Not too often does a low profile point and click adventure make headlines across the proverbial gaming press... unless of course your point and click adventure game is a compilation of some of the hottest titles to be released in the last ten years. Add to that blatant plagiarism and you got one naughty problem on your hands.
When I first started hearing about Limbo of the Losts plagiarism debacle last week, the immediate thought that occurred to me was "what do they mean by blatant plagiarism? I mean, how many unique ways are there to render a dungeon?" But then I looked into it further. Replace " cut and paste" for the word " blatant " and youll get a pretty good idea about what youll see in the screenshots I am about to show you. Needless to say, Majestic Studios and Tri Synergy are up for a whirlwind of lawsuits for this one. The Story for Limbo of the Lost is basically this: You play a guy named Captain Ben who is trapped in limbo and you must explore the Keep of Lost Souls to steal a book from the four horsemen of the apocalypse. It's an old school 2D point and click adventure puzzle game, which may have proved to be promising if it hadn't dove off the deep end and landed balls-deep in lawsuits.
Tri Synergy recently released this official statement regarding the issue:
Tri Synergy, Inc. would like to publish an official comment regarding recent comparisons of level design and artwork between Majestic Studios Limbo of the Lost and Bethesdas The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion/Eidos Interactives Thief: Deadly Shadows.
Tri Synergy is just as shocked as everyone else is by the recent screenshot comparisons. At no point during our dealings with Majestic Studios up until the point that the comparison was first publicly made by a third party did we have any knowledge of these similarities. Additionally, Tri Synergy will discontinue distribution of Limbo of the Lost in both retail and online outlets.
We have contacted the developer, Majestic, and are anxiously awaiting their response. As soon as we know more on this matter we will issue another statement.
But it really begs the question: how can a GAMING company thats been around since 1996 NOT notice scenes taken from some of the most popular titles ever released? And by popular, here is the current list of ripped-off titles:
- The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
- The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
- Unreal Tournament 2004
- Unreal Tournament 2003
- Unreal Tournament
- Diablo II
- Thief: The Dark Project
- Thief: Deadly Shadows
- a CryENGINE2 Tech Demo
- Return to Castle Wolfenstein
- Sea Dogs
- Painkiller
- Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
- The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth
- Hexen
- Black & White 2
- Silent Hill 4
- World of Warcraft
- Crysis
In addition to the games, the game also reportedly stole scenes from the following movies:
This list started forming in the community after the June 11, 2008 article featured on GamePlasma showed similarities between Oblivion and Limbo of the Lost.
Here are just a few of the laughable screenshots (click pictures for bigger image):
Limbo of the Lost
The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion
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Limbo of the Lost
The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblvion
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Limbo of the Lost
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
And of course the list goes on and on. Special thanks to www.neogaf.com forums for the image finds, as well as the hilarious box art mock up used in this article. You can click for more screenshot comparisions.
