The Penumbra games were a series of games that I went and noticed on sale in a bundle, but I never went out of my way to go and play any of the games until I decided to go out of my way and try the series out for the first time. The first game in the series Penumbra: Overture, is a horror game that I did enjoy. If I had to compare this game to anything, it would be an early Amnesia game. Also, Frictional Games made the Penumbra series before the Amnesia series so seeing some of the original roots from TDD that came from here was nice.

Pros

• Nice story, filled with lots of mystery and suspense
  
• Fan and tense gameplay
  
• Unique puzzles that require thinking
  
• Unsettling graphics that make the areas creepy

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• The story lacks depth sometimes, where you have very little reason to care for some of the characters
  
• Combat is very clunky

The story starts with Philip Buchanon who receives a letter from his father who was thought to be dead, he tells him that he must go to Greenland to an unknown mining vessel. Upon arriving at the mine, the entrance collapses and Philip is trapped. With no other options left, he decides to go deeper, along the way, he soon finds out that he is not alone.
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3427001356
I will say that Penumbra: Overture’s story is really good. It starts extraordinarily strong and picks up in the later parts. The story is, in fact, full of mystery and suspense that will keep the player invested throughout. You will want to find out more about what is going on in this mine. The story keeps the player in the dark about everything, and even when something is explained, you are still asking yourself questions about it.

You must start here if you want to understand the Penumbra series. The games are connected, so you must play this game to understand everything in the story. However, that leads to one of the more glaring issues with the game's story, it’s not perfect by any means. You see, there are a few characters in the game, but you have little reason to care about them at all, as you learn about most of them through notes that aren't always that interesting. The only character I could relate to is Tom Redwood and everything else just comes and goes. There are interesting bits to the story that I did like but everything else is just not interesting. This and another issue I will talk about later in the review were taken into consideration and improved on its sequel.

Penumbra: Overture is a survival horror game with a large focus on puzzle solving, you will be using the environment to solve some of them. This requires the player to think creatively about how to solve the puzzle in question, which makes it complex and difficult in some ways, which of course, makes it a puzzle. Although there are times when it can get confusing, you just must think at times and use the environment.

The puzzles are well throughout, and I thoroughly enjoy doing them, even when I got confused, it just felt natural to me. The game specializes in this aspect the most, rather than just being a horror game. None of the puzzles shined to me but it was nice seeing how some of the mining equipment was used or some of its machinery.
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3427001726
While exploring the mine, you will encounter enemies who will try to hinder your path. Since you don’t have any means of defending yourself, you must run and hide to try to avoid enemies. However, there are other methods for dealing with them, like giving beef jerky to a zombie dog or using light to scare away spiders. There are also ways to trap enemies and kill them that way, so there are ways to take care of enemies, you just must try and think.

However, I should mention that there is a way to defend yourself if you need to, and while the game tells you that there is no combat. There is combat and it’s extremely clunky, this is some of the clunkiest combat I have seen in a horror game. To attack enemies, you must hold the right mouse button and swing with your mouse, the attack is dependent on where you move the mouse. The issue here is that your camera is locked in place, and you can’t move it around. The enemies will get the drop on you this way and you can die in three or four hits if not careful. You are just better off running from enemies or using some other means to defend yourself. Spiders are the worst as they are small and their hitboxes are small, so it’s best to just use light as they hate that. Which I never used because part of me was stubborn and thought I would be fine without it.

The atmosphere for Penumbra: Overture is very creepy and unsettling. It makes you feel like you are alone, and no one is coming to help you. I tested the game on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, AMD Ryzen 5 1500X Quad-Core Processor 3.50, and 16 GB of RAM. I experienced no issues while playing, and the game should be able to run on low-end PCs.
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3427001824
Overall, Penumbra: Overture is a fine horror game that I enjoyed very much. I recommend it for those who want to get into the series or for those who are looking for a decent horror game. The game has two glaring issues, but if you are like me and can pull through, then there is a game here for you. The game is in a bundle at 12.99 CDN and it comes with its sequel Black Plague, so the price is worth it for the two games alone.

A very good horror adventure game.

It looks and plays great given its age. Sound design is awesome. Story is great too, though it seemed somewhat complicated at first. I got stuck a few times and had to refer to the walkthrough, so I found some of the puzzles a bit confusing.

But overall I enjoyed the game.