(Continued from my review of Black Plague)
An excerpt from a Rock Paper Shotgun interview with Tom Jubert, the lead writer of the series:
(RPS) Can you explain the confusion over the number of chapters in the Penumbra series? There were to be three, then it was two, and now there's a third again?:

(TJ) Frictional had some problems with the publisher that it's not really my place to go into. Put it this way, if Lexicon Entertainment ever offers you a publishing deal, turn them down, then give the guy a slap.

So, to put it gently, the plans for a Penumbra trilogy got axed due to publisher issues, and the plot had to be finished with an expansion pack. However, the first hour of Requiem will leave you wondering if that closure is really going to happen. Black Plague seemed to wrap up the plot already, and this expansion is just… endless physics puzzles? No monsters, no stealth, no plot? It’s less of a conclusion as it is a set of bonus levels with some extra character details scattered around, but when I discovered this interview, I was at least relieved to see that the developers were up front about that. The interview was published on July 21st, 2008, and Requiem would launch on August 27th, so a quote like “I consider the story to have ended with Black Plague” is of unusual honesty. Unfortunately though, highlighting that the developers didn’t deceive anyone by calling it a narrative step forward is the perfect definition of damning with faint praise, because there isn’t anything else I can compliment it for. It focuses on characters who were developed enough already, the physics puzzles are tedious, there’s almost no horror to this horror game at all, I genuinely can’t think of any reason to play it even if you’re a fan of the previous two games.

So, with all three mini-reviews down, where do I stand on Penumbra as a series? Well, it’s hard for me to say. I really liked Black Plague, but it’s been outdone by its own creators in titles that don’t require playing mediocre prequels, and it’s not so outstanding that I can recommend it outside the context of its successors. I want those ideas to be remembered and iterated upon, but if someone just wanted something to play, I don’t know if Penumbra would be near the top of my recommendations. These games represent a triumph in horror design, but not necessarily of game design, so the audience is always going to be limited. I guess they’ll just remain in the shadow of gaming history, but for a horror series like this, maybe that’s the most fitting way to go.

Reviewed on Jul 31, 2021


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