

Penumbra: Overture is the only game from Frictional Games with a combat system. Note that Black Plague also beings with a message like this, actually the continuation of it. An introduction in the form of a cryptic, eerie message typed by Philip LaFresque, the game’s silent protagonist (silent except for in Black Plague’s introduction), greets players upon launching the game. That really raises hopes for the game, doesn’t it?Įven before reaching the main menu, Penumbra is gripping. Funny how they nailed atmosphere just in the main menu.

This is due to the visual presentation of the menu as well as the wonderful score by Mikko Tarmia. The main menu of Penumbra will immediately send chills down your spine, and if you’ve played classic horror games like Silent Hill and Resident Evil, it will evoke strong feelings of nostalgia. Requiem still has its own executable and main menu though. Overture and Black Plague are standalone installations while Requiem installs over Black Plague. But we’ll talk more about this on the Audio & Visuals page. The other nice feature is its sound processing, utilizing OpenAL and EFX. It does have two very nice features though a fairly easy to use SDK with its streamlined AngelScript language (C++ based), enabling easy and quick creation of maps and entire campaigns. Requiem is actually longer at 6-8 hours despite being merely an expansion, and a totally unnecessary one as you’ll soon find out if you haven’t played it already.Īll episodes use the same engine which is a largely unremarkable in-house engine made by Frictional Games. Overture, the first episode as the name implies, is no more than 4 hours long, as is Black Plague. So without further ado, move on to the next page to start reading our in-depth analysis of Penumbra.

We’re also going to score Penumbra relative to how we would have scored it in 2007-2008, although really the only score that is affected is Audio & Visuals since we have new graphics standards today, but not even audio standards since we have always maintained high voice acting standards for what we consider perfect, not to mention sound effects are generally less advanced in gaming today. We’re going to look at what makes this game so special, why its formula is what revived the genre, and why Amnesia: The Dark Descent was the one that directly sparked this revolution instead of Penumbra. That includes Penumbra: Overture (2007), Penumbra: Black Plague (2008), and Penumbra: Requiem (2008). In this article we’re going to review Penumbra in its entirety. The game that directly resulted in the rebirth of horror video games was Amnesia: The Dark Descent, which uses the same formula as Penumbra. But Penumbra didn’t directly cause this surge of new horror games, it indirectly sparked it. It was the first game from Frictional Games, who later brought us Amnesia: The Dark Descent and SOMA(and no, they did NOT develop Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs).
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This revolution was sparked by Penumbra, a first-person PC exclusive episodic horror game released by Frictional Games in 20, and it is currently within our lists of top ten horror games of all time (where it’s top 3) and top ten best stories of all time. We all see this, but how many of us wonder why? What caused this horror revolution? These horror games are quite a lot different than the classics like Resident Evil and Silent Hill. Even mainstream horror games are being released again, such as The Evil Within. For example, when Phillip has to make a bomb, the players have to consult the explosives manual, find the ingredients and mix them together.The horror video game genre has been revitalized in recent years and it now strongly populates Steam’s indie game section.
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Phillip can stick to the shadows to hide from the enemies, barricade doors or trap his enemies in the cages.ĭuring gameplay, the player has to find clues on how to complete a certain puzzle. It is better to evade any conflict rather than getting into a fight. There are no firearms in Penumbra, so Phillip has to fight the enemies off using mining equipment. For example, in order to pull a door, the player has to click on the handle and pull the mouse towards themselves. Players are able to move the in-game objects by moving the mouse instead of just clicking on them. The game's world is highly interactive thanks to an advanced physics engine. During the descent into the mine, the ladder breaks down. The letter leads Phillip to Greenland where he finds a mine his father wrote about. In the year 2001, after his mother's death, Phillip receives a message from his father who left the family and was supposedly dead. Penumbra Overture is a survival horror game developed by Frictional Games.
