Penumbra: Black Plague

I'm not giving this post a catchy title because, frankly, this game doesn't need one. This game was absolutely superb; it is hands down the best horror game I've played since Clive Barker's Undying.

Black Plague picks up directly from where Overture leaves off. In Overture you navigate through some mines and find yourself in a much more modern installation of some kind at the end. The last thing that happens in Overture is Philip (you) gets a smack in the back of the head and blacking out. As Black Plague beings, you awaken inside a locked room. Soon after escaping, you begin to learn of the dark secrets that surround your father and this "abandoned" research area.

As for actual game play, there is honestly very little to distinguish Black Plague from Overture, which quite honestly is a good thing. One thing that is VERY different here is a lack of melee weapons. As I mentioned in my previous Penumbra post, the enemies in Overture provided relatively little tension due to how easy it was to merely pull our your pick axe and swing until said enemy was dead. Due to the lack of weapons in Black Plague, I was forced to be much more creative.

Not far into the game, I had my first run in with an "infected." Let me set the stage:

I found a door that was electronically locked. Luckily enough, there was a relay box nearby and I was able to sever the wires. Just down the hall from the locked door was another door that the game made pretty clear I could not enter. I entered the room I had unlocked and walked towards the back where I could see there was a syringe inside a cabinet. As soon as I picked up the syringe, I heard something that sounded VERY unfriendly come through that other door out in the hall. Philip then informed me (via an on screen message) that it was time to hide. My heart was pounding as I frantically searched the room for some where to hide... I couldn't see any place! I got behind the door and ducked down hoping for the best. As I sat there holding my breath, I saw a flash light beam throw its light through the doorway as the door was ripped open. As the light beam turned to focus on me, I was greeted by something very similar to this:

The sound that then escaped my throat could probably be described as a cross between a weeping child and a slowly dying rabbit.

After a few attempts, I eventually figured out I could hide behind a desk whilst willing Philip to pray for invisibility. I’m not sure which god(s) he believed in, but it seemed to work.

The infected in this game were a VERY nice touch and added a lot of tension; throughout the entire game, you face a handful of these guys and there is never any way to dispatch them. Which, perhaps, is my one criticism of the game: I went from trivially killing my enemies to having no choice but to run from them. I definitely think that it was better here, but there were at least two times I was being chased in an enclosed space by an infected and all I did was run from one end of the space I had to the other dodging the attacks while trying to figure out what I was supposed to be doing. Minor quibble aside, they were a LOT creepier than the lame zombie dogs in the first game.

Seriously, what the hell ARE these things?

Hands down the most delightful twist in this game was Clarence. Without spoiling too much, Clarence was the entity that took up space in my head as he worked to infect me. His ability to affect my perception made for some very nervous moments as fake dogs and spiders would appear out of thin air and run directly for me. Additionally, he basically spent most of the game making fun of me for being pathetic; I kept waiting for him to call me meat bag. It just seemed appropriate.

Towards the end of the game, I managed to flush Clarence from my body… who quickly took up residence in a nearby deceased infected. As you can guess, he was NOT very happy with me. A room away, I realized he was coming for me so I bolted for the exit. A minor expletive escaped my mouth as I realized that there was a file cabinet in front of it. I quickly pulled it out the way and heard a more serious expletive escape my mouth as I discovered that the door opened inward and I had failed to move the cabinet far enough back. Clarence merely laughed as he ripped me apart from behind.

The setting in Black Plague was a lot better than in the first game. The research installation was an exceptionally creepy place and I was definitely on edge throughout most of the game. In my opinion, the puzzles were better, the “companions” were more interesting, and it was just overall much more polished than the first. Finally, it did a fantastic job of tying up all the loose ends from both games. Play Overture to set the stage for Black Plague and play Black Plague to be impressed.

That only leaves Requiem, which will be the topic of my next post. Not to spoil anything, but it was definitely a let down. I may wrap that into my overall final thoughts depending on whether or not I can come up with anything interesting to write about it (it may be challenging).