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Destructoid review: Penumbra: Overture Episode One

12:17 PM on 04.09.2007, World Famous 27 comments

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Now usually, with our reviews, we like to have at least three of our writers contribute their thoughts. But, with the PC game Penumbra: Overture Episode One, we were a little short, but still wanted to let you know about this title. Because, let's be honest, the chances you've actually heard of it are slim at best.

So, hit the jump for the review of Penumbra: Overture Episode One and see what you think. 

Mike -Savant- Ferry

Penumbra: Overture is the first episode in an upcoming series of first-person horror games created by Frictional Games. The setting for this game is a seemingly deserted mining facility located somewhere in Greenland. It may sound a bit stereotypical, but Penumbra pulls off this setting very well by using some great lighting effects and immersive sound design. Unfortunately, the layout of the various rooms and corridors seems very uninspired due to a lot of rehashing of objects and textures.

One of the most enjoyable and refreshing elements of the experience is the physical interaction system. Opening a door is not just a simple click or button press, it actually involves a physical movement of the mouse in the proper direction to swing a door open, or slam it closed. There are many great uses for this system which mesh perfectly with the game's many puzzles.

Speaking of puzzles, that is what Penumbra is built around from the ground up. If you are looking for a balls-out, shoot-anything-that-moves type game, then this is certainly not for you. The combat system in Penumbra is bittersweet. You are a simple man, not a soldier, so your combat expertise is very limited. You must click and drag the mouse from side-to-side to perform a striking motion with the melee weapons you acquire.

Your weakness is evident the moment you try to fight an enemy with your brawn alone. As with everything else, combat is a thought-provoking situation. Picking up a large object and hurling it at your enemy to knock them to the ground is a great option, or perhaps you can sneak past using stealth to avoid a confrontation completely. Sadly, the clunky combat control system lacks any sort of accuracy when you try to actually hit an enemy and comes off being more frustrating and sloppy than enjoyable. Another big personal turn off is a lack of rendered hand models --- the items just kind of float in front of you when you swing.

All-in-all, Penumbra: Overture is a very promising game with a lot of untapped potential. There are a lot of positives here, but also some undeniable glaring negatives that really take you out of the whole experience at times. Looking past the problems with combat and such, Penumbra should definitely scratch the itch of anyone looking for a horror game with a few unique twists.

Final score: 6.5

 

Reverend Anthony

First things first: If you played Call of Cthulhu and loved it up to the point where you got a gun, then Overture is for you. It's been specifically designed for those gamers who love the horror genre, but are tired of all the overblown action and combat that comes with it.

The two keywords in Overture are "atmosphere" and "physics." The game is essentially a horror title mixed with an adventure/exploration titlem -- think Myst meets Resident Evil.

You play a regular guy with no special abilities, and so the focus is on puzzles, mood, and avoiding combat rather than hiding. If you ever do need to kill an enemy, then you can almost always use your environment to do so (trapping a baddie next to a steam valve and then turning it on full blast, for example). The bulk of the game's puzzles are physics based. The puzzles make sense and fit well into the overall flow of the game, because you aren't constantly feeling that the developers are just throwing random ideas at you and forcing you to cope with them.

While some of the puzzles don't really pan out, most of them do, and they do so without ever feeling forced. The atmosphere is awesome, too -- the lighting is fantastic, and everything you grab has a tactile feel as the game forces you to move your mouse around in circles to spin a wheel, or pull it back to open a door, and so on.

That being said, however, the game does have some flaws. For one thing -- Savant and I agree on this -- the combat, at times, seems to be the worst of both worlds. It's simultaneously too easy and too frustrating once you get the hang of it -- despite the fact that the game wants you to hide and cower from every undead wolf you meet, it turns out to be pretty easy to just throw a barrel at them to stun them before whacking them to death with a hammer. Conversely, the action weapon swinging system is really inaccurate and wonky; while this was an obvious choice on the part of the developers, it creates a considerable problem when you combine the too-ineffective melee weapons with the too-effective object throwing. The combat should be much, much tougher than it is.

Additionally, one of the puzzles in particular had me stumped, and not in a good way. The information the game provided me was contradictory to what I actually had to do, and so I eventually had to email the developers myself. The solution they gave me was more or less the exact opposite of what the puzzle clues said to do, and it really took me out of the game.

All around, though, I have to say that it's relatively easy to look past these flaws and appreciate what, at its heart, is a clever, original, unorthodox take on the horror and adventure genres. If you're in the mood for something new, Overture will not disappoint. Personally, I'm looking forward to episode two already.

Final score: 7


Next page: More Horror games stories




Snaileb 's Avatar
Snaileb at 04/09/2007 12:37
So this is twice as good as Zelda????
biohazardous_snark's Avatar
biohazardous_snark at 04/09/2007 12:38
I played Call of Cthulu, but haven't played it since getting the gun, so all in al I'm guessing this game is perfect for me.
ArrestedDeveloper's Avatar
ArrestedDeveloper at 04/09/2007 12:57
lol @ Snaileb
Tbomb's Avatar
Tbomb at 04/09/2007 12:59
From what I have played so far from the First Episode, its a good game. Just make sure the lights are off. If you enjoy exploring and solving puzzles its a great find.
velcroman's Avatar
velcroman at 04/09/2007 13:00
the review crew is shrinking, down to two.

I'll give my 2 cents, *ahem* mememe...it sucked ass. I installed it, played it for awhile, almost fell asleep, then it crashed my PC, and it happened to Charlie too.
shipero's Avatar
shipero at 04/09/2007 13:14
I played the tech demo version of this game a few months ago, interesting ideas, the controls were off and it was ugly as sin, but I might check this out, looks better at least.
BahamutZero's Avatar
BahamutZero at 04/09/2007 13:26
only $20? might be worth a look. although metacritic wasn't nearly as kind as RevAnt

http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/pc/penumbra

props for doing something different though
Joseph Leray's Avatar
Joseph Leray at 04/09/2007 13:47
@Bahamut -- too bad the Metacritic review is based off 5 reviews. That's not to say that any successive reviews won't give it somewhere b/w a 6 or 7. Too boot, the user is ranking is a high 9. Seems like RevAnt falls somewhere in between. Not bad.
Anthony Burch's Avatar
Anthony Burch at 04/09/2007 14:25
There was a mixup with the scores -- i gave it a 7/10, which may better explain my views toward the controls, bhive.

Had the entire game revolved around combat (as Zelda does) I would have been insanely harsher on them, but since the entire point of the game is to AVOID combat, I only took away two points.
Snaileb 's Avatar
Snaileb at 04/09/2007 14:35
Zelda isn't centered around combat, like Final Fight, its an adventure gam-.....WTF is the point....

So this is almost twice as good?? (as Zelda?)
Anthony Burch's Avatar
Anthony Burch at 04/09/2007 14:44
I sure as hell enjoyed it twice as much. Without having played both Penumbra and Zelda, you probably don't understand how insanely action-oriented (and therefore, control-reliant) Zelda is in comparison to Penumbra.

Reference the fantasy/adventure genre all you want, 60% of Zelda revolved around combat. With Penumbra, it's down to less than 20%.
Snaileb 's Avatar
Snaileb at 04/09/2007 15:01
So, was it because Zelda had too much action, or because Penumbra had enough action, or because the controls to do most of the action in Zelda wasn't up to par because of the controls?

Personaly I prefer more action to my puzzles... like God of War. Whatever.
Snaileb 's Avatar
Snaileb at 04/09/2007 15:02
Actually Rev. nevermind, I'm sure there are legions of people that would agree on your review. I'm not one of them, but whatever.

(Has a Master Sword tattoo, and didn't take your review lightly)

Whatever.
Anthony Burch's Avatar
Anthony Burch at 04/09/2007 15:03
It was because the action and controls in Zelda sucked, and the entire game hinged on them not sucking. Penumbra's action controls sucked, but you can (and are supposed to) play the entire game without engaging in combat.

I've only been making variations of this statement for the past four months.
Snaileb 's Avatar
Snaileb at 04/09/2007 15:08
Well... I was going to let it die but...

You may have people that agree with you, you may have people with 'Zelda sucks' tattoo's on your side, you might even convince Zelda fanboy's the game did suck, but I just can't see the logic.

Your posts , reviews, and essay like blog's do have alot of perception and logic, but I just can't see it here.

Well, like I said I was going to let this die, and like you said you've been stating your variations of this review for 4 months, so let's just blame NamelessTed.

BahamutZero's Avatar
BahamutZero at 04/09/2007 15:18
snail how'd that guitar hero owning you an shit turn out? hope it's all ok
Snaileb 's Avatar
Snaileb at 04/09/2007 15:29
haha thanx mang, I have to play it supervised and only an hour a day , but other than that no more epiliptic-ness.

=)
bhive01's Avatar
bhive01 at 04/09/2007 16:13
I think it's Ted's fault too. Somehow, someway, it's really Ted's fault. I think Phoenix Wright could figure it out. That guy's a genius in the courtroom.



Sorry Rev A, I respect your opinion I wasn't trying to start shit, I was just curious how the controls really differed since it appeared to have similar issues with your actions translating to on-screen actions. If fighting is frustrating but you don't have to do it very often then it definately shouldn't carry as much weight (negative) as compared to Zelda: TP...

I say keep the reviews coming.
Mxyzptlk's Avatar
Mxyzptlk at 04/09/2007 17:06
lol, RevAnt is going to get bitched at for that Twilight Princess review until the earth is nothing but a smoking ruin (currently scheduled for the Thursday after next).
Xenali's Avatar
Xenali at 04/09/2007 20:11
*GASP* "Need...more......a-c-t-i-o-n.....
I kinda fell asleep within the 1st 30m's of it. It was kinda BORING. There's no competing with ZELDA! Muahahahaha!
LarkOhiya's Avatar
LarkOhiya at 04/09/2007 20:21
hmm. pay no attention to the wife above (xenali) she only was WATCHING me play it. while I had planned on writing a more robust review to accompany savants and rev.s I'll just write up a mini counter point review and see if i can get rob to edit the post.
Snaileb 's Avatar
Snaileb at 04/10/2007 07:28
Haha MS Paint wins
LarkOhiya's Avatar
LarkOhiya at 04/10/2007 10:04
screw it. here is Lark Ohiya's patented mini counter review for "Penumbra: Overture Episode One, moody mc puzzlestine"

The introduction for Penumbra does an excellent job of setting the mood for the rest of the game which I think everyone is in agreement on. It IS the game. Puzzles, wolfbeasts, beef jerky, they all serve as conduits to set the mood and story of Penumbra.

I happend to be in ventrillo (as I often am) while playing the game and could not help myself from recounting my step by step experience with "dramatic" voice over.

Unlike Savant and Rev. I took no opportunity to fight the various wolves that you might encounter in the game and this is exactly how the designers want it. While I can see now that my character might not have been as defenseless as the designers protrayed. I found that playing the roll of the cowering "averageman" was a refreshing change of pace.

To not repeat anything Savant or Rev have already stated I do wish the environment was more original. which is a sad thing to have to say. Much of the game is unique and custom made, but when you see the 30th identical stack of over 9,000 sheets of note paper it detracts from the immersion.

On a final note Penumbra harkens back to a day when games didn't try to be everything and do everything even as much as everyone seeps to enjoy it. Penumbra tells a story with logical puzzles that never feel contrived or missplaced. Pick this up if you like GOOD scary, or GOOD puzzles, or BAD FPS.

7.9 (ZOMG so close to an 8)
Katana's Avatar
Katana at 04/11/2007 16:06
I remember playing the original, Penumbra: Overture. It was fun to play while it lasted, as he said combat was clunky but I don't think that was really the focus of it. However, I'm guessing the first reviewer really didn't think about how to attack his enemies.
ZWTF I CANT SHOT HIM TERES A EXPLOSIV BAREL IN TEH WAY
Best use of physics since HL2 though.
Fading Star's Avatar
Fading Star at 12/13/2007 20:26
Cool.
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