tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6082533239875181337.post5331041816228189235..comments2023-12-25T02:31:05.991-08:00Comments on Truth, Love, and Courage: Games as Stories: Infernal LogicGreg Kasavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06022059960212889807noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6082533239875181337.post-78311359830133485842010-08-04T14:24:46.187-07:002010-08-04T14:24:46.187-07:00What you said about "hotel" being a red ...What you said about "hotel" being a red herring made me think about it a bit more. Without being to much of a stretch, isn't a hotel just a sort of limbo between home and somewhere you are going? A place that you sleep in fact.<br /><br />Seems like perfect dream-imagery to me. I agree it's not the answer to any big question about the "plot", but it's more like an expression of the game's core premise. Pretty cool if you ask me.enemymousehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09525066208205012865noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6082533239875181337.post-92079749689508088922010-08-04T08:19:30.468-07:002010-08-04T08:19:30.468-07:00Maybe I'm weird (okay, I am, but that isn'...Maybe I'm weird (okay, I am, but that isn't the point), but I never found myself looking for any deeper meaning in the game.<br /><br />For the first third of so of the game I was very interested in the brutality and starkness of the world (along with a strong enough feeling that I wanted to play Another World/Out of This World again that I hunted it down and bought a new copy).<br /><br />During the middle portion of the game I was distracted by the puzzle solving and just let myself be carried along.<br /><br />When the clockwork areas hit I was broken out of my suspension of disbelief in the "reality" of the world. Granted this should have happened much earlier, but there you go.<br /><br />But, again, I didn't really worry about the story (what of it there is) at that point as I figured it would either tie it all up or not as the case may be when I came to the end.<br /><br />For me the end worked perfectly. It was a dream. It doesn't need to be any more complex (or simple) than that. This explains everything. The transitions from grass hills right onto rooftops/city, bananas gravity, impossible mechanical machines and the box that you need to progress being right there for you just when you need it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6082533239875181337.post-72028515495724518692010-08-03T13:44:48.549-07:002010-08-03T13:44:48.549-07:00Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Not everything ...Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Not everything has to have meaning.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6082533239875181337.post-46117334056577673302010-08-03T12:49:57.295-07:002010-08-03T12:49:57.295-07:00I agree, but you could've said all that in jus...I agree, but you could've said all that in just one paragraph. ;)<br /><br />It's not that the game doesn't give any answers, it's the realisation that there are none no matter how hard you look (after being led on).<br /><br />I didn't really mind it much since I had a lot of fun playing and like the mood all the way through, but the game could've been more than highly enjoyable. It could've been a true classic.HaraldChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11429642497718679382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6082533239875181337.post-59002208887518219822010-08-03T11:36:50.948-07:002010-08-03T11:36:50.948-07:00I ended up annoyed with the game for many of the r...I ended up annoyed with the game for many of the reasons you cite. The game raises so many questions, especially in the beginning, that it either drops or never even attempts to answer. About halfway through the game I stopped even trying to figure out what was going on, as I realized the developers either didn't intend meaning in the events or weren't trying to tell a story. So in the end it felt like a puzzle platformer with a cool sense of style and nothing deeper. <br /><br />Wasted potential is mostly what I thought of it. A cool three hour puzzle platformer, a really cool half hour opening setting and style, and nothing more.Justinnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6082533239875181337.post-1331214118192126632010-08-03T11:09:36.346-07:002010-08-03T11:09:36.346-07:00You pretty much described my own feelings towards ...You pretty much described my own feelings towards the game. I loved every second of it, but it left me wanting, no only because I wanted more of it, but because it felt abrupt - and maybe more because of lack of skill than narrative genius.<br /><br />As for the description of "the boy looking for his sister", I highly doubt that it was the studio's intention to have that around. Having this premisse (which in no way is held as truth by the game) narrows greatly your view upon that world, and takes way much of the interpretation you could make otherwise, even if you don't believe that description to be true.<br /><br />Again, I loved Limbo from begining to end, it's one of those games that gives you hope to the medium in general. But it could've been so much more.Heitor De Paolahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09575992906319146649noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6082533239875181337.post-11791988038651984522010-08-03T11:09:13.133-07:002010-08-03T11:09:13.133-07:00Nice writeup, Greg! I freakin loved this game, and...Nice writeup, Greg! I freakin loved this game, and really enjoyed how open-ended its interpretations could be. In fact, I thought that the XBLA "packaging" did the game a disservice by identifying the girl as the little boy's sister - that was never stated by the game, and so I treated her more as an abstraction.<br /><br />So, here's my take, for what it's worth - the boy is in the limbo between childhood and manhood. As he seeks maturity by giving up his self to be in the company of another person (a lover, a friend, doesn't matter), he must make his way through the trials of powerless childhood, to slowly evolve beyond his boyhood and become a man. <br /><br />So, he must relive his childhood fears one by one in the order he feared them - starting with bugs, spiders, eventually mastering that fear by pulling off the spiders' legs... Then on to other boys, the cruelty of other children (further "other"-ized by their lack of eyes), they shoot darts at him and won't let him into their clubhouse. Then the fear of leaving home, of displacement (the hotel), and eventually to the sorts of things that older boys play with - sawblades, magnets, deadly toy machine guns. All before finally throwing himself through the glass and arriving at the feet of another person, a woman who until then had been unaware of his existence.<br /><br />Of course, it's imperfect, and there are any number of other equally valid interpretations. Denis Farr wrote a <a href="http://vorpalbunnyranch.wordpress.com/2010/07/26/before-limbo/" rel="nofollow">cool take</a> over at Vorpal Bunny Ranch, and <a href="http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2010/07/limbo-review-xbox-360.html" rel="nofollow">my own review</a> at Paste was easily the most opaque game review I've yet written... it seemed odd to write very much about the game itself.<br /><br />I love that Limbo leaves so much up to the player, and hope to see more games like it in the future. Cheers on the thoughtful post, man!Kirk Hamiltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18394119073986661595noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6082533239875181337.post-83157538387762005792010-08-03T11:03:38.181-07:002010-08-03T11:03:38.181-07:00I didn't read a story or plot into the game, r...I didn't read a story or plot into the game, really, though its progression from natural and alive to mechanical and impersonal left its own symbolism in my head. The influence of German Expressionist films seems quite heavy in the game, and as such, a lot of it seems more based on symbolism than actual story with a logical progression, which leaves it as an open playing field for how we interpret both the discrete parts and how it all fits as a whole.<br /><br />It's been almost as enjoyable reading peoples' interpretations as it has been to play the game itself (the latter still wins out, though).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6082533239875181337.post-28911978878983206132010-08-03T09:08:42.409-07:002010-08-03T09:08:42.409-07:00I think for me, the fact that I had just seen Ince...I think for me, the fact that I had just seen Inception colored my perceptions of Limbo. I don't know if you've seen Inception but it was a film I found utterly fascinating and yet too cold and mechanical to truly involve me. It also felt truly video-gamey to me in a way very few films if any have, and I came away from it thinking that it was the first film I'd seen that may have worked better if it had been conceived from the ground up as a game. Limbo, to me, worked as a kind of dreamworld in a way that the supposed "dreams" of Inception never did--Limbo's shadowy figures, huge, terrifying spiders and other dangers all had a kind of psychological simplicity to them that suggested they could represent just about anything. And I feel that there's a remarkable parallel between the questions I was left asking at the end of both Limbo and Inception--"Is this real? And does it matter?" Of the two, I was more satisfied with the way Limbo brought me to that point.Carohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13327065368858978514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6082533239875181337.post-35935891453699920422010-08-03T08:45:02.404-07:002010-08-03T08:45:02.404-07:00I wanted meaning. I wanted purpose. I wanted a sto...I wanted meaning. I wanted purpose. I wanted a story. Limbo gave neither of that, but I guess I had some fun playing it. Puzzles were good.<br /><br />That's all I can say about that game...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com