As I informed you earlier, a survival horror game is included in this round of games, and Penumbra: Black Plague is it. (Ed: You Are Empty doesn't count, unless you consider the survival horror aspect of actually wading through the game.) However, this is not your typical horror title. Yes, the game is very scary, and yes, your goal is to get from a really bad situation to a more desirable one. So, what's different? Well, for starters, you don't have a gun at your disposal. In fact, there are almost no enemies or monsters to deal with throughout the game. I know what you're thinking: how can this be a survival horror game without the element of survival; without the horror? For those whose minds are bewildered at this point, rest assured that both elements are present in a big way.


Part Half-Life and part Silent Hill, Penumbra: Black Plague is the spawn of Penumbra: Overture, a game that made its debut as a free download just last year. The game takes place in an abandoned research facility whose halls and corridors are creepy enough to give Hannibal Lecter the willies. While the game's opening sequence does provide some back-story, your identity is unknown. What you do know is that you've awakened in a substation of this dark and musty lair with no clue what lies beyond the room in which you begin.

Black Plague, much like its predecessor, plays like a standard first person shooter, but with a style of gameplay that is deep-rooted in the adventure genre. You simply move about freely using the standard WASD control scheme along with the space bar to jump. However, your interactions in the game are all done with your mouse. As you move your cursor over objects that can be moved or manipulated, a little hand appears in its place. Instead of simply clicking on objects to move them, you'll actually interact with the environment with the movement of the hand icon. For instance, if you choose to open a drawer, you'll need to hold down your left mouse button and drag it open to see what's inside. If you come to a door, you might choose to just open it just enough to see what's inside before you bolt through it. How fast objects move is dependent upon how fast you choose to move them. This simple yet intuitive control scheme is implemented perfectly for a game that's heavy on these types on interactions.
 
 
As you take on the game's physics puzzles and brain teasers that enable you to progress from one area to the next, you'll collect various objects that are added to your inventory to use when the situation calls for them. You'll also come across bits of information made available to you via computer terminals that you'll hack. One of the things you'll learn is that the facility you're lost in suffered a viral outbreak that left many dead and others infected. I stated earlier that there are almost no monsters or deranged enemies in the game, and this is true. Still, I feel compelled to shed a bit more light on the subject.

(Ed: Spoiler Alert!)
While the vast majority of the game is void of any life other than your own, you will encounter a few of the infected aimlessly wondering the halls. However, you can simply walk around them as they don't seem to make much of an effort to attack you. Also, you do meet up with a single enemy in the game. His name is Clarence. However, Clarence does not take a physical form. Instead, your dealings with him consist of voices that appear to be inside your character's head. Early on in the game, you'll only hear Clarence moan and groan, adding a bit more eeriness to the atmosphere. As the game progresses, he begins to speak to you and even tries to manipulate your actions. While a clever addition to the game, Clarence's presence eventually goes from creepy to annoying as he simply will not shut up. Even with these elements thrown in, most of Black Plague's heart pounding moments are purely situational. Much like in F.E.A.R., the game keeps you jumping with little surprises rather than full-on assaults. This, along with heavy exploration even in the most confined of areas, provides a unique experience that you won't find in many other games.
 

Weighing in with merely four or five hours of gameplay, Penumbra: Black Plague can be completed in one or two sittings. While this might be a turnoff to some, the game is worth its weight in gold and is a lot of fun to play while it lasts. With a price tag of only ten bucks, the game is easily more enjoyable than many of the blockbuster titles out there that last twice as long at five times the price. Penumbra: Black Plague is truly in a league of its own and is a blast to play though. Save for the kiddies, I have no problem recommending the game to any gamers with a spare Hamilton.

I always say shopping is cheaper than a psychiatrist. Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is.
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  • alexruiz - Thursday, November 6, 2008 - link

    How about Universe at War: Earth Assault?
    Great RTS game, and priced to move. Anandtech should have reviewed this one ;)
  • Pirks - Wednesday, September 3, 2008 - link

    The author of this review totally misrepresented "You are empty", his take on this cool game is totally clueless, let me explain where and why.

    1) Sorry Eddie, but you look like a total noob, have you even played at least one level of this game? This game has NOTHING to do with Nazi and/or Germany! In fact it's the total opposite: the main hero is a Soviet NKVD officer that got into a car accident, spent several months in coma after that and when he woke up he found himself in a totally different world - the world where communism has been really built, I mean it was really finally pushed upon Soviet people... in some peculiar "scientific" way... which way exactly? You'll see this if you throw out this Eddies clueless shit about "nazi" and start really understanding what this game is about.

    2) Black and white arty cutscenes in fact are ABOUT this game and they tell the story of the main antihero of the game - the guy who ultimately helped the Party to implement communism with his special device (again play the game and pay attention to the plot to understand what was that device)

    3) The last cut scene shows how and why the main hero (NKVD officer) dies at the end

    4) The last cutscene also hints at a couple of pretty famous Soviet political figures of the last century (again play the game to understand whom exactly)

    5) If you are not Russian and/or you don't know anything about Soviet history - this game will look like this crazy "nazi" nonsense to you. Hence Eddie's BS about nazi and such.

    I as a former Soviet citizen enjoyed it very very _VERY_ much.

    It's just not for you lazy rich Americans :P

    Sorry, Eddie, nothing personal, but for me your review of this game looks totally idiotic and waaaaaaaay off the ground. At least I can understand why.
  • EddieTurner - Wednesday, September 3, 2008 - link

    Well, it looks like you've done your homework. As for me, I didn't. In fact, I made it a point not to. As I stated in my initial paragraphs, I read nothing about this game. No previews, no reviews. I didn't even check out the official site. I sinply saw the box, thought it looked interesting, and popped it into my machine. Just goes to show that different people can take away different impressions of the games they play.

    Anyway, I'm not a German or a Soviet, so forgive me if I didn't recognize the writing on banners and signs in the game as such. Truth be known, the game had no recognizable story and I was not able to put together any aspect of the cutscenes with what I was experiencing. After I played the game, I handed it over to a much more weathered PC gamer who did not take away much more than I did. So what I wrote about was not BS. All that you pointed aout may be evident to some, but it wasn't to me.
  • Frumious1 - Wednesday, September 3, 2008 - link

    Before you go flaming at someone, try to tuck the raging fanboy into a corner. You liked You Are Empty? That makes you relatively unique... or clueless about what's involved in a good game. But don't take my word for it - or Anandtech's word. Let's see what others have to say.

    http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/youareempty/inde...">http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/youareempty/inde...
    "...you've already wasted too much of your life reading about You Are Empty.... Now move on with your life and try to pretend that games like You Are Empty don't exist." Score: 1.5

    http://pc.ign.com/objects/678/678686.html">http://pc.ign.com/objects/678/678686.html
    "You Are Empty needs a lot of things, aside from a title change. More intelligent enemies would have been great, or at least greater numbers of stupid foes. Digital Spray instead decided to throw small numbers of morons at you, give you an infuriatingly inadequate run speed, and make available one of the most boring arsenals in recent memory. It's an absolute must-bypass." Score: 2.1

    http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/you-are-empty/837100p1.ht...">http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/you-are-empty/837100p1.ht...
    "So now, we are left wondering what the point is of You Are Empty, because it certainly doesn't even rate as a modern game. Bereft of any sort of challenging AI and sporting a handful of weapons that all seem to have been dredged from some imaginary WWII shooter from the eighties, this game is the kind of thing you can expect to get for Christmas from a grandma that knows nothing about video games and relies on a shifty game store employee looking to move the non-sellers." Score: 1.5 stars = "Poor"

    http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/pc/youar...">http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/pc/youar...
    34 generally negative reviews

    http://www.gamingnexus.com/Default.aspx?Section=Ar...">http://www.gamingnexus.com/Default.aspx?Section=Ar...
    "That feeling of mild disappointment is a good way to sum up You Are Empty. It feels a little behind the times and doesn’t fully deliver in every respect, but it’s still fun from start to finish. To really get the most out of the game, you need to look past the shortcomings and appreciate the work that went into making the levels and setting the atmosphere. I’d certainly like to see Digital Spray do more with their engine—they are obviously quite talented. You Are Empty is a pretty average FPS, but its sense of style makes it much more than the sum of its parts." The only "not lousy" review with a score of C. Of course, when I went to school getting a C was cause for severe lectures.

    In summary: Take your communist political views elsewhere. Lazy, rich Americans we may be, but at least we know a pile of shit when we see it! Eddie may have called some stuff "Nazi" when in fact it's "Soviet" (or something), but the game is still garbage based on all the reasonable data out there. As far as I'm concerned, Pirks, your comments in the future now deserve the right to be ignored by anyone with half a brain.
  • 7Enigma - Wednesday, September 3, 2008 - link

    Me thinks he works for the company that made the game. Think about how powerful this review is. The thousands of people that will read it could easily have doubled, quadrupled the sales of this apparently horrifyingly bad game. It's very likely Penumbra will see a fantastic surge of sales after people read this article, and for good reason as it apparently deserves it. If I owned any of the companies or worked at any of the development houses that produced these I would bombard the messages with faulty praise trying to salvage a possible goldmine.

    As it is, you can't polish a turd.
  • Jynx980 - Wednesday, September 3, 2008 - link

    A limit of one year on budget games is pretty conservative. Several titles on budgets shelves are at least 3 years old and can date back to 2000.

    Another thing to consider is that people who buy budget games are not likely to have powerful systems. The system requirements for Tarr Chronicles and You are Empty are pretty high.

    I picked up three titles up from Target awhile ago. They were Gunmetal, Black Buccaneer, and Divine Divinity. While Gunmetal was fair, and Black Buccaneer a bit better, Divine Divinity was definitely a diamond in the rough. To complete it your looking at 40-50 hours! The system requirements are a measly 450mhz cpu, 128mb of ram, and a directx 8, 8mb video card!

    If you do another budget review give the time frame more leeway and consider the system requirements.

    Additionally, I do agree with Nihility about the index titles. It would be fine for the title of the page, but the index needs to be just that, the index of the game reviews. Quotations don't work well when text space is limited.
  • R4F43LZiN - Tuesday, September 2, 2008 - link

    Dude, Freelancer was freaking awesome. I can't see how can you recommeding a so-so game for a Freelancer fan. Thats just wrong. Freelancer is a top-notch game.

    But hey, since Microsoft don't release a sequel to it... I might just give this one a try.

    Overall I like you article because I'm running a low-end machine, built in 2003. yeah! So I was hoping to find some decent but not-exchange-your-videocard games. Well, live can't always be good. =P

    But keep'em comming. Three cheap games worth a try is kinda nice.
  • Krioni - Tuesday, September 2, 2008 - link

    This is just what I needed!

    I've been playing my PS3 for a while and have missed out on some PC gaming for the past year. I was just telling myself that I should go back and pick up on some of the great PC games from the past year or so. They'll be new to me and I should be able to get them at a great price.

    BTW, I second the idea of looking at the bargain games on Steam... that's a great resource for those of us that are too lazy to go to a B&M store.

    Thanks for this series of articles. A wonderful idea!
  • Vidmo - Tuesday, September 2, 2008 - link

    It's great that you went into a B&M to buy what they might have on the shelves. But, how about doing round 2 from Steam?
  • EddieTurner - Wednesday, September 3, 2008 - link

    Definitely. While my next round of games may not be totally from Steam, I'll surely give the games their due and include one or two. Thanks!

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