Toby: The Secret Mine

 
Developer: Lukas Navratil
Steam Release: Oct 2015
Hours Played: 4.5
Similar To:  Deadlight / Inside / Limbo / Monochroma
Rating: 3/5 Parsnips

GAMEPLAY
There'll be no prizes for guessing the inspiration behind this solid platform puzzler. What's more, it packs the variety to make it a worthy tribute to Playdead's seminal classic. The creature you control practically moves in the same way as Limbo-boy and could almost be human save for the horns sprouting out of his enormous head. You traverse a similarly spooky landscape with deadly saws and swinging blades making their inevitable appearance. There are plenty of levers to pull and switches to press along with an abundant supply of sinister creatures all waiting to administer the one-hit that will kill you. As a lot of areas are not what they seem a common scenario is that you will die while going about your business, get put back by a convenient checkpoint and then use trial and error tactics to avoid that result again.

BALANCE & PACE
Some situations require a large dose of trial and error but it's usually done in a balanced and satisfying way. Limbo 2 Toby's story features a large red-eyed monster whose regular appearance accompanies the sound of bongo-drums and usually the sight of him scurrying away with one of 26 caged creatures who you must save. This translates to slightly more than one per level on average. Checkpoints are frequent and generous, and rarely force you to redo large chunks again - although some time-attack portions might require just a few too many attempts. There is a tiny, negligible amount of backtracking and a typical level lasts about 10 minutes or so. Finally, be prepared for some hit and miss mini-game type puzzles to be thrown your way as well.  
 

PRESENTATION & DESIGN
You really cannot avoid comparisons with Limbo when discussing the aesthetics of this game. The artwork, environment, gameflow and even the character himself all bare striking resemblances to it. Music is of an ambient nature but does turn into a positively bouncy jaunt at around the Level 16 mark. It also offers subtle clues as to where you need to go and what to avoid. Slightly blurred walls open up vital secret or hidden areas and in the early stages pulsating white dots announce where you need to be. Beams of light warn that a stream of arrows will be sent your way while a creaking sound means if you jump, you'll crash through unstable floorboards. 

PROGRESS SYSTEM
Toby: The Secret Mine greets you with a home page that tells you how many of your 26 friends you have rescued (top right) and sadistically reminds you how many times you have met your death. Clicking the spotted icon on the left takes you to the map which shows you a path of completed levels. You cannot skip locked levels but you may go back and replay whatever levels you wish. What it doesn't show you is at which levels you missed rescuing one of your friends from the cage. Personally, no biggy for me but if you're a completionist out to collect all 26 and missing the odd one or two then I think this omission is a major oversight. However, at four and a half hours to complete the game with no regard to rescuing friends, it provided me with ample enough entertainment. 

CONCLUSION

My guess is that any fan of Limbo will like Toby: The Secret Mine. It keeps track of progress in a user-friendly way so you know where you stand; no feature or puzzle is overdone or gets tedious; levels are kept to convenient bite-sized chunks and the whole pacing makes sessions enjoyable to play. As far as difficulty goes, I visited a walkthrough about half a dozen times and face-palmed myself virtually everytime at how stupid I was for missing the point. A couple of times was for not hearing the creaking sound and thus realising I could jump through floorboards and another couple of times I failed to discover that I just had to backtrack a little and give a little push to something here and there. Anyway, let me reassure any Limbo fan that you don't need to hold back on snapping this one up.