The original topic was too old, so I began this one. Cover Art
Synopsis
Penumbra is a first-person horror-adventure game series developed by the Swedish developers Frictional Games. It originated from a tech demo created to display the game engine Penumbra would eventually use, expanding upon the story given. However, this left the first game,
Overture, on unstable ground, with a budget so low as to only afford two voice actors. The game succeeded, and with that began the development of the next game,
Black Plague. Although originally intended to be a trilogy, it was announced that
Black Plague would be the final chapter. A expansion was released for
Black Plague, called
Requiem, to fill this vacancy. This was criticized, but accepted. After this series, Frictional Games created Penumbra's spiritual successor -
Amnesia: The Dark Descent.
The main focus of the games is on exploration and classic adventure game object interaction - examining and collecting objects, then using them to solve puzzles. Usually, these involve finding keys or other objects that can either be used alone or in combination with each other to solve specific problems. From game to game, the few combat elements were gradually removed, with it's spiritual successor having any trace of combat removed entirely. While the first game allowed the player to use tools for defensive purposes, the second game had no direct way of combating enemies. The player may still continuously use objects against the creatures until they die, however there is no indication to the player that this would do anything more than irritate the enemy up until it's death. In
Amnesia, the players themselves never cause a common enemy's death, and the death of an enemy has only an implied cause.
Enemies
| Overture |
 | Dogs
The first enemy encountered in Overture, these enemies patrol areas of the mine, attacking the player on sight. They can be distracted by Beef Jerky, but only if the player is not sighted. They will howl and attract other dogs if not dealt with quick enough while noticed. The player can kill enemies slowly with tools given, however they are ineffective. They make cameo in Black Plague, although only as hallucinations. |
 | Spiders
Overgrown spiders nest in small tunnels in the mines. Although weaker than dogs, they are more numerous and much harder to detect in their narrower, darker environment. They temporarily flee if exposed to the flashlight, however the player's primary objective is to flee forward and barricade tunnels containing them with boulders. As with Dogs, this enemy makes cameos in Black Plague. |
| Crossover |
 | Worms
Rockworms have mutated to drastically large sizes, a few to the point of being dangerous to human-sized beings. Several times throughout Overture and Black Plague, the player must either escape or outwit these creatures to progress. |
| Black Plague |
 | Infected
Wondering the halls of the now abandoned facility are the reanimated corpses of the "Archaic Elevated Caste," a secret society of people dedicated to research of ancient knowledge. Though what was left of these people was lost, this does not mean that they are mindless zombies. They will speak in disturbing tones, use weapons, and in dark areas even use flashlights. Their forward line of sight extends greatly, as they may notice the player from across the longest hallways in the game. It is possible to kill them via continuous strikes from physics objects - however this is mainly a futile effort, and the player would benefit more from finding a safe location to hide instead. |
Links
Official Website: http://www.penumbragame.com/ageGate.phpTVTropes page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Penumbra
