Hello!
Today we're in a... Limbus!
Limbus is a 40-45 minutes mystery/horror adventure by Sir X, realized in two weeks with RPG Maker VX Ace for the 2013 All Hallow´s Event.
The game is a linear tale about Albus, the albino, that in january, 12th of 1649 is living all alone inside the cabin in a secluded are near the woods. He is ostracized by the inhabitants of the village and bullied by the younger ones, except for the fisherman, that apparently is his only friend. Suddenly on this night someone sneak inside his humble house and leaves him a message. This is an invitation to cross the forest and reach the top of the nearby mountain... and so the mysterious tale begins!

The game is a sort of short adventure in which we can manage few items through a custom made inventory that also let us to save when using a particular kind of item. It's very simple and minimalist, but not bad, what instead is very bad is the glitched puzzle ad the peak of the mountain, where a window opens but you cannot input anything! Luckily thanks to a glitch (a lucky error! Otherwise we'd be stuck here) you can bypass it, reaching the interactive spot from behind!


Well, I'd rather not, I am not superstitious, but if I must...

The second part of the game sees our outcast hero going to the village, where people seems to be dead or transformed into flesh eating cannibals. Here beware of another bug: when the chase section starts DO NOT exit the village or the old guy will stay on the spot effectively blocking the path to progress. And if you are killed you will restart outside the village, and no, he won't move.
The third part has Albus reaching the house of the mayor on his island and face him about the truth... but I'm not going to spoil anything more!

Glitches and bugs aside (well just the two I mentioned before) there are also some minor problems in this game: the first is mapping, that starts ok, the cabin and the forest are competently made (with snow falling and footprints left on the ground), but as you go on all will fall apart. The village is pretty meh, with roadblocks to prevent you to access some paths (so you only have one choice), the cannibals are also not aggressive except for the first one, but ok. The mayor's mansion is even worse as it suffers of the "big empty rooms syndrome", and also the room when you finally encounter him is a joke. Really. It's a pity because I cannot take seriously these parts, even if I overlook the errors in the dialogues (dev is german, so english is not the first language, but again, not a big problem here).

For some reason the option to run/dash is disabled in some areas, and while it make sense enabling it during the chase sequence, it's a pain traversing huge empty rooms at a slow walking speed! Another issue is that apparently only some items are interactable: some of of the doors in the village, but not all, some forniture, but not all. Again, nothing problematic (like the bugged puzzle or the bugged chase of course), but still something that betrays a certain lack of polish.
What is instead VERY good is the music: it's unsettling and atmospheric, and from the credits it looks like the the developer made it! Well, that's the best aspect, and it starts right from the beginning of the story inside the forest... pity that after that all falls apart.


Well yes, living in a community of flesh-eating peasants is not a good thing!

Final Verdict
Limbus is a game that with some little care could have been much better. The story is... well I do not want to spoil but it's a bit disappointing, very brief and makes little sense (but I know, it's made to shock, of course), apparently there are three endings that can be earned depending of Albus' behaviour during the game (you have some choices when you encounter some lost boys inside the forest and at the pond with the statue).
In the end this is a disappointing (and bugged) game, the only redeeming quality is the music and the atmosphere in some areas, but if you are looking for a short cool mystery/horror adventure, please look somewhere else!