History VideoGame / LimboOfTheLost

[[caption-width-right:250:"Your darkest dreams" is all too accurate.]]

->''Forget reality. Surrender to your darkest dreams.''

* EasilyForgiven: The Worrymeister in the opening of chapter 3 (Assuming it is the Worrymeister and not just a character with the same model) seems to show no ill will to Briggs despite having a bear trap clamped onto his eyes. Then again, would ''you'' want to pick a fight with the guy who tried to gouge your eyes just to steal a pen?

For one, the game is an "asset flip" almost a decade before [[WebVideo/{{Jimquisition}} Jim Sterling]] coined the term; [[UsefulNotes/{{Plagiarism}} pretty much every background is shamelessly ripped from another game, without so much as a mention or acknowledgment to be found - not even in the credits.]] Secondly, [[PixelHunt the items you need to pick up are often dark in color and hard to make out against the usually-dark backdrops, making progress a chore]] (in one instance, an item is partially obscured ''by your compass'', which can't be taken off of the screen). Third, the game's animation, CGI and otherwise, would look primitive in the late 1980s (the game, by the way, was released in 2008). Fourth, there's a constant whisper of "Join us... Join us... Join us now!" in the background that plays every three minutes or so (shamefully ripped from the ''VideoGame/{{Thief}}'' series).

* RougeAnglesOfSatin: ''Everywhere'' if you turn on the subtitles, such as "curphew" instead of "curfew". Particularly notable because one "clue" in a Chapter 3 relies on an intentional misspelling that Briggs even points out himself.

%%* CrueltyIsTheOnlyOption: You don't need to look so ''happy'' about it, Briggs.

%%* EverythingSoundsSexierInFrench: The dialogue with the French Mystic.

%%* GuideDangIt: Not only that, apparently the developers (posing as a fan, see SockPuppet below) discouraged giving away guides claiming it will "spoil" the fun.

%%* {{Hellhound}}: A trio of them, apparently all named [[FluffyTheTerrible Fluffy]] is encountered in Chapter 1. They have to be fed something to let you pass.

%%* InformingTheFourthWall: In true adventure game fashion. Justified in that the player serves as Briggs's in-game "[[FromBeyondTheFourthWall earthly guide]]" who tells him what to do.

%%* LosingYourHead: Ed the Head.

%%* MoonLogicPuzzle: The puzzles often make little sense. The "Soul Vial" puzzle is only the most notorious offender.

%%* MundaneMadeAwesome: Sawdust!!... Sawdust!!... Sawdust!! Yes, you guessed it, it's sawdust!!

%%* ObfuscatingDisability: [[spoiler:Miss Blackley isn't deaf... no reason why.]]

%%* RougeAnglesOfSatin: ''Everywhere'' if you turn on the subtitles. If you can't get those to work (likely), go into your inventory and read your item descriptions.

%%* SinisterSubway: In Chapter Four.

%%* SummationGathering: When revealing who the murderers are at the end of Chapter 3.

%%* SoreLoser: Fate, lampshaded by his brother Destiny.
%%* TheStinger: Fate and Destiny talking.

* EasilyForgiven: The Worrymeister in the opening of chapter 3 (Assuming it is the Worrymeister and not just a character with the same model) seems to show no ill will to Briggs despite having a bear trap clamped onto his eyes. Then again, would you want to pick a fight with the guy who tried to gouge your eyes just to steal a pen?

--> '''Briggs:''' Why are you in that cage?
--> '''Nilmates:''' I was putting Grunger off his food.
--> '''Briggs:''' How?
--> '''Nilmates:''' Well, to be quite honest, I do think it may have been my bodily emanations.
--> '''Briggs:''' Sorry?
--> '''Nilmates:''' Well, you know, my sort of [[SesquipedalianLoquaciousness odoriferous redolence]].
--> '''Briggs:''' What???
--> '''Nilmates:''' I stink!
--> '''Briggs:''' Oh.

* IdleAnimation: If you leave Briggs alone for long enough, he'll tap on the screen and tell you to get moving.

* UnfortunateNames: One of the characters you can encounter during the prologue is Cranny ''Faggot''. Her name is quite possibly derived from that of celebrity chef and CausticCritic Fanny Cradock. Amusingly, which of those two names is more unfortunate depends on which side of the Atlantic you're on.

And whatever you do, do not confuse it with ''VideoGame/{{Limbo}}'', which is like the exact opposite of "bad" by many people's standards.

* GainaxEnding: Really, the whole game is one long MindScrew, but the ending is particularly weird even by the rest of the game's standards. [[spoiler:After you successfully manage to stop the 4 horsemen of apocalypse from killing Briggs, all of a sudden he ends up wandering into a party set up in his honor by almost every character in the game, followed by everyone singing a song about how Briggs should be the King of Limbo. No explanation is given on how and why this happens.]]

%%* {{Backtracking}}: You'll be doing ''a lot'' of this, over a bunch of mind-numbingly similar screens, in Chapter 1.

%%* DisproportionateRetribution: Grunger's big on this.

%%* EndlessCorridor: Lots, thanks to the CopyAndPasteEnvironments.

%%* GainaxEnding: Really, the whole game is one long MindScrew, but the ending is particularly weird even by the rest of the game's standards.

--> '''Nilmates:''' Well, to put it bluntly, I stink!

%%* CaptainObvious: Briggs, ([[ICantUseTheseThingsTogether at least when he doesn't just default to "MMMMMMMmmmmmmm interesting"]]).
%%--> ''(You tell Briggs to Look at an object named Water Fountain.)''
%%--> '''Briggs:''' It's a water fountain.

--> ''(You tell Briggs to Look at an object named Water Fountain.)''
--> '''Briggs:''' It's a water fountain.

* TimedMission: [[spoiler:The final puzzle in the game gives you a limited amount of time to save Briggs from the Sins. Run out and you get the bad ending. However even this is sloppily done, as the timer actually doesn't move and will only drop for a fixed amount of times whenever you enter or leave one of the Seven Sins' chambers. So it's less about running out of time and more like "know exactly what to do and when."]]

* TheWorfEffect: [[spoiler: During the climax of Chapter 3 the Soul Taker, who previously has killed many people with ease, stands perfectly still roaring and screeching while Briggs takes his time to pull out the glass box, put the candle inside, lit the candle and slowly countdown before trapping him inside said box. This makes the Soul Taker look like a moron, and Briggs like a MartyStu.]]

* {{Backtracking}}: You'll be doing ''a lot'' of this, over a bunch of mind-numbingly similar screens, in Chapter 1.

* BareYourMidriff: Mrs [=DoGood=] and the Mystic French woman.

* CaptainObvious: Briggs tends to weer into that territory half the time when you tell him to Look at something ([[ICantUseTheseThingsTogether at least when he doesn't just default to "MMMMMMMmmmmmmm interesting"]]).

* CardCarryingVillain: All the members of the Cult who summoned the Soul Taker in Chapter 3. [[spoiler: It is mentioned that they need seven souls for something, which doesn't make any sense since one of them, O'Negus, already has a large collection of souls in his possession.]]

* CrueltyIsTheOnlyOption: You don't need to look so ''happy'' about it, Briggs.

* DarkWorld: The entire setting, as it's supposed to be some kind of... symbolic... thing. It's also a dark world of the various video games from which it's plagiarized.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Grunger's big on this.

* EndlessCorridor: Lots, thanks to the CopyAndPasteEnvironments.

* EyepatchOfPower: One of the items which has no use whatsoever.

* EveryoneComesBackFantasyPartyEnding: See GainaxEnding below.
* EverythingSoundsSexierInFrench: The dialogue with the French Mystic.

* GainaxEnding: Really, the whole game is one long MindScrew, but the ending is particularly weird even by the rest of the game's standards.

* GuideDangIt: Not only that, apparently the developers (posing as a fan, see SockPuppet below) discouraged giving away guides claiming it will "spoil" the fun.

* {{Hellhound}}: A trio of them, apparently all named [[FluffyTheTerrible Fluffy]] is encountered in Chapter 1. They have to be fed something to let you pass.

* InformingTheFourthWall: In true adventure game fashion. Justified in that the player serves as Briggs's in-game "[[FromBeyondTheFourthWall earthly guide]]" who tells him what to do.
* {{Irony}}:
** The option for "Resume the game" on the Pause menu is "BACK TO HELL".
** Considering that most of the content was ''already'' pirated anyway, pirating the game itself probably counts as poetic justice.

* LetsPlay:
** Wields-Rulebook-Heavily [[http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=400406 takes a bullet for the team]] and plays the game so you don't have to.
** And [[http://lparchive.org/Limbo-of-the-Lost/ The Dark Id as well.]]
** Vinny of ''WebVideo/{{Vinesauce}}'' played the game in one of his more popular streams. The highlights can be found [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPe1GqeeDr4 here]], while the full stream can be watched [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-H4wu30Sks&list=PLlc94szfcNDHdHdZewnAvKeBXWYZVGdtT here]].

* LosingYourHead: Ed the Head.
* MeaningfulName: Mr and Mrs [=DoGood=].
* MoonLogicPuzzle: The puzzles often make little sense. The "Soul Vial" puzzle is only the most notorious offender.

* MsFanservice: The French Mystic goes around in a metal bikini. Kinda stands out compared to the clothing off all the other residents. Alas, she barely makes the experience bearable.
* MundaneMadeAwesome: Sawdust!!... Sawdust!!... Sawdust!! Yes, you guessed it, it's sawdust!!

* NominalHero: Alright, Briggs is supposed to be humanity's last hope and greatest hero. [[SociopathicHero Why]], [[SmugSnake exactly]]?

* ObfuscatingDisability: [[spoiler:Miss Blackley isn't deaf... no reason why.]]

* PixelHunt: UpToEleven. Have fun locating a splinter of wood on a wooden desk! Or a thin scrap of dark cloth on a pitch-black background, with the pen-line-thin width facing the screen!

* RefugeInAudacity: Possibly invoked, but it didn't work out for them. These guys blatantly stole from mega-blockbuster video games and a couple of summer action movies ''and weren't instantly sued into the ground,'' and still managed to get published ''twice?'' That'd be amazing if it weren't so ''very, very stupid.''
* RougeAnglesOfSatin: ''Everywhere'' if you turn on the subtitles. If you can't get those to work (likely), go into your inventory and read your item descriptions.
* SequelHook: After the ending, there's TheStinger and the title card for ''Limbo of the Lost II: Flight to Freedom'', which thankfully never came out.
* SevenDeadlySins: In Chapter 5, there are seven doors corresponding to the seven deadly sins, each of them with a narmy looking goblin's head on it whose facial expression mirrors the sin it's representing. They are also ColourCodedForYourConvenience. [[spoiler: Apparently they're the hooded wraiths that capture Briggs near the end, forcing you to save him, though since only four appear on screen they could as well be the Horsemen.]]
* [[ScrewDestiny Screw Fate]]: Benjamin is the pawn of Destiny, who favors free will and is in a contest against [[YouCantFightFate Fate]]. Incidentally, this may ''also'' be a ripoff, this time of the ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' series.

* SilenceYouFool: One of the characters you meet early in the game says that.
* SinisterSubway: In Chapter Four.
* SmallNameBigEgo: Steve Bovis, the project leader, to quote, "My job is to put the game together and create all the visuals, coding, sounds, models, marketing and basically make the game flow and work. As well as manage and try to motivate the team. A job that is hard enough at the best of times!" Yet the result shows all too well.
* SmugSnake: Alas, Briggs himself will swing between making ridiculously dumb-looking faces and smugly grinning with superiority at will. This is evident during the climax of Chapter 3.
* SnowMeansDeath: It always snows on Darkmere, though the air is not cold (according to Briggs anyway). [[spoiler: That's because it's ash. Never mind how the ashes from, say, 8-10 people is enough to cover a village like that, let alone being mistaken for snow to begin with.]]
* SociopathicHero: Briggs fits this trope to a tee. In just the prologue alone, we have him commit the following:
** One act of murder;
** Two acts of desecrating the dead;
** Six acts of theft;
** One act of employing date rape drugs;
** And two acts of destruction of property.
** To say nothing of how one puzzle involves Briggs clamping a bear trap over a guy's head just to steal his pen.
* SockPuppet: Not in-game, but in RealLife: Steve Bovis wrote forum posts under the name of FABLE, pretending to be a fan of the game and recommending it left and right. Things got a little iffy after "FABLE" started berating a fellow forum member, whom he had helped beat the game, about posting hints on the forum for other people, saying that it was taking away the point of the game and disrespectful towards the developers who had worked so hard coming up with the puzzles. After the argument had gone on for a while, with Bovis actually chiming in as himself and backing FABLE up, an admin found out that FABLE and Bovis had the same IP address. Bovis explained that a play tester had been posting the messages without his knowledge, and that they only owned one computer that was connected to the Internet due to "safety reasons". The forumgoers didn't exactly buy it. Witness the whole thing in all its facepalm-inducing glory [[http://www.gameboomers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/233736/1 here]].

* SoreLoser: Fate, lampshaded by his brother Destiny.
* TheStinger: Fate and Destiny talking.
* SummationGathering: When revealing who the murderers are at the end of Chapter 3.

* VerbalTic:
** One of the designers has an odd habit of peppering his writing with mad laughter ("HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"), and this sometimes shows up in the game's subtitled dialogue - but ''not'' in the voice acting.
** Steve Bovis, seems to have a... bizarre understanding of how capitalization works for titles: instead of just capitalizing the first letter of a title, he has the habit of capitalizing the entire word of a title. This shows up in the subtitles every now and then, and can also be seen in forum posts made by him that are floating around the Internet.

* WaterIsBlue: At one point, you must put saffron in water to turn it green. This utterly insane break from reality is supposed to be justified by the water being rendered as blue. Note that apparently, water is always bright blue even if it's inside a dark green bottle.

* WhoForgotTheLights: It's a horror game, so it's expected.
* [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes Why Did it Have to be Grubs?]]: Briggs has no issues with tearing bones right out of a corpse, digging through rotted eye sockets for a key, or just outright maiming the inhabitants of Limbo to progress his goals. But he flat out refuses to pick up a grub with his bare hands. Said grub later morphs into a horrific fly-like creature, which he has no problem stuffing into his pants.

* SockPuppet: Not in-game, but in RealLife: Steve Bovis wrote forum posts under the name of FABLE, pretending to be a fan of the game and recommending it left and right. Things got a little iffy after "FABLE" started berating a fellow forum member, whom he had helped beat the game, about posting hints on the forum for other people, saying that it was taking away the point of the game and disrespectful towards the developers who had worked so hard coming up with the puzzles. After the argument had gone on for a while, with Bovis actually chiming in as himself and backing FABLE up, an admin found out that for FABLE and Bovis had the same IP address. Bovis explained that a play tester had been posting the messages without his knowledge, and that they only owned one computer that was connected to the Internet due to "safety reasons". The forumgoers didn't exactly buy it. Witness the whole thing in all its facepalm-inducing glory [[http://www.gameboomers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/233736/1 here]].

Due to its absolutely massive amount of plagiarism, the game was pulled off store shelves. An alternative is to read the excellent LetsPlay from the Website/SomethingAwful forums by LetsPlay/TheDarkId: [[http://lparchive.org/Limbo-of-the-Lost/ it does an excellent job pointing out each and every insult to your intelligence without forcing you to actually play it]]. There is also another LetsPlay by [[http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=400406 Wields-Rulebook-Heavily]] which also does a good job at covering the game. For those who would prefer a video playthrough, Vinny of WebVideo/{{Vinesauce}} has livestreamed the game in its entirety; the stream is preserved [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlc94szfcNDHdHdZewnAvKeBXWYZVGdtT here]].

For one, the game is an "asset flip" almost a decade before [[WebVideo/{{Jimquisition}} Jim Sterling]] coined the term; [[UsefulNotes/{{Plagiarism}} pretty much every background is shamelessly ripped from another game, without so much as a mention or acknowledgment to be found - not even in the credits.]] Secondly, [[PixelHunt the items you need to pick up are often dark in color and hard to make out against the usually-dark backdrops, making progress a chore]] (in one instance, an item is partially obscured ''by your compass'', which can't be taken off of the screen). Third, the game's animation, CGI and otherwise, would look primitive in the late 1980s (the game, by the way, was released in 2008). Fourth, there's a constant and extremely annoying whisper of "Join us... Join us... Join us now!" in the background that plays every three minutes or so (shamefully ripped from the ''VideoGame/{{Thief}}'' series), which is fine and atmospheric [[MostAnnoyingSound up until you go stark staring mad]].

For one, the game is an asset flip almost a decade before [[WebVideo/{{Jimquisition}} Jim Sterling]] coined the term; [[UsefulNotes/{{Plagiarism}} pretty much every background is shamelessly ripped from another game, without so much as a mention or acknowledgment to be found - not even in the credits.]] Secondly, [[PixelHunt the items you need to pick up are often dark in color and hard to make out against the usually-dark backdrops, making progress a chore]] (in one instance, an item is partially obscured ''by your compass'', which can't be taken off of the screen). Third, the game's animation, CGI and otherwise, would look primitive in the late 1980s (The game, by the way, was released in 2008). Fourth, there's a constant and extremely annoying whisper of "Join us... Join us... Join us now!" in the background that plays every three minutes or so (shamefully ripped from the ''VideoGame/{{Thief}}'' series), which is fine and atmospheric [[MostAnnoyingSound up until you go stark staring mad]].

Due to its absolutely massive amount of plagiarism, the game's been pulled off store shelves. An alternative is to read the excellent LetsPlay from the Website/SomethingAwful forums by LetsPlay/TheDarkId: [[http://lparchive.org/Limbo-of-the-Lost/ it does an excellent job pointing out each and every insult to your intelligence without forcing you to actually play it]]. There is also another LetsPlay by [[http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=400406 Wields-Rulebook-Heavily]] which also does a good job at covering the game. For those who would prefer a video playthrough, Vinny of WebVideo/{{Vinesauce}} has livestreamed the game in its entirety; the stream is preserved [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlc94szfcNDHdHdZewnAvKeBXWYZVGdtT here]].

* {{Jerkass}}: Cap'n Briggs rather unhesitatingly mutilates people to advance the plot... and sometimes, for no real reason. Not just that, he commits ''murder'' to get an arm to make gruel. Holy Hell. Let's not forget when he claps what can best be described as a bear trap onto a guy's head so he could steal his '''pen'''. Said pen is then used to blind a sea monster -- which, as far as we know, has done '''nothing wrong'''. Blinding the sea monster doesn't actually do anything useful, but it turns the pen into a nib, which is then used as a lockpick to remove somebody from their chains. All this to get a clue to get to the next area, which is cryptic to the point of uselessness.

Even in light of all these facts, it [[http://lotl.wikia.com/wiki/Limbo_of_the_Lost_Wiki is not immune]] to TheWikiRule (the wiki just notes what is stolen). And whatever you do, do not confuse it with ''VideoGame/{{Limbo}}''.