The Penumbra Collection, PC (20/4/09) - Games Reviews at ChrisOnline.biz

PC games were widely regarded as passing phenomena when the consoles were dominating the platform in the early 90s. There were however, pioneers of the PC genre, busily creating groundbreaking puzzle adventures that no console could get near – the likes of 7th Guest, which in turn inspired mystery survival horrors like Resident Evil. Ten years later and the Penumbra Collection are trying to restore some of that hair-raising pride.

The Collection comes as a trilogy of the three incarnations – Overture, Black Plague and Requiem – in which you control the slightly disturbed Phillip. A man haunted by the ghost of his enigmatic father, upon hearing of his death, Phillip goes digging and finds one hell of a rabbit hole.

Released - 23/2/09

Publisher - Paradox

Developer - Frictional

Compilation of Overture, Black Plague and Requiem

Genre - First person survival horror

Link - Official Website

Overture begins in a wind-swept shack in Greenland - a first-person view dictates proceedings with somewhat bizarrely assigned controls. Using letters as directions isn’t the most obvious move by Paradox and most gamers will need to reconfigure before they can even begin to get going (Press escape). The mouse acts as your eyes and interactions with objects can be achieved

via the right mouse “eye” or the left “hand”. A fiddly ‘interaction mode’ can turn that wheel or push that door, though you’d be better served clicking and whizzing the mouse appropriately. As you advance into the disused mine to continue the game, you pick up objects in your inventory, which can then be combined with others or used solely.

The atmosphere, sound and lighting are very realistic and the game prompts you beforehand to turn the lights and adjust the gamma – just to build that ambience, which works well to create those heart-racing moments. Graphically, it’s your average 3D world, which improves significantly throughout the three games.

Story-line wise, it’s very detailed – Resident-Evil style diaries of characters and manuals of certain objects like creating gunpowder and running a power generator make it fairly logical what you are looking for. A vastly elaborate story is documented chronologically as you progress and utilizing items to advance further gives food for thought at a universal level, compared to the Mensa standards required for the like of 7th Guest.

Where the game could have learned a lesson from Evil is the combat system. The fact that you can’t do fundamental things

like go through doors with say, a pick axe in hand means that you have to quickly select it from the real-time inventory.

Overture is a world plagued mainly by enemy impenetrable demon dogs, which no matter how many times you carve them up, come back magically to life to hunt you down. You’d think stealing an enemy from Capcom’s franchise would also give life to the berretta...

If the setting for Overture was a bit dull, Black Plague sees you wake up in a hospital, not dissimilar to ones in Stephen King’s ‘The Stand’ after the Devil’s “trips” disease has decimated the population. And the Overture gamers’ prayers have been answered – a statutory ‘middle dot’ (so you know where the cursor is), a ‘run’ button and thank the lord, a first-person shooter system!

‘Black Plague’ is without doubt, the pinnacle of the series – an exciting setting, shockingly-detailed visuals and a real sense of anticipation, or as some call it – gameplay. Whereas playing Overture could be a case of PC syndrome (fiddly controls and effort-draining obstacles), Black Plague is a fascinating and accomplished piece of gaming.

Requiem, an expansion pack, focused mainly on puzzles, adds more bulk to the trilogy, but not much depth – though if you really enjoyed Plague (which you will), gives some more lifespan if nothing else.