Penumbra Overture on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
Penumbra: Overture is a first person survival horror game, emphasizing on survival and problem solving instead of mindless violence and gore.
Penumbra Overture is a horror, adventure and first-person game
developed and published by Frictional Games.
Released on March 06th 2009 is available in English on Windows, MacOS and Linux.
It has received 3,733 reviews of which 3,374 were positive and 359 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.7 out of 10. 😎
The game is currently priced at 9.75€ on Steam.
The Steam community has classified Penumbra Overture into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
Get an in-depth look at Penumbra Overture through various videos and screenshots.
System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- OS: XP/Vista
- Processor: 1.0 Ghz
- Memory: 256MB(XP)
- Graphics: Radeon 8500 / Geforce 3(MX4 Not supported)
- Hard Drive: 800MB Free Space
- Sound: Soundblaster compatible
MacOS
- OS: OS X 10.7.5 - 10.15.0 This product is not compatiable with macOS 10.15 Catalina or later.
- Processor: 2.0Ghz
- Memory: 1024MB
- Graphics: Radeon 9600/GeForce 4 (GeForce4MX not supported, Integrated graphics might not work.)
- Hard Drive: 2.0GB
Linux
Minimum:
- OS: Linux Ubuntu 12.04 or newer, 32-bit libraries must be installed
- Processor: 2.0Ghz
- Memory: 1024MB
- Graphics: Radeon 9600/GeForce 4 (GeForce4MX not supported, Integrated graphics might not work.)
- Hard Drive: 2.0GB
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
There are things I need you of you. Things you may not understand, and may not wish to do, but please, do not make the same mistake I did. The Penumbra games were a series of games that I went and noticed on sale in a bundle, but I never went out of my way to go and play any of the games until I decided to go out of my way and try the series out for the first time. The first game in the series Penumbra: Overture , is a horror game that I did enjoy. If I had to compare this game to anything, it would be an early Amnesia game. Also, Frictional Games made the Penumbra series before the Amnesia series so seeing some of the original roots from TDD that came from here was nice. Pros and Cons Pros [*]Nice story, filled with lots of mystery and suspense [*]Fan and tense gameplay [*]Unique puzzles that require thinking [*]Unsettling graphics that make the areas creepy Cons [*]The story lacks depth sometimes, where you have very little reason to care for some of the characters [*]Combat is very clunky Story The story starts with Philip Buchanon who receives a letter from his father who was thought to be dead, he tells him that he must go to Greenland to an unknown mining vessel. Upon arriving at the mine, the entrance collapses and Philip is trapped. With no other options left, he decides to go deeper, along the way, he soon finds out that he is not alone. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3427001356 I will say that Penumbra: Overture’s story is really good. It starts extraordinarily strong and picks up in the later parts. The story is, in fact, full of mystery and suspense that will keep the player invested throughout. You will want to find out more about what is going on in this mine. The story keeps the player in the dark about everything, and even when something is explained, you are still asking yourself questions about it. You must start here if you want to understand the Penumbra series. The games are connected, so you must play this game to understand everything in the story. However, that leads to one of the more glaring issues with the game's story, it’s not perfect by any means. You see, there are a few characters in the game, but you have little reason to care about them at all, as you learn about most of them through notes that aren't always that interesting. The only character I could relate to is Tom Redwood and everything else just comes and goes. There are interesting bits to the story that I did like but everything else is just not interesting. This and another issue I will talk about later in the review were taken into consideration and improved on its sequel. Gameplay Penumbra: Overture is a survival horror game with a large focus on puzzle solving, you will be using the environment to solve some of them. This requires the player to think creatively about how to solve the puzzle in question, which makes it complex and difficult in some ways, which of course, makes it a puzzle. Although there are times when it can get confusing, you just must think at times and use the environment. The puzzles are well throughout, and I thoroughly enjoy doing them, even when I got confused, it just felt natural to me. The game specializes in this aspect the most, rather than just being a horror game. None of the puzzles shined to me but it was nice seeing how some of the mining equipment was used or some of its machinery. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3427001726 While exploring the mine, you will encounter enemies who will try to hinder your path. Since you don’t have any means of defending yourself, you must run and hide to try to avoid enemies. However, there are other methods for dealing with them, like giving beef jerky to a zombie dog or using light to scare away spiders. There are also ways to trap enemies and kill them that way, so there are ways to take care of enemies, you just must try and think. However, I should mention that there is a way to defend yourself if you need to, and while the game tells you that there is no combat. There is combat and it’s extremely clunky, this is some of the clunkiest combat I have seen in a horror game. To attack enemies, you must hold the right mouse button and swing with your mouse, the attack is dependent on where you move the mouse. The issue here is that your camera is locked in place, and you can’t move it around. The enemies will get the drop on you this way and you can die in three or four hits if not careful. You are just better off running from enemies or using some other means to defend yourself. Spiders are the worst as they are small and their hitboxes are small, so it’s best to just use light as they hate that. Which I never used because part of me was stubborn and thought I would be fine without it. Graphics and Performance The atmosphere for Penumbra: Overture is very creepy and unsettling. It makes you feel like you are alone, and no one is coming to help you. I tested the game on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, AMD Ryzen 5 1500X Quad-Core Processor 3.50, and 16 GB of RAM. I experienced no issues while playing, and the game should be able to run on low-end PCs. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3427001824 Final Verdict Overall, Penumbra: Overture is a fine horror game that I enjoyed very much. I recommend it for those who want to get into the series or for those who are looking for a decent horror game. The game has two glaring issues, but if you are like me and can pull through, then there is a game here for you. The game is in a bundle at 12.99 CDN and it comes with its sequel Black Plague , so the price is worth it for the two games alone. Looking for more reviews like this one? Then follow [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45514478-Skyknighter's-Sleepless-Nights/] Skyknighter's Sleepless Nights
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Banger of a horror puzzle game. The combat is awful but I'm glad to hear it's been removed from the sequel. Amazing atmosphere, sound, and writing. Still worth playing in or beyond 2024!
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A journey through sanity, despair and abysmal hand to hand combat.. Penumbra Overture is a great example of a clever adventure game that rewards its player for interacting with its internal mystery. On the tin this is a horror story about a lone individual trapped in a mine searching for clues about his heritage. If you have played any of the Frictional games before this one it should come as no surprise that Penumbra at its core is a vague prototype of the later Amnesia who in a way defined this fledgling genre. The same mechanics are here with searching for clues and items by scavenging the set pieces while harassed by monsters near and far. To address the elephant in the room.The combat in this game is bad, and yea it was quite frustrating at times trying to wack a particularly annoying creeper on the head. But then again it reminded me of that Silent Hill kind of combat that makes it clear that we are not meant to be fighters, and it kind of almost works.. I only wish the game had a way of more readily avoiding flailing around desperately trying to get past certain areas of the game.. The puzzles are great and even if the game is quite short it has a few really great examples of visual storytelling. Penumbra has flaws, and many of them are even more obvious in this day and age. However, there is a certain rough charm to it and I do enjoy the atmosphere, the storytelling and the rather cerebral puzzles it lays before you. I did read about players having trouble making it run smoothly on modern machines, but during my playthrough I encountered no glaring bugs. In the end this is a rather mixed but overall enjoyable experience that really works well as a couple of lonely nights entertainment when the autumn wind howls. I’d recommend it for its excellent atmosphere and story, but be aware that it might be hard getting it to work on newer machines. Few developers have put so much time refining the rummaging through drawers, and this is where it all started!
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Well, thats a typical Frictional games game. Guessing the first of them all, first person survival horror, where we play as a dude who finds himself in an old mine (research facility? cave? altogether?) trying to find answers about his father's past. The core gameplay is an first person adventure with some minor crafting, finding and using correct items in correct places, solving some puzzles and playing hide and seek with monsters (spiders, dogs and something else), You can also barricade doors, use some explosives or melee weapons\tools to fight them, but the protagonist is rather fragile and not a fighter, so he usually gets overwhelmed very fast. The saving system combines special points where you can save manually and checkpoints (usually its a good sign of moving in a right direction). Its an old and kinda short game, so it has no interactive map, no arrows and no clues, so you can stuck at some point if you missed some item. The episodic system means 3 parts of the game to compete the full story, so the 1st episode ends in a cliffhanger. Still good.
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i can't believe people can't fucking handle swiping their mouse to the left and the right to fucking hit something critics are fucking stupid
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Last Updates| Steam data | 05 April 2025 10:02 |
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| SteamSpy data | 11 April 2025 02:54 |
| Steam price | 13 April 2025 12:44 |
| Steam reviews | 11 April 2025 21:50 |
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Online players
3
Developer
Frictional Games
Publisher
Frictional Games
Release
06 Mar 2009
Platforms