Game Discussion of the Week: Penumbra series

Maybe it was in the old forums? Also, I commented a bit about it in the Amnesia thread, so you guys may be remembering that.

Anyway, these were among the first horror games in the style that still dominates nowadays: first person, no weapons, stealth mechanics. I even remember playing the tech demo for the first game: it became somewhat famous for having a good physics engine for its time; its main catch was that you could manipulate objects with even more freedom than in Half-Life 2, which was still the gold standard for physics engines.

When the full game was released it had some janky aspects, especially its physics based combat (you have to swing objects like pickaxes at the enemies, usually dogs and giant spiders, which doesn't work too well). But it had a solid graphics and physics engine for an indie developer, the atmosphere was good and the puzzles were fun to solve.

The sequel, Penumbra: Black Plague, is when Frictional Games hit the sweet spot and defined the kind of horror that would define the 2010s: they dropped the combat, upped the horror aspect and created very tense situations. Also, the story had a satysfying conclusion and the voice actors gave a good performance; the entire package felt very professional, especially for an indie studio, and was one of the best hidden gems in the horror genre at the time.

The third game, Penumbra: Requiem, was just a throwaway job, quickly made to keep the studio afloat while they finished Amnesia: The Dark Descent. It's a small first-person puzzle game in the vein of Portal; it does reference events from the previous games, but is not necessary to fully understand the story. I think it doesn't even have enemies (though I may be misremembering it), it's just a series of puzzle rooms. It's ok if you look at it as a DLC expansion instead of a sequel, which is what it would be if released nowadays. Fun enough for around 3 hours.

So, what I think of the series nowadays? The second game, Black Plague, is still a bit of a hidden gem and horror fans should have a good time with it, while the series in general is a nice curiosity for anyone who wants to see where the first-person stealth horror genre comes from. I would rate it between 3-4; I ended up voting on 4 considering the time they were released.