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Penumbra: Overture

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GAME SUMMARY

Penumbra: Overture

Rating: 4.5 (72 votes cast)

Penumbra: Overture offers intuitive and challenging gameplay using immersive mouse movement interaction. This allows the player to open, pull, push and in other ways manipulate the game objects in a motion similar to doing it in real life. This type of interaction has never before been used in a game and makes the puzzles a lot more fun and the game more immersive.

You are on your own, except for some dangerous creatures and will survive and succeed on your guile. There will not be any direct character conversations and you learn about what is going on through radio transmissions, notes, and books and by examining the environment.

Penumbra: Overture is not about mindless violence, although there will be occasions when you will have to face a number of truly horrifying and unpleasant creatures and combat is implemented in such a way that an enemy is very hard to kill. Trying to use a weapon is really a last resort. At best the player will manage to knock the enemy out for a short time period allowing her/him to escape and hide. Various objects in the environment will also be useful for stopping enemies. Rocks can be thrown and heavy boxes can be pushed over enemies. There are also inventive actions like being able to break a beam and thereby letting large rocks fall onto an enemy. These are just a few measures you may have to undertake to get out of a dangerous encounter.

  • Immersive and stimulating story.
  • Cutting edge 3D graphic technologies with an advanced physics system
  • Detailed and highly interactive environments – caves, abandoned mines, snowy outsides, a fishing boat, and much more.
  • Advanced AI that lets the enemies use the environment and work together.
  • Environmental audio system to heighten the senses
  • Focusing on players using their wits rather than mindless violence.
  • Varied puzzles, some based on physics, with many different ways and tactics to solve each.
  • Tutorial level to learn and understand game mechanics with new mouse movement manipulation for a fuller experience.
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Penumbra: Overture review

By hypercynic posted 25th March

This is the 1st of 3 penumbra games. The story is very interresting, and the puzzles just keep you hooked. Its a great game, but the best part of all is that the game to follow is even better!!!

Penumbra: Overture review

By Pogswarts posted 25th January 2011

This is a fantastic and very unique game that will scare the crap out of you!

I won't spoil any of the story for you, but be prepared for some unexpected twists. The graphics are aging, textures are blurry, but the lighting and physics help make up for that. The sound effects and music add a lot to the atmosphere and there's some good voice acting.

The game-play is easily the best part about this game. Almost all interactions are done with mouse movements, so opening a door has you literally pulling your mouse forwards or backwards which adds a lot to the immersion. The combat can be very intense at times, and you have to be careful not to look in your enemies eyes are your character will panic and expose himself.

If you're looking for a horror/puzzle game you can't do much better than Penumbra.

Penumbra: Overture review

By PUMKIN OF DOOM posted 26th May 2009

this was a great game, but like the first was, was very short. the enemies are incredibly fast making them really hard to outrun if you get caught hiding.

also, this is the only game in the series with weapons, which is probably the biggest mistake of the game. it wasn't designed for combat in my opinion and fighting is a hard and complex task.

but do not let this put you off what is a masterpiece in gaming. very scary and tense, a great game engine and a awesome story.

Penumbra: Overture review

By kano841 posted 1st July 2007

A pleasant surprise, I find this title a fresh breeze among all the mainstream and "clone-of-each-other" titles out there today! As far as genres go, I'd say this is a horror adventure. And as expected, it's the creepiness and overall atmosphere of this game that is its high quality. The graphics are not in any way cutting-edge , but from reading a few reviews of it I was actually prepared for less. With all the settings crammed up to max, it looks quite good!

The gameplay is a fair mix of stealth, exploration, puzzle and action. The latter not necessarily meaning "shooting" and/or "stabbing" as is almost standard these days. This is a good thing because it adds to the overall realism which in turn adds to the atmosphere which, again, is the high point of this game

It should be mentioned though that the game is a low-budget production which shows here and there, but it doesnt ruin the experience.

The overall experience I had with this game was like watching a good horror/thriller movie. Just add interaction and a few extra hours of entertainment.


If you're into this genre or just wanna try something new in between some major mainstream releases, I'd check this one out.