Entertaining playthrough of a truly terrible game
This is simultaneously the funniest, saddest, and most disturbing thing I've read in a while. Elliotx linked to it in this thread on the plagiarism in Limbo of the Lost, but I thought it deserved its own thread.
For those who haven't followed the controversy, Limbo of the Lost is a point-and-click adventure game that was released in the US this year, and was destroyed by the discovery that it had blatantly stolen a large number of art assets from a range of games.
The thing is, that barely scratches the surface of the complete disaster that this game appears to be. Quite aside from Grand Theft Assest, they're guilty of:
An ending so bad/bizarre it's practically a rickroll.
Truly awful animation - and that's the pre-rendered stuff. This video also shows off their inspired mechanic for removing unnecessary inventory items at the end of the chapter.
An apparent inability to combine word and images in a meaningful fashion:
Notice the label?
And possibly the worst crime in an adventure game: the hunt for the one pixel on the screen that you can interact with:
(Taken from the linked playthrough.)
I can't recommend reading the playthough enough... not only is it a work of genius, but it showcases a true train-wreck of a game. A warning though: even second-hand exposure to the game may be bad for your mental health. One poor soul was so badly affected by the playing the game that he wrote a walkthrough entirely in verse.
Enjoy!
[edited for clarity]
"Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. I did an original sin. I poked a badger with a spoon." - Eddie Izzard
The ending is like a nasty car wreck, its horrifying but I can't look away.
I remember someone linking to it in the Limbo of the Lost thread (that's where I found out about it), but it's good that it hasn't got lost there. A truly great read. I have to catch up with it.
You can't take the sky from me.
Utter, utter genius. It's like how not to make a game, 101.
It must have taken the poor chap days to get through this monstrosity of a game, recording the experience for us all on the way.
Bags of smoke, right flanking!
Xbox Live Gamertag: HeidShot
I desperately want to see a documentary about the making of this game. Or an episode of This American Life.
EDIT: I couldn't read the walkthrough in verse, because two of the first four lines have too many syllables. Learn from Dr. Seuss, people! Not about the Japanese and war bonds though. That's just awkward.
Funkenpants wrote:
End-stopped rhyming couplets? I trust the goodjerati can imagine just how high in the air I'm holding my nose.
Elysium: The democratization of the web ... has installed an illusion of a digital first amendment that protects speech no matter how poorly spelled or stupid.
XBL: E Munnie
elementsofmeaning.blogspot.com
I think I lost 20 IQ points watching that ending.
"We're taught from a young age how to dodge rock hard objects moving at incredible rates of speed while simultaneously beating folks half to death with sticks. We do this for fun." -kung fu grip
http://blog.digital-lifeline.ca
Oh I love playthroughs of truly horrible games, I will have to check this out when I get home
"You just checked in to Hotel Califoni-getyourasskicked!" Steely Dan said to The Eagles
I don't know whether to say "ha-ha!", "WTF?" or both.
Truly bizarre.
It must be popular, as the server is apparently melting in Cranny baggins's pot.
Highly entertaining walkthrough thread!
EDIT: Holy hell. That ending is just punishing. This thing rivals Python in the "surreal" category. Now if it were only funny.
Grenn wrote:
I think I saw 20 seconds of the ending and my eyes started to bleed. Couldn't even read the walkthrough.
Wasn't this game meant to be some kind of parody though, which may explain the level of a$$.
kuddles wrote:
I just read through the whole thing. That game is a mess... and that ending... that ending! My goodness... I've never had to stop watching something 30 seconds in through sheer awkwardness and embarrassment, but I guess there's a first for everything...
Adoowhapsssth A doowhapssth The King oth Limbo...
Wow that was bad.
"Also, I have four legs and am covered in wool. Baa!" *Legion* reveals his inner furry.
The best part is the text that doesn't wrap around containers. It would literally take them a few minutes to fix this using free software. The other best part is the nonsensical text ("Cranny baggins"? Are you kidding?). Another best part... well, there are a lot of best parts, aren't there?
It's like they were trying to create a parody of terrible adventure games, but somehow managed to create their own genuinely terrible adventure game. How on earth did they find a publisher for it?
Everything can be debated, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's debatable.
--Chuck Klosterman, Fargo Rock City
It's like they came up with that ending as a secret easter egg joke ending, then ran out of time to make a real one.
NOTE: This is not a doodle bug.
Spore
Based on the stories of the developers stealing entire areas from other games, it sounds like the publisher didn't have clue one what was going on at the development studio.
Fedaykin98 wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:
Chapter four is just so awesome. At this point, the stolen assets are almost ancillary. The game is such a train wreck it becomes difficult to wrap one's mind around it all. I can only comprehend this as some sort of surreal joke on the gaming industry. If it is an honest, earnest attempt, then I weep for humanity.
So many great lines from that thread...
Grenn wrote:
I can't even read it. I'm out after 3 pages. Out, as in nodding off.
"I have not supped of Buffy, nor have I supped in any wise during the absence of Firefly. When Firefly returns again in glory, then shall I sup at the table of Whedon." - Fedaykin98
All I've kept hearing in my head all day is "Da Kiiiiiing o' Limbooooooooooo!" ARGH!
"We're taught from a young age how to dodge rock hard objects moving at incredible rates of speed while simultaneously beating folks half to death with sticks. We do this for fun." -kung fu grip
http://blog.digital-lifeline.ca
You aren't the only one. It's been stuck in my head since yesterday.
Chumpy wrote:
Malor wrote:
That's about where I got too. I tried to go on but found myself asleep at work.
McChuck wrote:
Today on This American Life, we'll be talking to people who make bad games, interspersed with some aggressively nondescript piano music.
...So we had this Old Vial, and we couldn't figure out how to label it, right? So we decided why not make it like a drunken Irishman had a dymo labelmaker and a complex about people touching his stuff? And so we put "Property of O'Negus" on the thing. It worked, somehow.
(plink, plink, plinkplinkplink plink... plunk.)
...And we were trying to come up with this puzzle. We were brainstorming, and Mort, our intern, kind of like rolls his eyes and says "well, everyone loves pixel hunts." We all looked at each other. "Pixel Hunt." It sounded, I dunno, exciting somehow. I pictured someone on a wild safari, hunting pixels. So we put in this single pixel that the player had to hunt for, because that's totally never been done before, and we thought players deserved some innovation.
(plinkety plink plink plunk.)
The ending. Oh, that ending. It was, like, four in the morning and we were all totally wasted. Someone started singing a drinking song in this weird sort of cockney accent. Fortunately, Bill had his Iphone, and he caught most of it on video. I uploaded it to Youtube and sent it as a link to our rendering department and said "Make the end like this, but with characters from the game." And they did a phenomenal job. We were really tickled with it.
Who knew they'd actually ship it like that?
(Pinky plinky plink. Plunk PLUNK!)
L337 is not a word. BA7F is a word.
PSN name: DoubtingTom396 Frie-hend meeeee uuuuup!
Possibly the saddest thing of all is according to wiki this game has been in deveolpment on and off since the early 90's. So someone probably has sunk a great deal of money (several times) to get to this point....
These folks should never be allowed to make games ever again.
And thus my day was made, for many days to come.
Funkenpants wrote:
I am sad that people put effort into something so awful (the game, not the walkthrough). It just baffles my mind that all they had to concentrate on was coming up with good gameplay and good writing since apparently they didn't really bother making their own art assets. Also, I think there is a special level in Dante's Hell for whomever wrote that song.
Steam ID: ihateuyeahu
Xbox Live: ihateuyeahu
BNet: idislikeumildly