The Penumbra Collection

Has good story, real life puzzles and non of this shoot'em all nonsense so common in "horror" games these days. Here, you need to be careful, quiet, and invisible if you want to survive, As you carry on with you own agenda, you uncover an interesting story and encounter characters who are at the edge of their sanity. Real gem. Frictional Games at it's best.

Right, this is only a review for the first 2 games. The "third" is terrible and is just a collection of physics puzzles, it's not actually a game. Basically it is a first person horror game set initially in an underground mine and you have to explore further down it to survive. Sound familiar? It's basically the premise to Amnesia. Both games should be seen as 2 halves to the same adventure. The first game is quite unique as it actually has combat in it. Many people disliked it as you have to physically swipe the mouse to use weapons but the clunkiness just adds to the urgency and desperation in my opinion, it forces you to be 100% sure you can win in a fight before you attack. This also leads to more stealth as you want to be able to get the drop on enemies. Later, if you're good enough and have some health, you can just run up and start wailing but I'd advise against it. The second game is more like Amnesia in terms of enemy style, gameplay and due to the fact that you cannot fight back. The bulk of the gameplay in both is comprised of stealth, exploration and physics puzzles. I feel the game has a better locale than Amnesia as it isn't just the one place and some of the environments can be quite interesting. The plot is also better in my opinion as there is more to learn (it isn't just "kill the baron"). It has more characters and there is more to learn about the environment. Well, that's it. I'd advise you to buy it if you like puzzle/stealth/horror games.

Nice 3D horror/puzzle game, there should be more games like this! In contrast to the common action games you have to solve puzzles here, and dodge opponents rather than fight them. The story, graphics, music and sound effects help create a creepy athmosphere. Unfortunately you can't save where you want and accessing inventory doesnt pause the gameplay. In some later parts of the games you get attacked and don't know what to do. Those parts become a huge PITA to play, you start over and over again from the last save spot desperately trying to find a way to dodge opponents (seems you can't kill them). This ruins the gameplay for me. Due to those limitations I still prefer older games like WAXWORKS, which offered more puzzles, some RPG elements and a better fighting system, just lacking the freedom of movement which Penumbra offers.

These games aren't bad, really. But do they deserve the full 5 stars glory? You might happen to come across some flaws that just are due to a indie developer's technical limits and lack of experience. The maps consist of many labyrinth-style corridors, that serve as connection between the puzzle rooms. If you don't choose to kill your enemies (of which you're capable in the first game) you will waste some time hiding from the same beasts over and over again. Speaking of which: their animations look rather stiff, although Frictional did some nice work to conceal it. You won't ever meet a living human being down there, which may be because of formerly mentioned technical limitations. Story is solely told via diary fragments and other documents. That makes for some good story telling possibilites, but lacks a decent staging. I really liked to play throught the games (exept for the physic puzzle game Requiem that is more of a promotion video for the developing team), but I have to be honest enough to see that Penumbra has its moments when it just isn't good. If you're into some good old vintage castle crawling, have a look at Amnesia, which improves the idea behind Penumbra in almost every way without falling short. Very solid 3 stars.