Preview by: Meghan Watt

You may have heard its title. Maybe you've seen screenshots or checked out the teaser trailer. But until you are alone, hands on the controller, ears cupped beneath a surround sound supporting headset, it's near impossible to understand even an ounce of the experience LIMBO has to offer.

What immediately defines this innovative side-scrolling platformer is the handful of elements it lacks. There's neither music nor the smallest hint of color. There's no dialogue or text. There’s not even a HUD to guide you. There are two buttons: one used to jump and the other to grab—and you, a small boy with chilling white eyes, stranded in a dismal state of limbo where haunting winds and shadows are your only companions.

As I watched PAX East attendees try out the title at PlayDead Games' booth, I thought I had a pretty good handle on the game. I witnessed players prancing through LIMBO and figuring out how to pull a crate into the appropriate place, climb on top of it and leap onto the ledge above. I saw as they pondered how to jostle a bear trap from an out-of-reach branch and stumble over how to avoid those damned kids and their blowdarts.

But as producer Mads Wibroe pointed out, PAX East is the last place people should be playing this game. As a Braid-like puzzler where trial and error is key, the game can be awfully unforgiving to those who just can't get a handle on the solution. You stumble, you die. But even with generous checkpoints, it's difficult to feel comfortable testing out new paths with a crowd judging your every move and laughing the fourth time you saunter right into the same damn trap.

After viewing other players for more than an hour, I almost passed up on the chance to play the game myself. I'd seen a good part of the demo and had already decided that the puzzle elements seemed like a fine challenge and the graphics were indeed different. But obviously, a hands-on preview seemed necessary so I put on the headset and gave it a go.

And everything changed.