I finished the XBox Live Arcade game Limbo the other night and while I mostly enjoyed the experience, I have to say I don’t really get all the praise that this game has been receiving.  Yes, it has a cool appearance to it, and mostly interesting puzzles, but for what I paid for it (1200 MS points, AKA $15), it was way too short.  I finished it in two sittings, roughly three hours in total.

Just take a look at some of the gushing critic reviews at Metacritic, like this quote:

It’s also one of the most essential must-play experiences this generation.
- GameShark

What?  It was cool and all, but even if it was only $2 (which is what I paid for Braid), I still wouldn’t call it a must-play.  I didn’t find any of the puzzles particularly difficult and was able to solve them all relatively quickly.  The “story” is non-existent.  I suppose I could guess as to what’s going on, but I didn’t really care, unlike Braid which kept me interested and driving forward.  I kept playing Limbo for two reasons: I wanted to get my $15 worth, and I kept waiting for the “must-play experiences” to come around.

Perhaps I needed a little more fartsy to go with the artsy, but when my three hours was up with the game and I watched the credits roll up, the only thing I could think to say was, “that was a waste of time.”