Penumbra Overture Reviews

Don't attack dogs with your weapons. Throw rocks and barrels at them. Thank me later.

feels like the natural progression of a point and click adventure and half life mixed with amnesia. Also had puzzles where I had to get out a pen and paper which i think rules.

was fun and scary 10/10 my favorite game ever i love it. poor red tho...

A shitty bugfest that isn't scary a little fucking bit. I'm writing down this review because i'm so fucking frustrated, i had to reload my saves 5 times just because some of the puzzles became corrupted for no fucking reason. I looked up on the internet and yeah this game does have problems without solutions. That aside, the game itself is NOT scary, some dogs with cancer tissues and spiders are supposed to scare me off? I couldn't even finish the game because of the fucking glitches! No matter what i did i couldn't interact with the piston controls, before that a door couldn't be opened. And i finished %80 of the game at that time. The story isn't good, the gameplay is your general shitty Frictional Games gameplay, the graphics are meh, aaaand this game is NOT SCARY! Don't fucking play this game, you can do anything more fun and productive than playing this garbage. I just wasted my hours trying to finish this shit.

huh its so close to.. something... but it just sorta ends where it starts picking up. hoping that the next games make the build up worth it. As an isolated experience though? ehhhhh 5.5/10

Short horror experience, maybe 4 or 5 hours, but very solid. Distinct from Amnesia, in this game you are trapped in a dark, narrow mine with various creatures trying to kill you. There's an interesting mystery hinted at and some almost immersive-sim level environmental interactions. [spoiler] I boiled a dog alive with a steam valve [/spoiler] I appreciate that in this game the protagonist can fight back and even kill enemies, but the combat is so incredibly clunky that it only works as a last resort. It's particularly risky on hard when you die in 2 or 3 hits and believe me, the enemies know the penumbra overture combat meta lmao. My only complaint is that some of the puzzles are very obnoxious. This game has a couple metroid moments where the solution is specific and very easy to miss the hints of it if there are any hints at all. I remember one time I was stuck and I hit a door with the pickaxe out of frustration, and the door came off its hinges - that was the solution to the puzzle - hitting a metal door with my weapon. Well worth your time, looking forward to seeing how it continues in Black Plague!

Its a very fun horror puzzle game, you can unlock the frame-rate and enable higher resolution by doing some very simple config file adjustments. overall worth the 4-6 hours it'll take you!

A very good horror adventure game. It looks and plays great given its age. Sound design is awesome. Story is great too, though it seemed somewhat complicated at first. I got stuck a few times and had to refer to the walkthrough, so I found some of the puzzles a bit confusing. But overall I enjoyed the game.

!little to no spoilers! Just finished the game, so let's start about the graphics, then I'll Tell you about my option on the gameplay and the story and at the end some tips; the shadows and shaders in general are extremely good, every light source casts shadowson every object you get on your hands, the textures are really not that bad but they could be better, although I find the 3D shapes of the objects really bad, round objects are basically a bunch of polygons that they don't even try to hide, the UI of the backpack and the objects could be at a higher resolution, the particles are fine, I mean, not the best but not even the worst, the ragdoll physics are bad but not too bad, the physics engine is really good, not that much to say, overall the graphics are a solid 6/10 The gameplay most of the times is slow, you need to take your time to figure things out, the levels are mostly dark, you have a flashlight that runs in batteries and a glow stick that will never run out, there isn't much to say about the levels without spoilers, just be aware that there are a ton but enjoyable puzzles in basically all of the levels, and also the fact that you can pick up most of the game objects and bring them with you or throw them around is a pretty neat touch; The enemies are fine, there are the dogs, the spiders and a big worm, the first two are easy to beat: for the dogs just go on top of some crate and smack them with the pickaxe that you'll eventually find or directly run into them, smack them with the pickaxe and just stay there, right when they get up smack them again until they die, the spiders might seem scary but you'll get used to it, when you'll encounter the spiders you won't have many places to hide, don't run away, they're faster than you, smack them again and again until they're dead, just like the dogs, for the big worm you need to run, no fight, no hide, run as fast as you can. Here's some tips: don't be afraid of using the flashlight instead of the glow stick, batteries are everywhere and I literally finished the game while not using even half of the batteries that I found, go around, open and move things a lot, a lot of the times important objects or papers Lie beneath or into some stuff; don't read all the papers that you find, most of the times they're useless just to waste your time, unless, of course you enjoy reading them, but be careful that not all of them are useless.

[h1]There are things I need you of you. Things you may not understand, and may not wish to do, but please, do not make the same mistake I did.[/h1] The [b]Penumbra[/b] games were a series of games that I went and noticed on sale in a bundle, but I never went out of my way to go and play any of the games until I decided to go out of my way and try the series out for the first time. The first game in the series [b]Penumbra: Overture[/b], is a horror game that I did enjoy. If I had to compare this game to anything, it would be an early [b]Amnesia[/b] game. Also, [b]Frictional Games[/b] made the [b]Penumbra[/b] series before the [b]Amnesia[/b] series so seeing some of the original roots from [b]TDD[/b] that came from here was nice. [h1]Pros and Cons[/h1] [b]Pros[/b] [list] [*]Nice story, filled with lots of mystery and suspense [*]Fan and tense gameplay [*]Unique puzzles that require thinking [*]Unsettling graphics that make the areas creepy [/list] [b]Cons[/b] [list] [*]The story lacks depth sometimes, where you have very little reason to care for some of the characters [*]Combat is very clunky [/list] [h1]Story[/h1] The story starts with [b]Philip Buchanon[/b] who receives a letter from his father who was thought to be dead, he tells him that he must go to [b]Greenland[/b] to an unknown mining vessel. Upon arriving at the mine, the entrance collapses and [b]Philip[/b] is trapped. With no other options left, he decides to go deeper, along the way, he soon finds out that he is not alone. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3427001356 I will say that [b]Penumbra: Overture’s[/b] story is really good. It starts extraordinarily strong and picks up in the later parts. The story is, in fact, full of mystery and suspense that will keep the player invested throughout. You will want to find out more about what is going on in this mine. The story keeps the player in the dark about everything, and even when something is explained, you are still asking yourself questions about it. You must start here if you want to understand the [b]Penumbra[/b] series. The games are connected, so you must play this game to understand everything in the story. However, that leads to one of the more glaring issues with the game's story, it’s not perfect by any means. You see, there are a few characters in the game, but you have little reason to care about them at all, as you learn about most of them through notes that aren't always that interesting. The only character I could relate to is [b]Tom Redwood[/b] and everything else just comes and goes. There are interesting bits to the story that I did like but everything else is just not interesting. This and another issue I will talk about later in the review were taken into consideration and improved on its sequel. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] [b]Penumbra: Overture[/b] is a survival horror game with a large focus on puzzle solving, you will be using the environment to solve some of them. This requires the player to think creatively about how to solve the puzzle in question, which makes it complex and difficult in some ways, which of course, makes it a puzzle. Although there are times when it can get confusing, you just must think at times and use the environment. The puzzles are well throughout, and I thoroughly enjoy doing them, even when I got confused, it just felt natural to me. The game specializes in this aspect the most, rather than just being a horror game. None of the puzzles shined to me but it was nice seeing how some of the mining equipment was used or some of its machinery. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3427001726 While exploring the mine, you will encounter enemies who will try to hinder your path. Since you don’t have any means of defending yourself, you must run and hide to try to avoid enemies. However, there are other methods for dealing with them, like giving beef jerky to a zombie dog or using light to scare away spiders. There are also ways to trap enemies and kill them that way, so there are ways to take care of enemies, you just must try and think. However, I should mention that there is a way to defend yourself if you need to, and while the game tells you that there is no combat. There is combat and it’s extremely clunky, this is some of the clunkiest combat I have seen in a horror game. To attack enemies, you must hold the right mouse button and swing with your mouse, the attack is dependent on where you move the mouse. The issue here is that your camera is locked in place, and you can’t move it around. The enemies will get the drop on you this way and you can die in three or four hits if not careful. You are just better off running from enemies or using some other means to defend yourself. Spiders are the worst as they are small and their hitboxes are small, so it’s best to just use light as they hate that. Which I never used because part of me was stubborn and thought I would be fine without it. [h1]Graphics and Performance[/h1] The atmosphere for [b]Penumbra: Overture[/b] is very creepy and unsettling. It makes you feel like you are alone, and no one is coming to help you. I tested the game on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, AMD Ryzen 5 1500X Quad-Core Processor 3.50, and 16 GB of RAM. I experienced no issues while playing, and the game should be able to run on low-end PCs. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3427001824 [h1]Final Verdict[/h1] Overall, [b]Penumbra: Overture[/b] is a fine horror game that I enjoyed very much. I recommend it for those who want to get into the series or for those who are looking for a decent horror game. The game has two glaring issues, but if you are like me and can pull through, then there is a game here for you. The game is in a bundle at 12.99 CDN and it comes with its sequel [b]Black Plague[/b], so the price is worth it for the two games alone. [quote]Looking for more reviews like this one? Then follow [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45514478-Skyknighter's-Sleepless-Nights/] Skyknighter's Sleepless Nights [/url][/quote]