The Story behind Limbo

Limbo is a puzzle platformer developed by Playdead and released on the Xbox in 2010. Since then the game has been ported to other platforms like PC and Playstation. The minimal style and story add to the overall mood of the game but in true Playdead style there is a deeper meaning to this game.

Beware Spoilers ahead!

On the surface

At first glance Limbo looks like an innocent platformer with puzzle elements. The game starts with your character waking up. Our character is totally black, with the only distinguishing thing being his glowing eyes. This innocent looking boy starts walking, only to find himself in a hostile environment where everything and everyone seems out to kill him.
The first time that you encounter a bear trap is also when you start to realize that this is not a kiddie game. Throughout the game you will die a lot and a lot of those deaths will be very gruesome.

What does it all mean?

Limbo is a place between life and death and the title is one of the first clues to understanding the game. Long story short, your character is dead (shocker) and the place he woke up in is Limbo, or better said his own personal version of hell. Everything you see on your journey through Limbo has a meaning. You will travel through different kinds of landscapes, a forest, an underground area, a city and an industrial area. These stages represent one's journey through life.

• The forest
  Is representative for childhood. The forest is home to young children's biggest fears like a giant Spider. The forest is littered with bear traps that are designed to stop the boy's progress (remember this because this is a also a clue to the story).

• the Underground area
  Is representative for the teen years. Here the boy faces adversaries around his own age that are out to get him.

• The city area
  Is representative for adulthood. The city is a sordid place with a sleazy hotel. Which is a symbol for one's first experience with adult relationships

• The industrial area
  Is representative for the later years in life. With grinding machinery and automated conveyor belts, this area is symbol for the mundane and the routine.

The End....?

When you solve the last and one of the most challenging puzzles at the end of the industrial area, you crash through a barrier.
I believe that crashing through the barrier is you escaping Limbo. In the final scene the boy is finally finds the one he was looking for, a girl who is most likely his sister or girlfriend.
For the biggest clue in the game we have to compare the beginning and the end.

As you can see in this picture of the main menu, the ladder of the treehouse is broken, there are flies buzzing around and something is lying in the grass. When you start the game it is something that is easily overlooked.

Here you see the end scene where the boy at last finds his sister (or girlfriend) and approaches her. You will notice that the tree house is in much better shape and that the ladder is still intact. The girl is kneeling on the ground right around the spot where in the menu we saw something lying on the ground and flies buzzing around it. When the the boy approaches the girl, she looks up but doesn't turn around.

The full story

The boy obviously died, that much is sure and landed in Limbo. He is desperately trying to escape but everything and everyone he encounters is trying to stop him. In the end he escapes Limbo and finds the girl he was looking for at the tree house.
There are many theories about what happens next. My theory is that both our characters are dead. Both the boy and girl landed in their own personalized Limbo. The boy is desperately looking for the girl and finally succeeds in escaping his own version of Limbo and entering hers. The girl never strayed from the treehouse where they died and is kneeling by the spot where the boy died still mourning him.

The next question is, how did they die? This is where things get disturbing. In Catholic theology, Limbo (Latin limbus, edge or boundary, referring to the "edge" of Hell) is a speculative idea about the afterlife condition of those who die in original sin without being assigned to the Hell of the Damned. (source Wikipedia).
So for the boy and girl to be in Limbo they must have committed a sin and it is of my opinion that the sin they committed is suicide. This is why the terrors the boy experiences in Limbo are representations of the things one goes through in life.

So in the end Limbo is a disturbing tale about life and death, the best thing about Limbo is the fact that this tale is not told with cut scenes but by playing the game.

one of the clues pointing to suicide

What do you think of Limbo? Let me know in the comment section.

If you like my posts then click on the image to follow

Recent Posts
Highly Recommended!-Earn Free Coins!