Atomic Coronary heart’s Trapped in Limbo DLC is vibrant and attention-grabbing, and I hated each minute of it. I actually felt trapped; trapped in a cellular game-inspired growth that’s repetitive, irritating, and a chore to finish. As somebody who loved Atomic Coronary heart itself an ideal deal final 12 months and located a number of issues to love concerning the earlier DLC, I’m genuinely baffled at how actively I do not need to play Trapped in Limbo ever once more.
Whereas Atomic Coronary heart’s first dose of DLC, Annihilation Intuition, explores what occurs after the shorter of the primary sport’s two unfulfilling endings, Trapped in Limbo picks up in the aftermath of the longer one. Respecting and increasing upon each endings is an attention-grabbing and commendable method, even when having these add-on DLC chapters flip-flopping from one ending to the opposite earlier than something is resolved makes enjoying via them really feel like studying a Select Your Personal Journey ebook from entrance to again.
On this conclusion, P-3 is left in limbo – a dream world for the unconscious that P-3 was beforehand despatched to throughout the primary marketing campaign whereas the Kollektive community managed his physique. Sadly, in contrast to the visits to limbo throughout the core marketing campaign – which had been creepy, quirky, and used in temporary bursts – Trapped in Limbo drastically overstays its welcome and goes all in on simply a few gameplay mechanics which can be repeated advert nauseam till I used to be totally nauseated. For readability, it solely goes for a number of hours – which is fully honest for a low-priced add-on. The degrees are simply not satisfying, so that they drag. All the pieces right here actually may’ve been edited into a brief prologue degree for example P-3’s return to the real-world. The vast majority of what’s right here is simply padding.
The primary – and worst – are the sliding ranges, which perform equally to Counter-Strike’s “browsing” (which, in the event you’re not accustomed to it, is a long-running mod scene for Counter-Strike that embraces a physics quirk and relies round sliding down sloped platforms). Trapped in Limbo’s sliding ranges are finicky, trial-and-error affairs, and so they go on and on and on. I can see no different purpose for the “proportion full” bar on the prime of the display apart from to reassure us that there’s, certainly, an finish to this torment – if we are able to persevere to it.
There’s simply one thing off about the best way it feels, and I used to be by no means capable of get gauge on persistently get the correct quantity of air off the top of every slide section. It has nothing to do with leaping, as a result of you possibly can’t. It’s all concerning the angle – and but getting it proper will not be all the time attainable due to the massive spiky obstacles. It’s like enjoying Tony Hawk with a damaged ollie button, and the half-pipe is mined. I didn’t really feel a way of satisfaction attending to the top of those sliding ranges – solely reduction that they had been executed and I wouldn’t need to do them once more. That’s not a sensation I affiliate with having time.
Accompanying the 2 sliding ranges are a pair of climbing ones, which concentrate on first-person platforming (though they additionally embrace aggravating sliding sections of their very own). These ranges are much more in line with the moments of first-person puzzle-platforming current in the primary sport, and so they’re actually slightly extra simple. As an example, it’s fairly forgiving in the case of touchdown on tiny cubes and detecting clambering alternatives. That stated, I nonetheless had instances the place I used to be cursing the sloppiness of the leaping on a timing-based lure, or reloading my final save after falling into an space it didn’t seem I used to be presupposed to have been capable of get into. Just like the sliding ranges, I’ve no need to play these once more, both.
If you happen to’re questioning why we haven’t mentioned fight but, it’s as a result of there actually isn’t a lot of it past a number of arenas. Enemies are largely edible reskins of those in the primary sport however, regardless of the small cache of sugar-coated sweet cannons at your disposal, the fight is something however candy. I get P-3 resides in a dreamland right here, nevertheless it simply has not one of the punch or metal-rending mayhem of the primary marketing campaign. It’s plain.
The fifth and closing degree of Trapped in Limbo is the weirdest of all, and that’s saying one thing in a universe the place the primary character’s lifeless spouse is definitely two eight-foot-tall ballerina robots. It’s… an infinite runner. The extent truly does have an finish, nevertheless it’s lengthy sufficient to really feel prefer it doesn’t – and never in a great way. I get that this model of Limbo is a bizarre place the place something’s attainable, however an infinite runner as Atomic Coronary heart DLC is slightly like having a band you want popping out for his or her encore and buzzing a nursery rhyme.
Not fairly what you’d count on – and also you’d in all probability stroll out.