Every game has an interesting story behind its development but I am willing to bet that very few, if any, match the one behind Limbo of the Lost (LotL). Development started way back in the 90s, originally for the Amiga 1200, then for the CD32 and eventually crossed over to the PC. Being an avid adventurer as well as devoted Amiga user in the 90s, it is in utter embarrassment that I admit that I never caught wind of this game back then and it was only a few years ago, during its PC development, that I found out about it. Then, about a year ago, I had the opportunity for a small taste by playing a portion of the game for the needs of a JA+ preview. In that preview I wrote that I was looking forward to a grade A adventure. Have my expectations been met? Well, yes and no. I do not have a definite answer for that and you will have to read on to learn how this became the most complicated review I’ve ever written.

So you have the shiny new box in your hands; eagerly rip-off the shrink wrap, read the well-written and very informative .pdf manual – you always do that first, right? (Uh, yeah, sure we do Aya – Randy) – and prepare to install the game. Stop right there! There is a surprise. A bonus DVD movie! Majestic Studios decided to wander off the beaten “install game, watch intro, start playing” path and put the intro of the game on an extra DVD disk for you to watch separately, wherever you wish – and if you have a nice 50’’ TV/DVD rig, you will certainly be thanking them for that. Along with the intro, the bonus DVD includes scads of extras like artwork, screenshots, insights into the game’s development, etc.: a brilliant and highly original move that has to be praised and hopefully followed. This applies to the G2 Games UK release of the game and I sure hope other publishers that release the game in other areas of the world will follow suit. My biggest fear is that a North American publisher – who is known for chronic DVD-o-phobia – lays their hands on this game and ruins everything by releasing it on x number of CDs with the intro getting lost as an .avi file. Or maybe this will be the game that will snap them out of their primitive ways – fingers crossed.

During the intro, as well as by reading the manual, you learn the background of the story. Brothers Fate and Destiny are fighting again. Destiny believes that man should have a will of their own, while Fate supports that humans should be under his control. The seal to the Book of Sufferance has been broken, and with that book Fate can reign over mankind. Fate summons his four dark generals to aid him in his plans. Destiny brings in a mortal, Captain Benjamin Briggs, to challenge Fate. Captain Briggs is thrown in the Keep of Lost Souls, a place that serves as an in-between stop between the mortal world and the next, carrying nothing but the seal to the Book of Sufferance. His quest is to find the Book and use the seal to put an end to Fate’s dastardly plans. But Captain Briggs will not face his quest alone, he has an Earthly Guide to help him – you.

LotL is a 3rd person point’n’click adventure game. Or should I say it’s 1st person 3rd person? The way the game is presented, you, the player, are part of the game. You do not control Captain Briggs. You see Captain Briggs through your own eyes and guide him – hence, the Earthly Guide. And make sure you don’t slack off, otherwise Captain Briggs gets very impatient and will come-a-knockin’ on your monitor! Overall I would call LotL a black humor adventure, since it features both dark and creepy aspects blended in with lots of humor. Think Tales from the Crypt and you’ll get the idea.

The interface is pretty simple, yet unique in its presentation. Left click tells Captain Briggs to walk around the screen or go through an exit. Double click does nothing unfortunately. I found not being able to run or “teleport” through exits by double clicking a big omission. Thankfully, situations never become dire – and if you’ve played Simon the Sorcerer you got a pretty good idea what that means. Right clicking brings up the Ouija Board, in a nice “electric” effect. Unfortunately – as a result of that effect – the Ouija Board sometimes comes-up in a non working status and has to be closed and re-opened. From the Ouija board, all commands can be given, either to Captain Briggs or to the game (i.e. Save/Load/Quit). There are four commands to Captain Briggs: Take, Examine, Action and Sense. The first two are pretty much self-explanatory, Action is to perform certain actions like open, push etc and Sense is, well, pretty much useless. In very few places in the game you will get some feedback, like sensing a presence behind a door for example, which is never info that you will use, but in the vast majority of cases you will face the repeating feedback line: “No sense, No feeling”. Repeating feedback is one of the weaknesses of the game in general. Where there could have been unique feedback for examining or sensing items, more often than not you get the same lines repeated ad nauseum. Finally, by pressing the letter T subtitles can be turned on or off. Remember this when you start the game.

LotL is divided into six chapters, starting with a Prologue and ending in Chapter 5. Here is where the game becomes something of a mixed bag. Each chapter is a unique area and, with the exception of a couple of recurring characters and some inventory items that are carried over (the rest being disposed of in a pretty violent way), nothing connects it with the previous ones – to the point that if you try to return to chapter 1 from chapter 2 you stumble upon a pretty nasty bug. All of the chapters though feel as though they have been created by different people. This results to some chapters being absolutely excellent, especially 3 and 5, while others are of an inferior level, especially chapter 2. Also, certain chapters have their own sub-stories, making them stand out more as episodes rather than the continuation of a consecutive game. That is not bad though and it works fine with the overall immersion. What really stands out are the differences in gameplay.

Now I don’t mean that the interface changes or that Captain Briggs suddenly grabs a plasma rifle and starts plugging deranged mutants. But there are differences in how the puzzles work as well as the involvement of the characters. In certain chapters for example, puzzles are very logical and fair while other chapters suffer from total cluelessness and, in a couple of instances, extreme pixel hunting. Some chapters feature pretty good puzzle design, while in others the puzzle design leaves much to be desired, especially chapter 4, where there are even hotspots that get activated halfway through the chapter. If there is an item somewhere that comes into play later, the character should make some comment about not yet being able to interact with the object. Not making it a hotspot and then suddenly activating it later is confusing and an example of poor puzzle design. This does not happen in any other chapter though, so you can play without stressing about it. So, in general, while some chapters are really a delight to play, others are a bit of a pain.

The puzzles in LotL are almost 100% of the inventory kind. As mentioned above they range from clever and well-designed, to sloppily put together and frustrating. In their total though the former override the latter by a big margin and if you have the patience to wade through the subpar sections of the game, you will be left with a satisfied feeling. The inventory itself is very well presented. It appears at the top of the screen, when moving the cursor there, with all items in a row, and the ability to scroll through them. By right-clicking on an item you get a close-up view with some nice comments and, sometimes, a subtle hint by Captain Briggs. Just beware of red herrings! Staying on the puzzles, I feel the urge to comment on a certain timed puzzle that is featured in the game. As a rule I hate timed puzzles in adventure games. To me an adventure game means laying back, taking my time to think and enjoy. If I want an adrenaline rush I can pop Resident Evil 4 in my PS2. Somehow though, this particular timed puzzle was so perfectly designed, placed exactly where it needed to be, accompanied by fantastic background music and worked with sufficient clues that made it an absolute pleasure to play through. Thumbs up to Majestic Studios for managing to do this!

As mentioned previously, humor plays an important role in LotL. Yes, Fate may have summoned the dark generals and he may be ready to enslave humanity but that doesn’t mean we have to wallow in total misery over it, does it? Of course not, and Captain Briggs will be the first to keep a chirpy attitude, accompanied by all kinds of bizarre and outrageous characters – one of the game’s strongest points – who add perfectly to the lighthearted feel of the game. And although there are a couple of instances where things feel a little forced, overall the lightheartedness blends in nicely with the bleakness to create a nice black humor ensemble, something that is especially highlighted at the end of the game.

In the visual department LotL follows its mixed bag recipe to the letter, at least when it comes to the backgrounds. Therefore, your eyes will feast on very beautiful scenery in chapter 3 as well as graphics resembling amateur adventure games in chapter 4. The characters are 3D and nicely designed. Turning anti-aliasing on makes things a lot better, but will bring lower-spec machines to their knees at certain occasions. Close-ups of characters when they talk feature some top notch lip syncing. In the sound department the game scores really high. The background music is a pleasure, especially the exquisite intro track. The drawback here is that there is only one background track for each chapter that repeats itself and can become tiresome – but never annoying – after a while. The sound effects are the highlight of the game in the presentation department, from the effects of the Ouija board down to Captain Briggs’ footsteps. Sfx are absolutely brilliant and add volumes to the atmosphere and immersion. I would go as far as to say that LotL is one of the best adventure games in this department in history! Speech follows those high standards. Of course some of the voiceovers are intentionally weird and hard to understand, suiting the characters they belong to, so subtitles are a must, even for native English speakers.

By now you have probably gathered why this was the most complicated review I have ever written. The multiple faces of Limbo of the Lost make it a difficult game to present and, especially, to grade. By breaking it down to each individual chapter I could cover the whole range of JA’s grading system – except for an F of course, which is reserved for absolute turkeys! But we are talking about one game. Grading each chapter and then getting the average doesn’t work either, because the overall feel and satisfaction derived are higher than its worst hours. Good story, nice dark atmosphere with a witty twist, excellent characters and a mixture of great and not-so-great puzzles. In a nutshell, a good adventure game, fun to play, with a few frustrations here and there, but certainly well worth your time.

(LotL is 100% compatible with Windows Vista)

System Requirements:

• Windows 98/2000/XP
• 2Ghz Processor
• 256MB RAM
• 128MB DirectX 9.0 compatible video card
• 16-bit DirectSound compatible sound card
• 8X CD-ROM or DVD drive