New PC Adventure Game - Limbo of the Lost - Accused of Plagiarism

Pretty much all ideas today are influenced by a previous idea in some way or another and, to an extent, this is completely acceptable. This is especially true in the video game industry as there are already established genres that are simply adapted to create something new. For example, the first FPS game (commonly thought to be Maze War) established the conventions that thousands of games since its development have used. No-one can be accused of directly copying the game in this sense as each successive game (for the most part) has built upon the genre in its own unique way. However, there is a difference between being influenced by a previous game and directly copying off a previous game - which is where the recently completed Limbo of the Lost comes into play.

You see, Limbo of the Lost is a point and click adventure game which, of course, has been done a countless number of times before and, of course, there is nothing wrong with this. What IS wrong with the game, however, is that it directly steals parts of level designs from other games. This includes backgrounds, textures, and even text. Let's see an example:


This is a scene from Limbo of the Lost which looks innocent enough, right?


Well, not when you compare it to a scene from Bethesda's 2006 game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Even the painting in the background is exactly the same as the painting in Oblivion.

Here's another example:



It's pretty much blatant theft of copyrighted scenes and textures and it makes it especially worse when Oblivion allegedly isn't the only game that has been stolen from. Other examples include scenes from Thief III, Unreal Tournament 2004, Painkiller and Diablo II amongst others. You can find them all over at this forum post on NeoGAF.

The US publisher, Tri Synergy, told Kotaku that they have "discontinued distribution" of the game and are "just as shocked as everyone else" following the revelations. I still don't see how they - Majestic Studios - could have got away with this in the first place. Secondly, they did really think that the gaming and Internet community wouldn't notice this? We have way too much time on our hands.

The game looks pants anyway (check out the two incredibly awful trailers) and, hopefully, legal action may force this sham of a company out of business. I have absolutely no respect for people who are so uncreative that they have to steal other people's creations just to make some money.

Limbo of the Lost stole from Oblivion, Morrowind, UT2K4, Diablo, Silent Hill, more? - NeoGaf (Via Kotaku)