Penumbra: Overture is pretty neat
Or at least the demo is. I haven't played the full version yet (I'll probably get the direct-download version in a week or two when I have more free time.) It's basically a really creepy adventure game in a FPS-type engine that bases a lot of its puzzles on some very well-simulated Newtonian physics. Has anyone else played this? Does the full version measure up to the demo?
Comments
They got rid of the combat entirely (which was never the original game's strong suit anyway) and put a greater emphasis on puzzles and storyline. There's still the occasional enemy in the game but the focus is on running from them and hiding rather than fighting (which was what you had to do most of the time the first time around, too, but they made it more obvious here by never giving you a weapon.)
The plot is a bit of a departure from the first game, adding science fiction elements and a dry sense of humour to what had previously been a fairly straight Lovecraft-inspired horror story, but it still works and the overall quality of the writing/translation and the voice acting are a notch above what we had in Overture (which was pretty good itself.)
The game's pretty short (to be expected from a $20 episodic game) but it's still well worth it. There's also an expansion pack out called Penumbra:Requiem that's basically a string of puzzles using the game's physics engine with little to no connecting plot. I haven't palyed it myself but it might be worth getting.