At first I was pretty skeptical of penumbra, it was a first person semi-indie puzzle thriller tech demo, something that just sounded like utter shit. In essence the game is basically resident evil + half-life 2 + actually good puzzles that make you think – any real combat.
As with any Indie game there are some random errors (bugs, grammar/spelling mistakes.)
The first game in the trilogy tells you that you came to this old ass mine shaft to find your father or at least answers about him, there is a bit of fighting, but only with weapons like a hammer and pickaxe. You’ll only be fighting dogs who will rape you unless you Time each swing perfectly.
One of the great things about this game is a bit of a gimmick, I haven’t an idea what it’s called or what I should call it, so I’ll just describe it. You interact with the environment using your hands, so for instance if you’re holding a hammer, you hold mouse1 to tell it you’re going to input hand motions, then move your mouse quickly forward for a jab, or up and to the right to pull it back, and then back down to swing. If you grab onto one of those circular pressure valves, you move it one way to release, one way to tighten (lefty loosy righty tighty) Alot of the environment is destructable, so if you pick up a rock, and swing it into a cupboard, glass goes everywhere, and so do the contents of said cupboard.
Oh did I mention the physics are way better than that of the sorce engine. HAI GUYS WE MADE A FIZIXS ENJIN 4 DA GUN WHATS CONTROLLS GRAVITY AND WHATNOT
The 2nd episode has more enviromental puzzles (navigating thin ice on a lake) than the first game, which favored putting objects and machines together. The one fallback of the 2nd game is that it doesn’t have any combat whatsoever. It’s main focus is story, which is suspenceful, comical, and dramatic. Not to mention amazing.
The story of penumbra is really similar to something you would see out of a great science fiction book, but touches base on a subject science fiction books rarely do; philosophy.
On to the third game. This game is more of an expansion to the 2nd than a full-blown sequal. This game says fuck the story for a bit, let’s do some motherfucking puzzles. One thing I really hate about the 3rd game’s puzzles is that they’re full of platforming, which I hate so god damn much. The third episode ends with a mildly confusing ending, and then if you collected all the ‘Strange Artefacts’ (just YouTube it Id you’re lazy like me) explaining the protagainists motives, which I thought was fucking hilarious, and ends leaving questions about human behavior or some bullshit like that.
If you’re a person who enjoys puzzles or sci-fi this game is a definite must play.
