I swear this will be the last post about Limbo, I’m only writing this because I found a number of interesting theories on the web about the games settings, characters, themes etc. By the way there will be spoilers, so if you haven’t played the game, come back in four hours after you have and then read it.
So with the game being named Limbo, I had an inkling that the game would actually be set in the religious idea of limbo, a place between heaven and hell where people go to after they die and are judged, and depending on this judgement they go to heaven or hell. Fairly simple premise, but then the question is brought up of, if where you play is limbo, why are there giant spiders there? Why are there “natives” trying to kill you, why is there a giant hotel sign?
Some have said that these are all symbols of the boys life before he died. He may have been scared of spiders, the levels may be interpretations of where he’d visited during his life. The death traps, natives and giant spiders could all be challenges for him, if he passes them he is absolved of his sins and can go to heaven. The ultimate test moreover is can he find his sister? Well you do find his sister in the end, and then the game ends very abruptly. Does this mean you’ve completed the tests and can now go to heaven (or hell)?
The endgame deserves a lot of speculation and attention. Firstly there’s the last puzzle, involving a fiendish gravity jump calculation thingy. It’s the only way to get through an impenetrable glass wall. Once you time it perfectly everything slows down and you go smashing through the glass almost beautifully. In slow motion you hit the ground and lay there for several seconds, eyes closed, unmoving. Then you finally wake, walk up the hill and find your sister. Another interesting observation is where she is. She’s next to what appears to be a tree, with a rope ladder hanging down from it, presumably to get to a tree house or something similar.
When the game ends, it slams to black, but as the credits roll the image comes back to light. Its the location you were just in except it is vastly different. Its now raining, the tree ladder is destroyed and there are two columns of flies buzzing around where you and your sister previously were. It’s hard to interpret. I believe that if Limbo is really set after you had died, then this endgame location is where you and your sister originally died. Coming back to it, full circle, after surviving the challenges of limbo, you are then allowed to go to the afterlife, leaving this dream world behind and showing it for what it really was: a murky, horrible place that was now your grave.
Some have said that they reckon there’s a crashed car in the tree, which they believe the children were in. When it crashed, they went flying out, killing them. It would also give a reason for the seemingly out of place glass wall at the end of the last puzzle. The way the boy goes through it, in slow motion, his body limp and most importantly, his eyes being closed. The only time the boys eyes are closed are when he dies, except at the beginning of the game when he first wakes up. Personally I don’t think there’s a car in the tree, it doesn’t look like there is, though it would explain a lot.
Overall I don’t know if we’ll ever find out everything about Limbo. But would you really want to. The best stories and characters are the ones that are mysterious, that don’t give all the answers. Except Lost.
The Dannyish 
Posted on July 26, 2010
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