This game was a complete failure for me, it wasnt scary, just a bunch of dogs and spiders in an abandon underground facility, but i found the game entertaining for a couple of hours. Also very nice scenarios and puzzles.

what penumbra: overtrue lacks in great gameplay and steller graphics it makes up for with bucket after bucket load of suspence and atmosphear, one of the only games i've actualy been AFRAID of.

For a freeware and created by an independent company, Penumbra is one achievement. It's maybe short, but the experience is quite memorable anyway. The ending is really dissapointing. If Penumbra got a full-scale sequel, I won't look anywhere. The engine itself are marvelous. Would be great if it utilized in other games.

This is a clever game with some very good innovations. I think it will have a lot of influence for all the new adventure games.

Penumbra is just different than anything you've seen before! This alone makes it a MUST-HAVE. But it comes even better, Penumbra is well designed, it has good graphics and balanced gameplay. I would throw away all these so called AAA titles for it!

Penumbra is sucha good game. You really have to think befor you act. The puzzles are very hard in my opinion but its that what makes the whole game fun. At first I thought this was just some "click´n click" game. But I was wrong. You face alot of scary things. Light sudenly turns off and you hear voices and alot of other creepy things. For people whole like abit of clickin´ and horror game this whould be it. Grapichs are great.… Expand

Luckily, I bought this on Steam for 5.00 last night. Looks promising, but I have played it for about 5 minutes and it's rife with clipping issues and un-intuitive play. I'm going to give it another chance, as I see other reviewers have thought better of it than my first impression. There's nothing I like better than a good horror/survival game, even though this one has the ever-present Lovecraft references and familiar, hackneyed plot. 1-sided textures in a game and my flashlight not illuminating the crawlspace I am in almost lowered my SAN score immediately... I'll cross my fingers, do a little Voorish sign, and hope I can find the good things other posters have mentioned.… Expand

A good horror/suspense game. It's the first game I've played that has the opening sequence ask you to turn off the lights, and if you do, the game becomes a whole lot better. Interesting mix of physics puzzles, traditional adventure "find the item" and general confusion of "wtf is going on?" Excellent dialog as well. Cons: The "combat" interface is terrible (though I suspect it may be on purpose to encourage running rather than fighting) and a few of the puzzles are more repetitive than necessary. Overall, great game, especially at the $5 Steam price.… Expand

You could end up really hating this game, or getting into it and tearing straight through. The atmosphere is wonderful. You feel a real sense of isolation, and the ambient sound is excellent. What little music there is reminds me of Silent Hill's selections. The physics and lighting are wonderful, and, in fact, without those things, the visuals would be 1997-era. The monster animations are not good at all, and are best left unseen. The good news is, you shouldn't be spending much time staring at the creatures. The overall darkness of the game hides its sins well, and, in fact, the brighter certain sections of the game are, the less interesting it becomes. The combat system has been mentioned before- it's effectively worthless, don't fight anything. On one level, I see this as an intentional design choice, but on the other, it seems like the game was altogether too tailored to the use of a Novint Falcon (but I wonder how much use even that would be!) It is so terrible that honestly I wish that the player had been left with no option to fight- it would have been far better for the game. Again, if you're doing it right, you shouldn't be fighting (I solved most fighting related situations by throwing things and running.) Even despite all of that, I haven't had so much fun with an adventure game since Zork Nemesis! It is strange to say that a game with so many problems is worthwhile, but if you really like adventure games, you will be able to look past them. If the adventure game mindset does not appeal to you, this game is not even worth 5 dollars on Steam.… Expand

This game is best Horror game i have ever played. A great Storyline, some really tough puzzles and overall wonderful atmosphere. A must buy!

I have been gaming for years, and nothing scares me. Movies, games, etc, it's all mundane and boring. Saying that, this game SCARES ME. The first time in years a game has made me feel like this. This alone is enough for the game to get a 10. However, the game play is very unique and unlike anything I have played. This game made me interested in adventure games again. Ignore the reviews from people who have "played it 5 minutes" as they are clearly the type of people who shouldn't be playing adventure games in the first place.… Expand

I have been playing horror games, reading frightening novels and drawing some genuinely creepy stuff for many years now. For the longest time, I was convinced that nothing could ever scare me again unless it was real life or death situations. Then I played Penumbra. I'm not even halfway through the game yet and I have to say it is purely terrifying, thought provoking and a challenging-but-not-impossible puzzle adventure game. Straight up the game only has two things going against it; the step-backwards graphics and the terribly clumsy combat system. The good heavily outweighs the bad, however. The game is practically in perpetual darkness the whole time so often the low-grade graphics are hidden well, and ironically the lighting in the game is incredible. As a puzzle/adventure game, it is certainly well done. It will challenge you to think, but it won't leave you going to an online walkthrough every five minutes. The clearest advantage this game has in the puzzle department is it's excellent physics engine, the HPL. Coincidence that those are the initials of H.P Lovecraft? I think not. But let's face it, what is the real reason we all got this game? To scare ourselves silly, and that's where this game really earns it's stars and stripes. This game had me spooked from the get-go. I was already feeling somewhat reluctant leaving the boat knowing the darkness that surely awaited me and man, was I right. This game is the first to ever have me scream "HOLY SHIT" at the top of my lungs. I play this game in small doses, so for me I'm not worried by the apparent shortness of the game. Really I don't know how you could play the game through one sitting and not be a jibbering wreck by the end of it. My advice to you on Penumbra? If you're a fan of horror or even just someone looking for a game that's more an experience then it is an action-thrill-fest, then get these games. Especially with the sales that mean you can bag them both for a mere 5 or ten dollars each. At that price even if somehow you don't like it, you will have not dug yourself a financial grave.… Expand

Penumbra: Overture begins an amazing series of video games that, though short-lived, and with some shortcomings, provides some of the most immersive atmosphere, some of the greatest writing, and the absolute best horror ever in a video game. I'm not scared by anything unless it's a real-life situation threatening the life of either me or one or more of my loved ones, and even if it were me, I'd probably still act pretty smug. Penumbra: Overture, however, is the first game to ever scare me, and shitless at that. What the developers did and did correctly is that amazing sense of vulnerability, that, with the help of controls that allow you to lean around corners, makes you not want to lean around corners to see what evil awaits. The greatest thing is that there aren't any technological modifications to the game to make the player feel vulnerable, such as Dead Space's sluggish controls and camera angle. There is a deficiency in the ability to use weapons, which had many FPS-crazies with their nuts in a knot, but this, however, was justified by the developers by the fact that you're a skinny English professor and probably can't wield a pickaxe for shit. The weapons in the game were designed to be used as a last resort and the player's main defense should be to hide in the shadows. I will not lie that it can be very buggy for some people, but for a group of four people, their tech support is amazingly reliable at their forums. Buy the whole package on Steam or something. It's amazingly cheap and while a bit short, it is an experience you will not soon forget.… Expand

I played through Penumbra Overture in the middle of the night at a friend. We both completed it that night and helped each other with puzzles etc. That was a perfect way of playing it since we had 2 brains and we didn't freak out since we weren't alone. We played Black Plague with the same effect. To the actual review: This game is definitely worth playing if you like horror titles. There's a special horror in this game, not at all as in F.E.A.R where you feel safe in that armor of yours. This horror gets in your brain and scares you in a psychological way which is freaky. I'm seeing it as a life achievement completing this game.… Expand

This is a game that I really, really want to like. It has a very interesting setting, and it does a fairly good job of establishing a feeling of extreme isolation in a long-abandoned facility, buried beneath a frozen and remote corner of the earth. I also really want to like the game for its eerie use of the glowstick/flashlight mechanics, ensuring that you are always just blind enough to be slightly creeped out by the dark. HOWEVER. All of that being said, I did not find this game "scary" in the least. It certainly makes you nervous, but not due to any well-established feeling of horror or the unknown. All of the stress in the game comes from hearing a "monster" (i.e., an ordinary wolf) prowling in the caves and knowing that the combat mechanic is so god awful that if you get spotted you might actually have to use the retarded thing. (Seriously. It's pretty bad.) The game is a bit more scary at first, when you're sneaking through the dark, unsure of what might be hiding there. But once you play for a while and realize that it's nothing but wolf, wolf, another wolf, and a wolf again, the fear of the unknown is gone and all you're left with is a series of very clunky memorize-the-patrol-pattern situations. Despite the fact that I did not find the stealth nor the combat fun, and despite the fact that the game did not feel scary to me, I continued to play it, because I enjoyed unlocking the mystery of the setting, and I enjoyed solving the puzzles. But the longer I played, the less intuitive the game became, putting me in situations where I would die repeatedly for failing to identify and solve problems at a frenetic pace. The game is also peppered with bugs and clipping problems. Eventually, tonight, after playing the game for an hour, a hallway inexplicably dropped me through the floor. I didn't/couldn't die, which would have restarted me at the last checkpoint or the door of the current room. All I could do was reload the last manual save at an artefact, which lost all of my progress. I would say give the game a try if you can get it for CHEAP. This game is definitely going to be enjoyable for the right kind of person, looking for a particular atmospheric experience, willing to overlook the game's almost constant imperfections---if not outright brokenness. I am just not one of those people. I can see how it could be fun to someone, but I just did not have fun playing it.… Expand

The atmosphere in Penumbra: Overture is great. It's dark, creepy, lonely, and cold. The physics engine is okay, with some flaws here and there, but nothing worth seriously complaining about. The moving of objects and melee actions can take getting used to, but once you're comfortable with the physics engine, it works okay, although far from perfectly. The game flows through the story smoothly without any frustration or senseless puzzles/problems to be solved. Everything is logical and upfront, requiring a realistic approach and a reasonable amount of thinking to proceed. The save system is unfriendly. It seems to save your progress when you update your personal notes, or when you interact with a certain object within the game world, which the player has little control over when this occurs. This means that you will often have to do certain portions of the game over and over until you get it right. The voice acting is superb. The accent and tone are outstanding and adds to the storyline greatly. All of the texts you will encounter in the game are well written, interesting, and adds plenty to the plot. The controls can be awkward at times in order to accomplish some actions the game requires. Penumbra: Overture is not a scary horror game. Most of its interesting emotional influences on the player comes from the theme of being almost completely solitary in an unknown place that is far from civilization and darkness. There are some instances in the game that requires the rapid change of items in conjunction to platforming and running, which I had to do many times to get it right. There is also a surprising amount of platforming as a whole for a primarily adventure game. Some parts of Penumbra: Overture are really cool, there is no denying that, but it does have a feel of an unpolished low budget title. With that said, this is probably one of the best adventure games I have ever played. It is logical and tense at all the right moments. I am not entirely sure for how long the main character is inside the mine, but the glow stick lasts for the entire duration of the game. You are not forced nor expected to use the flashlight nor the flares, which have finite longevity. I found melee fighting to be clunky and awkward, but this did not detract from the overall gaming experience. The ending is very creepy and will keep you glued to the plot, even though there is much left without explanations. The only major downside is the game's length. It is somewhat short and leaves you with a feeling of unfinished business with a cliffhanger. It took me about 8 hours to complete.… Expand

To be honest, Penumbra: Overture is a brilliant horror game. The first time I saw a wolf, I panicked and thought to myself "WTF IS THAT THING?!" But after a while I noticed the plotline made no sense. Firstoff, after playing the later games the plot seemed to deviate more and more from the direction it originally headed: Finding your missing dad. Tons of the plot was left unexplained and I was really confused. Firstoff, the origins of these Foobar wolves was never explained. I guess they're like, turngait daemons or something... Secondly, making the player able to kill the enemies was, honestly, a bad idea. The wolves just aren't as scary when I can stand on a catwalk and toss propane tanks and rocks at them and they die. Another thing that I ran into that really annoyed me was that when I was searching for a cure for Clarence, I just found a bunch of items and tossed them into the machine. Later I came across the women who tells you how to make the cure, and now I had no way to make the cure. I literally had to start the game from my last save behind that, almost 3 hours ago. I know I'm judging the game by it's sequel, but I don't really care. Buy the first one for a thrill, and stop there. Wiki the plotline and go back to your life. Black Plague and Requiem aren't worth it.… Expand