Games Reviews

Penumbra Collection

Game description:

Murder, a forgotten past, and madness await. Navigate harrowing environments filled with challenging puzzles, realistic physics, and twisted enemies. Features Penumbra Overture After receiving a letter from his estranged father, a man he thought dead, Philip heads to Greenland to discover just who or what sent the letter. Penumbra Black Plague Trapped deep within the Greenland underground complex known as The Shelter, Philip must continue his search for his father as he fights to maintain his sanity. Requiem Expansion Pack As Philip falls deeper into madness, he must keep his wits about him if he will ever be able to discover the origins behind his fathers letter.

Sheeparcade exclusive review:

When you stumble upon your fathers remaining things which he archived before he was gone missing, it sure awakens some feelings in you. But how would you feel if you find out, while digging through that archives that your father knew about that he will not return and go missing and wrote that down in a letter for you not to search him ever? Whatever the relation was between you and your parent you will never be satisfied until you find out the truth about his missing, and that’s what happened to Philip as he set off to Greenland to discover that truth. As he arrived in all of that snow and isolation he was forced to go in an abandoned mine to discover that that’s where his story and search begins. The Penumbra Collection is a set of three games beginning with Overture. The game blends the first-person perspective with the survival horror genre in a way that is dark, creepy and frightening. What is most curious about this game is its physics system with which you control almost every action in the game just in the real life. The majority of the game play can be split into two elements, for example, the ability to pick up, drag, throw, push, etc… is mechanical part. The game is also a puzzle-based survival-horror/adventure, with the narrative unfolding through collected notes, unanswered emails and occasional radio broadcasts. With the mechanical part it has its own flaws and advantages. The advantages are something we see quite rarely in the games, as for example opening a door isn’t just a click. The mouse pointer transforms into a hand with which you must push the door to open them. Push them to strong and they will slam back and close again, and pushing barely opens them just but not enough. Because the games combat system is based on the same interface as the rest of mechanics of the game, combat itself can be sometimes very hard to perform, as the performing the strikes takes a perfect timing. The solution to that problem is sneaking around. You’re better off hiding and sneaking around and avoiding any combat as much as possible. This will slow down your progress in the game, as it takes more time than the combat, but gives the game additional edge of real experience that a horror game offers. The game graphics seem a bit old as the game is in total darkness, but the supreme audio background makes up for any shortcomings by the graphics. After Penumbra: Overture the game immediately picks up with Black Plague. Fortunately, Frictional seems to have learnt from its mistakes as development progressed, and Black Plague places its enemies in a much more puzzle-based context. The game moves to the end of Overture as a flashback where the player relives Phillip’s next set of horrors. Black Plague’s strongest point, as it allows greater focus on puzzle solving and navigating the haunting caverns throughout the game. This means greater use of the physics system, and an overall improved experience for the player. But when it comes to battle you control the melee weapons as the rest of the mechanical part of games which means swinging and quick step moves. The last part of the Collection has little to do with the story of the first two parts. Penumbra: Requiem is an expansion pack for the Black Plague which moves away from the story all together and focuses on the puzzle elements. As a expansion of the second part it lacks much on the story part and focuses more on the physics system and environment interaction. It is important to say this game has been developed by a team of young developers who came up with a brilliant idea for a story combined with seriously good quality of the sound through the whole collection but in lack of graphic experience creation. If you are willing to miss a great game just because of the lack of not so well rendered edges, you are on a great loss. A story like this is rare to come across and the game play even tough not perfect gives a nice pleasure of approximately 15 hours of game play which surely won’t let you down.

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