Penumbra: Overture First Impressions

So I am finally giving Penumbra: Overture another go after the severe physiological trauma it inflicted on me a few years ago.  And it already does not look good; As I clawed ineffectively on the mine's entrance as the blizzard sucked at my strength and numbed my extremities I knew that this playthrough would be no better then my first. Penumbra: Overture is a great game; It is a graphical adventure with the best and all encompassing physics of any game I have ever played, it is a stealth/action game that gives you a choice of hiding or fighting. But most of all it is a horror game that is many times more scary then anything I have ever seen and often leaves my with a racing heart after an encounter.

But now I hear banging from the deep and know that I must go down there, that there is no other way. It seems like far to good and unique of a graphical adventure to succumb to the fear and leave the game in some dark forgotten area of my hard drive.

Half Life

Recently finished playing Half Life: Source, which is simply Half Life ported to the Source engine. It has the same levels, same graphics, same everything; Wrapped in a shiny new and theoretically better engine. It is simply a fantastic game with a wide range of entertaining experiences to offer. Playing the game I could not help but stop and think that they really don't make FPSs like they used to. There are elements of horror, action, tactics, and even a few puzzles.

It is simply an amazing game full of unique and enjoyable gameplay. On the the most acclaimed parts of this gameplay is the enemy AI; While the monsters act quite normally for games of that era the human squads act far more realistic then ever before seen. They will run away if losing and even have a habit of flanking you. Overall it is a simple system that seems to be based on damage ratio (do significantly more damage then you take, particularly in a short period of time, and you can cause the enemies to turn tail and run) which adds a significant amount of tactics and strategy to the game. Adding to this are remote controlled bombs, vicinity detonated mines, and turret emplacements and a plethora of unique weapons.

But above and beyond the AI and the action and shooting is what really makes the game. There is a ton of platforming, exploring, and even a few puzzle like challenges. The shooting as actually a minority of the gameplay, it is really the platforming and exploring that the game is about, i just wish that more developers understood that a FPS does not have to be all shooting and that anything done in enough repetition is boring.

My mini-review of Half Life.

A New Beginning

A New Beginning is a graphical adventure and the latest release from the esteemed people over at Daedalic Entertainment, the creators of the 2010 hit The Whispered World. And like The Whispered World it has beautiful hand drawn graphics, which really is the main draw of the game in my opinion.

The game's story is all about environmentalist, and that is not just something that they threw into the game without thought; It is obviously that they have studied and understood many of the issues. The basic premise is that in the distance future mankind is facing extinction. Forced to live in underground bunkers and having declined in numbers to only a few hundred people, the earth no longer able to sustain human life, they decide to send a group to the past to try and convince or force the people to mend their self destructive ways. And not that it is seen much, actually not at all after the opening cinematic, but this future is very clockpunk.

For the gameplay, A New Beginning, utilizes a type of verb disk, but unlike most verb disks it only shows relevant results. And in particular it makes a lot of use of these extra options, allowing you to dissemble, modify, or use in a special way when applicable. Overall it has moderately normal puzzles, but I did enjoy utilizing the advanced technology. One thing I absolutely hated about a series of puzzles is that the plot behind them made absolutely no sense; On multiple occasions you, as a time radio operator from the future are called upon to setup your temporal radio. What does not make sense is that she has absolutely no idea about how to use this radio and at one point actually needs to ask a random civilian from the past how to fix it.

Overall it is a pretty average adventure with a good story, and a great message, with simply fantastic art.

Adventure Lantern Issue (August 2011)

The August issue of Adventure Lantern has just been published. Included within its fine pages is one interview with a designer of the upcoming sci-fi adventure Prominence as well as two review by me; Lost Horizon, and Dracula Resurrection; As well as reviews on Slip Space: The Burma Shave Analogy, Knights in Shinning Armour: Episode 1, and even a action game, Dead Meets Lead, by gnome.

Dead Cyborg

I had a chance to finally finish Dead Cyborg episode 1 a few days ago so I can finally give my full opinion on this game.

The graphics style is fantastic; The game world seamlessly blends the hard sci-fi, post-apocalyptic horror, and humour into a great cohesive whole; And the dialogue and story is terrific. It simply is one of the best worlds to emerge from the mind of a indie developer in recent history.

That is not to say it is perfect. I don't think that anyone would argue that the puzzles are (while possibly somewhat realistic) not very interesting. Some are just far to ambiguous and unintuitive, while others are so intuitive and literal you are left thinking you must be missing something. But these are also something that I think can easily be improved in latter episodes, the world is what really cannot be changed at this late a juncture and it is already fantastic.

But this great episodic adventure might just end here if the developer does not get any more donations. While the game is free, and the developer wants the rest of the series to remain free as well, he does require some minimum amount of donations before he invests even more of his time bringing us the rest of Dead Cyborg. So if you have not already, head on over to the official website and give Dead Cyborg a whirl and if you enjoyed it think about donating.

My Indie Elitist Article and my mini-review on Dead Cyborg Episode 1: The Beginning of the Death.