Penumbra Overture

note: since all three [i]penumbra[/i] games are now part of the [i]penumbra collection[/i] i will leave the same summary on all of them. i first got my hands on the [i]penumbra[/i] games in late 2012. (actually i still found the old savegames on my current rig.) they are gripping survival horror games with dense atmosphere and a weird but interesting story. back then it was THE scariest game young me with full hair had ever played. still creeped me out this time around actually and probably added a few grey hairs extra. the puzzles are good and straight forward but it's one of them old pacifist games where you can't even pick up a hammer on the floor to defend yourself with. back in the days this seriously annoyed me buuut it's part of the game i guess. obviously by today's standards absolutely everything about [i]penumbra[/i] feels dated and dusted. but for me they are a must-have for all horror genre fans IF you don't mind the old school presentation. time to complete [i]overture[/i]: 5 hours [i]black plague[/i]: 4.5 hours [i]requiem[/i]: 3 hours

Очень добротный хоррор. Эти разрабы всегда умели делать хорошие и интересные хорроры и их первая работа уже показала, что они в этом мастера.

халф лайф + сайлент хіл = імба пенумбра 1

Рыжик орыжел 7/10

This is one of my favorite survival horror games. I cannot decide on what exactly I would like to point out, but it sure is one of the few games that gave me a spook. The environment alone, feels like a real threat. Also, I really got invested in all of the smaller stories hidden in the diary pages you pick up. A lot of this game is dated, now, but I'm still talking about it every once in a while.

Коротенькая и не особо страшная игра. При желании можно даже быстрее пробежать. В целом норм.

I didn't really enjoy this one. I've heard so many good things about the Penumbra series so I was really excited to play this but ended up going away very disappointed. Maybe if I had played this when it came out I would appreciated it more but as it stand today, it is a deeply outdated game that isn't scary nor fun to play and has been outclassed in every way. I think Overture has a very strong start but it falls of extremely quickly and turns into an absolute slog. You fall through a hatch and start off in an abandoned mine and you get all of these notes about a trapped scientist who started eating spiders and eventually seems to have turned into a monster over time and trapped himself in a small room from which he eventually escapes out off while you're in the next room. I really thought he was going to be the main enemy and would stalk and chase me throughout the game, that would have been absolutely amazing. This unfortunately does not happen and when I found out that the wolfes, spiders and the big worm are the only enemies you will ever encounter, I was extremely disappointed and any remaining horror I had felt went away. One big issue is how much the game overuses the wolfe enemies. If they had used them sparingly and maybe only had 1 or max 2 wolfes per map roaming around (like at the start of the game where there is only one wolfe that is involved in a really cool sequence where it breaks down a barricaded door that you had just barricaded), they might have been scary all the way to the end of the game. Instead, the developers made these extremely large, maze-y levels and spammed them with like at least 1 - 2 wolfes around every corner. So you end up having to deal with like 6 wolfes at once. What also does not help is that the wolfes do not even seem to patrol any set path, they fumble around aimlessly so sneaking past them is almost impossible because the levels have barely any hiding spots and the wolfes never get out of the way. They keep camping the same corners and hallways, never giving you any window to sneak past. At first, I attempted to stealth past them but I was not getting anywhere, so I eventually learnt that you can abuse the clunky combat system and get rid of them by sneaking up behind and stunlocking them by continously hitting them until they eventually die. It works nearly 100% of the time. I say nearly because they like to sink into the ground briefly. And that's what Overture can be summed up as. It's bunch of boring, uninteresting mazes with multiple wolfes that can be stunlocked and killed. Once you do, you end up with bunch of empty hallways to get lost in until you eventually find your way to the next area where you do the same thing again and again until the game ends. By the time I had reached the last chapter, I felt absolutely no fear and very underwhelmed when I found out that it was yet another maze with the same wolfes that I had been stunlocking and killing for the past, what? 8 hours? And yes, there are puzzles but I can't say I'm a big fan of them. I think the one especially at the start involving the generator is just annoying. I managed to figure out without a guide but I can't say I had fun.

Игра очень хороша. Она не такая атмосферная и страшная, как первая "Амнезия", но для дебютной игры этих разработчиков она действительно впечатляет. Сюжет и локации мне очень понравились. ⭐️ Оценка: 4/5

Call me an ATF agent the way none of those dogs were spared. Crap jokes aside although dated, this was a relatively solid survival horror experience, honestly choosing to not fight the dogs and have the power of newtonian physics and beef jerky at your side in trying to trap the dogs in the yellow containers early on or the gas piped cages later on instead would make the experience a bit more threatening but I felt like it was more trouble than it was worth so I put them ol' Busters down the swift way. You can beat the game by pretty much not using most of the things you have but that's pretty much my only gripe I suppose, in rest I enjoyed the atmosphere, the puzzles were fun and simple, the funny little Half Life reference and reading through all the notes for every bit of lore the game had to offer. If you don't want to get spoiled about a part right before the end of the game, don't read this here. [spoiler]Poor Red though, I really liked the guy, going through his room and seeing everything sadened me more, I guess there was no other way :ccc[/spoiler]