Still shrouded in mystery
It did take a good 10 minutes to become accustomed to the unusual interactivity in the game, but aside from our wrists starting to ache, the action felt solid and decent enough to make you believe that you were slaying these creatures, picking up bottles, turning door handles and smashing through vents. If you do find that combat is taking its toll on your wrists then there is the option to turn off the function in the main menu, meaning that you can use a simple click of the mouse to kill a foe.
At this point, we still know as much as you do about the storyline. Aside from a few notes scattered around this preview version, there was little to hint at the horrors to come. Frictional Games have made it clear that the game isn’t totally complete and upgrades to the graphics and animations still need to be done. We initially thought that the darkness of the underground tunnels may be hiding many imperfections in the scenery, but when we found out how to power the generator and turn the lights on we were pleasantly surprised at the results. The shadow and lighting techniques are excellent and lend a hand in creating the spooky atmosphere and objects are currently well detailed. The sound of creaking doors, scuttling spiders, your own footsteps and the soundtrack add to the creepy ambience.
This Penumbra Overture preview demonstrated the use of mouse movement interaction well, in addition to showing off a variety of puzzles, from cracking Morse code to turning valves in a set sequence. Puzzles are solved through reading the notes that you pick up and read in your inventory and from what we’ve read and played so far, this first in a three part series looks like it could be great value for money (RRP. £14.99).
Penumbra Overture is a first person shooter, a point and click adventure and a great demonstration of how physics can be used in order to engage the gamer. Despite playing the preview code the story-line is still shrouded in mystery, so we're looking forward to finding out exactly why Phillip has decided to put his life at risk.
