Penumbra: Black Plague

"A horrifying sequel to an underground gem."

Introduction: I don't usually make these but as I am reviewing a sequel for a game, I hope you understand that there will be spoilers regarding the first game in the Story section of this review and at no other place. If you are reading about the series, and have not yet played Overture, please skip that section for your own benefit. Thanks!


Graphics:

Frictional Game's in-house engine labeled as "HPL" was the only reason Overture became a game. For its time it was very technical with its lighting, sound track and overall performance even on low end machines. Comparable to Source in more than many ways HPL 1.0 became a hit after the release of the tech demo for Penumbra, and it became a full game. Frictional Game's looked over Overture's minor success and realized they needed something more daring and technical to reach the shelves of enthusiasts. They got to work on HPL once again, outfitting it with some outrageous overhauls such as "Bump Mapping", dynamic lighting, shadow mapping, and more. While not revolutionary in any sense the already abundant atmosphere in Overture was turned up to 11 with the inclusion of thousands of minor details, lighting improvements, a higher supported resolution and other technical treats.


The art direction has changed from muddy and brown dirt passageways cut out of the earth to metallic and almost space-age hallways and rooms relying heavily on silver, black, and white for main color themes. A sense of disgusting neglect and dirt and grime covers every object, abusing the tiniest pipes and books with grime and misuse. Turning over plates of rotten food and dirt dishes, scavenging the shelves of a disgusting kitchen or emptying garbage cans full of used containers really does feel revolting at times. The atmosphere created in the Shelter is engrossing grimy and sad on more than one instance. Lighting plays a bigger part in Black Plague with the inclusion of many shadow and light based technologies. A flare will sparkle unreliably and cause shadows to jump around the walls, and your flashlight has finally become quite useful as it pierces the blackness and fog more reliably than in Overture. While not a technical masterpiece by modern standards, Black Plague is *very* aware of the atmosphere it wants to drown your senses in for eight to ten hours. It manages to stay fresh, memorable and straight up horrifying the whole way and finishes with an artistic marvel in architecture and scenery.


Sound:

Modern horror games have come to realize the sheer importance and immersion that a good ambient and direct sound track provides. Penumbra: Black Plague has hopped on board this wagon and subsequently killed all the other passengers.


As you walk through the dank, dripping, and desolate mine shafts and the empty metal or marble halls of the shelter you will hear some disheartening noises from the deepest recesses of your imagination echo from the walls and inaccessible rooms. Your own footsteps reflect your heartbeat as you shuffle down passageways with only your flashlight. Above you on another level you can hear screams, or the moaning of the rocks shifting. In front of you the guttural voice of a sub human monster... The brilliant and chilling soundtrack reminded me of another atmospheric classic, "Stalker: Shadows of Chernobyl". In the background plays a lonely violin and bass which occasionally bursts into mournful bits of mysterious song. This was a fantastic touch as it was never intrusive, like the mood of Phillips' mind put into sound. Voice acting is top notch for a company this small. Phillip's voice is convincing, emotional and in tact and all other voices in this game give respectable performances--Though few characters there might be. The only one in question is "Clarance" but spoiling his voice, or character, would be too much of a spoiler indeed.


Story:

When a game leans towards the Lovecraft kind of horror I can't help but get a knot in my stomach from imagining all the areas they could go wrong. Treating such a delicate style of atmosphere is a careful business like walking through a minefield or into a china shop. And like clockwork around half way through you can tell the developers give up and bring out the guns, blowing the shop to pieces. Black Plague on the other hand grabs this form of story telling by the throat and never lets go, bringing a towering feeling of dread and loneliness from the start to the finish of the game. The game's script is masterful and there lies a thick mystery and feeling of almost regret under the story as it progresses. You, Phillip, followed some maps to Greenland to find your presumed dead father Howard. When you land you get lost and stumble upon an old mine shaft entrance. You run in to escape the cold and find yourself trapped in this world of tunnels in the earth's bowels.


Those are some of the events of the first game. As you went deeper into the mine you found something much more sinister than the gigantic worms of the first game. An almost entirely self sufficient research and scientific shelter exists under the mine and you arrived a bit too late. As you unravel the mystery you'll find a cosmic horror subplot, something about a virus, and make some new friends... All the twists, chills, and overall doom present in Lovecraft's work can be found here in large quantities. There is a "questionably unfitting" character in this game you will discover about half way through and he is my only complaint as he is too comical in his voice, but his character is a driving force in the emotion and atmosphere.


Game Play

A survival horror game is expected to immerse you in the world it creates. As such its job is to hold up your delicate suspension of disbelief and watch you like a rat in a maze as you try to master the challenges it has in store for you. Some games play cheap; cutting off the lights or throwing a monster out of the closet. Others treat you like a child, making you fetch one key for one door and in that room is another key for another door. And further still they mock your intelligence by repeating the same see-saw puzzle over and over on a large scale.


Penumbra Black Plague was aware of these different personalities in the genre and masterfully created a game play experience about true logic, survival, scavenging and puzzle solving that would work in a real world scenario. Indeed, the puzzles are solved mostly by your first or second instinct. Below I will describe the opening level of Black Plague: You awaken at the start of the game in a locked off room that once had the role of housing tools. The game has you run around the room opening shelves and toppling desks to find your supplies needed, and after you sort your things you need to escape. The door is locked, you have a problem. A sudden urgency arrises in that in the room next door a man was just killed, you are next. You picked up a quarter by your flash light, and there is a vent out of this room. Immediately instinct kicks in: There is a vice tool on the table, and your quarter is too thick to use as a screw driver. You crush it down to size in the vice and unscrew the vent, and crawl to safety. You don't stack boxes to get out, or block the door. You must complete a task that feels very natural and fluid.


Black Plague's puzzles and story line is baked deep into basic instinct and fear. You'll find yourself rummaging through a room for basic supplies like batteries and medical items or a quest item you need only to be jarred alert by something sinister in the hallway. You can jam a chair under the door's handle and escape through an alternate root, hide behind a stack of boxes, or engage the intruder by using the games intuitive physics system. To open a shelf you must click on it to get a grab on it, and then pull your mouse towards you to open the drawer. Slowly to be quiet, fast to rip it out. You must spin your mouse to turn a valve, and swing your mouse side to side to attack with a crude weapon. This very small enhancement on the basic physics engine really makes it feel like you are there, struggling against an assailant. The puzzles are fluid and happen seemlessly. You don't stop to look around and count a number, or combine items in your inventory to fit a key or anything. Most puzzles are based around the physics engine and logical thinking. Break down a door. Light a match under an emergency fire system. Put a flare in a bucket of oil to light it. If you try it based on first instinct, it'll probably work. A few linear puzzles exist, but are so far apart you'll barely notice. Survival is the name of the game here. You must scavenge and live off your environments, solving the mystery and trying to escape the damned shelter. There is no half baked melee system this time, it is all incorporated into the physics. If you are looking for a suspenseful, atmosphereic and horrifying game do not look any further past this game as it is the better of the two in all ways.


Closing Comments

This is how a sequel should be made. All aspects of Overture have been improved here, from the physics to the puzzles to the sound to the graphics. This is as close as you're going to get to finding the atmosphere located in horror films or stories in a video game. Black Plague is a short, but gripping, experience in survival horror that will leave you wanting more but ironically disappointed: It is the last in the series of three planned games.


Black Plague's name should be mentioned in the same breath as other horror classics on the PC, but it is not. Doomed forever to obscurity is this games ultimate fate. So if you see this on the shelf after this review, don't hesitate at its price or the crude box art. Pick it up, and enjoy one of the best.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/04/09, Updated 11/24/09

Game Release: Penumbra: Black Plague (US, 02/12/08)