Penumbra: Overture review
rms
I'll keep this review positive and pass over the awkward combat system.
That leaves the gameplaying process, and the storyline. The actual gameplay
consists of exploring a tunnel system (in a fully 3D FPS fashion, more than
most adventure games can manage, even nowadays), opening doors and picking
up objects until an obstacle to further progress is encountered.
This obstacle generally consists of a puzzle requiring physical manipulation
of objects in the 3D world, so there's quite a bit of fetching and carrying.
A typical puzzle is a need to fire up a generator to open an electric gate,
but the battery is missing, and buttons must be pressed in a certain
sequence with only partial instructions available. The battery is in a
locked box that can't be opened, but there's a deep shaft I can push it into
to break it open, while symbols above the buttons assist in the proper
starting sequence. This is not Riven-level stuff here! Fairly young kids
could handle this, though the story-line is a bit dark.
As for the storyline, in this episode, originally the first of three, the
player finds out what is going on in this tunnel system mostly through
reading journals found as he proceeds through the tunnels, and at the end
you are left with a little emotional shock, and a lot of threads left
hanging, with a pretty small quantity of actual information imparted. Well,
that's no doubt why the student authors were aiming for a trilogy, just
getting the engine and physical puzzles working was a huge task no doubt.
I'll give it about a C+ at this point, with words of encouragement. The
promise is there, and I'm already committed, having bought and installed the
sequel Penumbra: Black Plague, as long as the storyline is fleshed out. So
I'll leave the review there, but I think it's fair to say that the king of
this 3D physical puzzlegame genre was reached many years ago with the
release of Real Myst, a fully 3D version of Myst. If you've never played
either Myst or Real Myst, I highly encourage installing it: a magical game.
I'd gladly pay $100 or maybe more for a fully 3D version of Riven, but
that'll never happen I guess, too expensive a project said Cyan, when asked.
rms
Andrew Plotkin
>
> I'll give it about a C+ at this point, with words of encouragement. The
> promise is there, and I'm already committed, having bought and installed the
> sequel Penumbra: Black Plague, as long as the storyline is fleshed
> out.
Black Plague improves the puzzle interaction and drops most of the
combat interaction, so you'll probably be happy.
> So I'll leave the review there, but I think it's fair to say that
> the king of this 3D physical puzzlegame genre was reached many years
> ago with the release of Real Myst, a fully 3D version of Myst.
To be fair, RealMyst didn't look this good, and it didn't explore the
possibilities of 3D world manipulation the way Penumbra does.
> I'd gladly pay $100 or maybe more for a fully 3D version of Riven, but
> that'll never happen I guess, too expensive a project said Cyan, when asked.
Too expensive for the number of copies they'd sell, anyhow. I'd be
thrilled, but for most gamers it'd be either "I bought this in 1997"
or "I decided not to buy this in 1997."
--Z
--
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
*
If the Bush administration hasn't thrown you in military prison without trial,
it's for one reason: they don't feel like it. Not because you're patriotic.