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PENUMBRA: OVERTURE REVIEW Posted by jayk on Jun 29, 2009 23:25 (224 days ago) |
Penumbra: Overture is a first person adventure horror game by Swedish developer Frictional Games. It is the first in what is to be a trilogy of titles. You play as Philip and well, he’s having a bad day. After attending his mother’s funeral he receives a letter from his supposedly deceased father that gives him information that lands him in Greenland. Philip soon stumbles upon a mysterious hatch frozen over and apparently forgotten by the world. Known only as the Shelter, Philip finds himself in an abandoned mine filled with puzzles, disturbing journal entries, and deadly inhabitants. Puzzles run the standard fare of finding the code, determining a way into locked room, locating a unique item to progress, etc. Though the puzzles are mostly generic they vary in difficulty, giving the game good pacing.
The physics play a key role in solving various puzzles and finding hidden items. The cursor acts as your hand and you point and click to drag rocks, open doors, and turn valves. Certain puzzles require you to make different parts of the environment interact with each other which changes up the traditional adventure game.
The story of Overture is told through various journal entries found in the environment and by messages written on the walls. Part of what compelled me to play through the game was to try and find out any little bit of information about the Shelter and what happened to its inhabitants. There is no health or stamina HUD giving the game a more realistic feel. When Philip is injured he becomes slow and the screen flashes red until he finds shelter or takes painkillers. One big flaw of Overture is that you don’t really get a sense of who Phillip is as he does not talk and what few of his thoughts are scribbled out never give you a sense of personality.
The game does an excellent job of providing tension and scares as Philip ventures farther into the mine and uncovers its secrets. Through searching the environment, you discover diary entries of people who used to work in the mine and the chilling entries are quite unsettling to read. Even more unsettling are the animals that patrol the corridors and have adapted to the mine’s unique environment. Blood thirsty wolves, mutant spiders, and a certain behemoth are constant dangers in the environment, but what really sells the horror and tension is the sound and lighting. Before you encounter enemies, you hear the patter of spider’s feet and the growling of wolves, the game does a great job of scaring with out showing. When spotted by an enemy, the music picks up as you decide whether to fight or run. There are no guns to defend yourself but there are several melee weapons that can prove useful if you can adjust to the horrible combat controls. To swing a melee weapon, click the mouse and drag it side to side. I found that when confronted by more than one enemy I would be in the process of swing and try to turn to see were the other enemy was and missing my attacker completely.
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