon noticing her the boy slows down and walks up the hill with careful steps. Oblivious, the sister is bent over a pile on the ground. Picking flowers maybe?
At the foot of the hill the boy stops and watches his sister. Likewise his sister stops what she is doing and looks up, almost startled.
Then the credits roll.

Now, there isn’t really any kind of premise in LIMBO. The player is thrust into the game with no explanation whatsoever as to what is happening.
The only thing I went in knowing about the game is this sentence:

Uncertain of his sister’s fate, a boy enters LIMBO…

Thus, for the majority of the game I was under the impression that the sister had somehow died and a grieving but brave and determined boy set out to find out exactly where his sister had went.
The ending tells me something different though and this was what really got to me.

The boy is dead as well.

Upon seeing the ending and the sister’s response to sensing her brother, I thought that perhaps the boy was the only one who died and the sister, always in a glow of light, was still alive. However, after the credits roll we are greeted with a new title screen. What was once before a backdrop with a ladder leading up to a tree house has been altered. The tree house is now in shambles and the ladder leading up is broken. Where brother and sister were positioned during the final scene are now two indistinct piles with flies flying around them. I’m assuming these indicate the spots where the two children died.

Seeing this made me start considering the story as a whole. Like I stated above, the creators of the game obviously wanted it to be open to interpretations.
I think the most plausible idea is that the children suffered some kind of accident by their tree house. Like perhaps they fell from the tree. The ending when the boy bursts through the last tells me that his death was violent though. I’ve read on forums and such that people think that perhaps he died in a car accident. I could see why just by watching the ending with all the broken glass and the violent way in which the boy lands on the ground but the tree house seemed to be a central point and I really believe the accident occurred there.
Once the boy died, his spirit must have gotten separated with that of his sister’s and his journey through Limbo is not only a journey to the realization that he is dead but also just the longing to reunite with his sister before continuing on to the afterlife.
***
Overall, I was very impressed with this game and while the story is very ambiguous I felt that it was just perfect for the ambiance of the game.
If you haven’t given this game a chance yet, I highly recommend it.
I’m sure I will be spending more time with it and look forward to Playdead’s future titles.

Tags: , , , ,