Penumbra: Black Plague Gold Edition Reviews

SCARY

Clarence did nothing wrong.

Loved it

What an excellent game!!!!

Disclaimer: if you haven't played [b][i]Penumbra Overture[/i][/b] don't bother with this one, as it would make no sense. When looking at these 2 games I can't help but feel it's just one average-duration game split into 2 relatively short ones. In fact, I don't think there are any significant differences between the two in the graphics department or overall gameplay - except a couple of things I will touch on. Nevertheless, [b][i]Penumbra Black Plague[/i][/b] is an incredible sequel worthy of its predecessor and your time and money. Overall, I think this game is better than the first. I don't want to undervalue [b][i]Penumbra Overture[/i][/b] in any way, because it's a lot of fun and very immersive. However, I think they left a bigger chunk of the story for the sequel, and as someone who values good story lines a lot, this is a big plus. I will not spoil anything, but I must say I loved how the story was gradually revealed to the player and how the ending was just spot on; absolutely brilliant. While not easy to make a fair comparison, I would say that I was even more on edge with [b][i]Black Plague[/i][/b] than with [b][i]Overture[/i][/b]. Even when I was in allegedly safe rooms, I didn't allow myself to relax; expecting danger anytime, anywhere. The tension was omnipresent throughout and even my watch alerted me a few times to my higher-than-usual stress levels. Little did it know THAT was my relaxation activity; at least I know the watch works. While mostly identical, 2 significant changes were introduced in [b][i]Black Plague[/i][/b]: [olist] [*] No more combat. [*] You can now rotate objects if you move your mouse while holding the C key. [/olist] Both changes are quite welcome as the combat was a bit rubbish anyway - very clunky and unreliable - and not being able to defend yourself makes the experience even more stressful (which is good in a horror game). The ability to rotate objects is very, very welcome. VERY. My only regret is it was not part of the first game. I'm going to keep the review short as all the good things that make this game great were part of the first one too and I discussed those in my review of [b][i]Penumbra Overture[/i][/b]. 9.5/10. I'm delighted to see the sequel to a good game continuing its legacy and graduating with honours; going out with a big bang and bringing the Penumbra series to a conclu... uh-oh... what's that in my steam library? [b][i]Penumbra Requiem!?!?!?[/i][/b] How could they continue after... I'll be honest, I'm already half-way through and... it's not looking good.

Black Plague is such a step up from the first game with its clever puzzles and its haunting atmosphere that slowly turns you crazy with a certain voice in your head. This game is where Frictional actually started grasping the unique formula of their horror games and proved that horror does not need combat to be effective, and that means a lot coming from a hardcore survival horror like me. Overall 8.5/10 I would listen to Clarence talk shit again.

Black plague is a notable improvement over its predecessor and the first frictional games videogame to be truly scary. The first encounter in this game has such a good buildup, something frictional had already perfected this early into their carreer and still to this day masterfully employ the lessons learned here. I really hope they eventually consider doing a penumbra collection remaster as these old games may have aged but still deserve the spotlight.

Pretty good game, but if you're a Linux user BE ADVISED: This game is a nightmare to get working. The native version of the game crashes within the first couple of seconds unless you use something like Lutris to launch it, but even then you'll begin to see visual artifacts. Running the game on Proton doesn't give very promising results either. The visual and audio is fine, but for the first I've ever seen, the actual game logic of the game does not act properly. Some items you use for puzzles in the beginning of the game [spoiler]like the syringe[/spoiler] begin acting incorrectly, and at one point early on in the game [spoiler](during the hallucination segment which takes place on the boat in the beginning of Overture)[/spoiler], you will become completely soft-locked. I've tried every Proton version under the sun and nothing fixes this. You're better off running this in a VM or playing it on Windows.

Just better than the first game. Removes the god awful tool system but can't really defend yourself (good thing), better puzzles and environments imo. Also they REALLY held practically the entire story for this game rather than the first, but it is also shorter (at least, I completed it much faster)? 7/10