Limbo

Limbo is the predecessor to Playdead Studio's @inside . I wish I had played this one first and Inside second, but realistically, the order doesn't matter. They have a few stylistic similarities and the controls are virtually identical, but they aren't really tied together in any way that seems to matter. Though there is a third game in the works, I wonder if they might tie everything together one day.

Limbo taught me early on to follow two completely unwritten rules; take your time and be observant. Look at everything, time everything, see the loops, listen to the sound cues, see the things that could be interactive. You aren't punished severely for failing a puzzle the first time or the 101st time, but when a solution clicks you want to kick yourself for not seeing it sooner and not following the rules. This is another short, suspense/thriller built around a puzzle platformer and everything just works so well together. You can see the building blocks for Inside hidden in everything you do.

One thing I really liked was the ability to track my progress by looking at the Chapter List. As you progress you can always start at any of the completed chapters, so you knew as you were nearing the end. It made the game feel completable when you were stuck on a particularly difficult to solve task.

Definitely pick this and Inside up, but play this one first.