Penumbra: Black Plague

 PC
User Score
8.6

Generally favorable reviews- based on 240 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 200 out of 240
  2. Mixed: 32 out of 240
  3. Negative: 8 out of 240
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  1. tech-noir
    Jan 3, 2012
    7
    Penumbra: Black Plague is quite simply, a continuation of Penumbra: Overture. It might as well be considered one single game. The engine seems to be the same used in the first game, and most mechanics are identical. The atmosphere continues to be dark and creepy, with the addition of some new surprises that surface throughout. Everything is basically the same, with only the plot andPenumbra: Black Plague is quite simply, a continuation of Penumbra: Overture. It might as well be considered one single game. The engine seems to be the same used in the first game, and most mechanics are identical. The atmosphere continues to be dark and creepy, with the addition of some new surprises that surface throughout. Everything is basically the same, with only the plot and storyline developing further. The one major improvement in comparison to Overture is the amount of thrills found in this iteration. There seems to be more action and more atmosphere overall, which makes the game more enjoyable, more creepy and a bit more scary. The story progression isn't as interesting or original as in the first game, but at least it has much more detail and much more depth. The voice acting also continues its high quality performances. Loading times are atrocious and much longer than in the first game, which tests patience. Some of the puzzles included in this game aren't as logical as in the first. The unintuitive puzzles are more complicated and mostly involve trial and error during a particular segment of the adventure. There are also more absurdly hidden items and mechanisms, which makes this game much more difficult in terms of its playability as an adventure game. There is also more interaction between the player and other characters in the story, which quickly dissolves the feeling of being a solitary person in a creepy and scary locale. The developers decided to get rid of the melee combat instances completely (found in the first game), which I agree is for the best and makes the game more tense and more fluid. There are way too many interruptions for plot development voice acting. Without ruining the experience with spoilers, I will say that these voice acting pauses occur almost at any given time, without a focus on storyline turning points. They can get a bit distracting at times. Not having the ability to engage your enemies in melee combat makes the game so much more tense and exciting. The ending is very good and adds to the story rather well. Penumbra: Black Plague is better than Penumbra: Overture in every way, as it corrected some of the developers' mistakes and made the gaming experience more enjoyable as a whole. This is clearly the best adventure game I have ever played; totally exceeding Penumbra: Overture. Once again, the game runs a little bit short, but I suppose it is of adequate length after all, since it is an adventure game with lots of theme and mood. I am now looking forward to the third part in the series. It took me about 8 hours to complete.… Expand
  2. LonePiper
    Apr 17, 2013
    7
    Overall a really good experience I'd play this over a bland, brown triple A FPS any day. The puzzles were clever and tricky, but not so illogical that I had to spend my whole time reading a walkthrough. There were also a lot of things fixed from the first game, but also a bunch of new issues. Not sure if it was my linux copy, or the game itself, but there were more than one graphical bug,Overall a really good experience I'd play this over a bland, brown triple A FPS any day. The puzzles were clever and tricky, but not so illogical that I had to spend my whole time reading a walkthrough. There were also a lot of things fixed from the first game, but also a bunch of new issues. Not sure if it was my linux copy, or the game itself, but there were more than one graphical bug, such as missing textures etc.

    But my major complaint is the voice of Clarence. In fact I'm surprised it's not mentioned more often. Typically voice acting is something I would leave as a "splitting hairs" complaint, but the voice of this very fundamental character is so utterly wrong it almost ruined the experience for me. He sounds more like a character from a Warner Brothers cartoon from the 1950s than what his character is really supposed to be. Any time I began to really feel immersed in the otherwise intoxicating atmosphere, his voice would chime in, sounding like an anthropomorphic dog with a cigar hanging out of his mouth, and the entire illusion would be shattered.

    Additionally I would like to add that that the AI could have been better. Now, I don't deliberately go into a horror game looking for all the strings and ruining the illusion, but when I'm supposed to be terrified of a monster that's supposedly looking for me but is instead stood stationary in a corner pointing it's flashlight at the wall, the fear very quickly subsides.

    Even so, there were enough genuinely terrifying moments, and sumpteous creepy atmosphere to make up for this.    … Expand
  3. DJKrimson
    Nov 16, 2020
    6
    Okay puzzling, a little bit scary. Liked the first game more though. There's annoying interruptions all the time by your Navi-like character. Enemy AI is stupid.

Awards & Rankings

50
#50 Best PC Game of 2008
39
#39 Most Discussed PC Game of 2008
72
#72 Most Shared PC Game of 2008

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
78

Generally favorable reviews - based on 29 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 21 out of 29
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 29
  3. Negative: 0 out of 29
  1. IGN
    77
    Without the awkward combat of Overture, Black Plague is a smoother experience where the clumsiness of the physics and control systems are exposed far less frequently.
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  2. GameZone
    76
    Short but entertaining, Penumbra: Black Plague is enjoyable, a bit challenging at times, but worth the journey.
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  3. Game Chronicles
    80
    The gameplay saw some nice improvements from the previous title and they only added to the fear factor.
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