Digital distribution is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand it is very nice to be able to purchase games without exposing myself to the general public. On the other hand, it is very easy to purchase games on a whim or out of boredom or because they are cheap and you have nothing else to play at the moment. This is how I came to play Penumbra, a game that supposedly came out in 2007, not that anyone noticed. I remember playing a tech demo that was slightly creepy and had interesting physics-based puzzles, then seeing the boxed game on clearance while shopping for bigger-name, overpriced titles, so I never gave it much attention. Two beers into an evening two years later, I bought the game because I had nothing else to do and hadn’t played a PC game since the steaming pile that was the STALKER prequel. It was time to give the mouse and keyboard a chance again, and I was not disappointed.

Penumbra Overture is the first part of a trilogy that ended up being two games and an expansion, which explains its start to finish time of about six hours. There is of course nothing wrong with this; recent indie releases like Zeno Clash have shown that small developers are much better off putting together a few polished hours then trying to spread out what little material they have to compete with games whose production budgets are more than their own companies’ total net worth. I heartily support this choice, and Penumbra is, in spite of its dated appearance and thin plot, a very good first person horror/puzzle game. It is also a terrible first person combat game, but just like many other horror titles the combat is both optional and ineffective. Running away is always the best option, and while getting killed by zombie dogs or the occasional giant earthworm is going to happen, the auto-saves are close together enough to make it forgivable.

Physics-based gameplay is not a new idea. It was a big part of what made games like Half Life 2 and Painkiller as good as they were, but the physics involved more often than not just showed the consequences of a player’s actions. They were not used very effectively in puzzles and the movement of objects felt oddly disconnected from the player. Penumbra takes the same ideas and bases an entire game around them. Every action, from opening a desk drawer to pulling a lever to stacking boxes, is caused directly by a mouse movement. For example, opening a door requires clicking on the door handle and then pushing the mouse forward. I am not a fan of most other forms of motion sensing nonsense, but Penumbra uses it subtly, consistently, and without arm flailing. It becomes something that further immerses the player instead of reminding him of how big of an ass he looks like when bowling at a flat screen TV. As good as this is for puzzles and exploring, it is equally bad for fighting. There is not a lot of combat in Penumbra; it is just not that kind of game. When there is combat, it is always terrible. Holding back with the mouse and then manually swinging a pick axe while monsters gnaw on your throat leads to death and frustration almost every time.

Frictional Games has borrowed most of the plot and horror aspects from Lovecraft’s short stories. It is never really explained why the protagonist is doing what he is doing, what actually happened in the mine that the game takes place in, or why there are giant spiders waiting around every dark corner looking to lay eggs in your head. There is definitely evil waiting, and it is most definitely out of the player’s league. While Penumbra never serves up any scares on par with Silent Hill, Fatal Frame or System Shock 2, it does have a constant feeling of unease. It is always dark, there is always the possibility of something ugly hiding in a shadow, and the player never really knows exactly what is going on. The graphics and sound have much to do with this, but the gameplay physics actually contribute to the mood. Running away from something giant and evil, then having to stop and think about opening a door and the closing it again instead of just pushing a button, makes for some very tense encounters.

Penumbra is a successful experiment in how a first person game can work. It does not change my opinion about Wii wiggles or sixaxis shenanigans, mostly because it does a better job at making what is happening on the screen personal than either console attempt. This is not change for the sake of change, but an actual evolution of an established and well thought-out genre. In other words, it is something that no big game company with billions to lose would take a risk on. It is also proof that everyone with even a mediocre gaming machine should install Steam. There are gems to be had hiding among the Pop Cap rejects and infrequent Valve releases, it just takes a little time to find them.