Penumbra: Black Plague for Windows

Dark and creepy psychological thriller

If you like horror movies and you love PC games then Penumbra: Black Plague will probably be right up your street.

You take the role of Phillip, who must find out what happened to his father, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances. You are trapped in a shadowy, underground complex where threats, ghouls and ghosts are waiting to pounce. To prevent succumbing to their clutches, you must collect clues and solve puzzles while dealing with psychological traumas that prevent you in your quest.

Indeed, it seems the main aim of this game, apart from finding your father, is maintaining your hero's sanity. The eerie mood is bolstered by a creepy soundtrack and sound effects that crank up the tension as you struggle with your puzzles. The game uses some terrific 3D graphics and what the developers call "real-time lightning" that give the game a high degree of depth and realism. The game's plot links together very well with successive puzzles that you solve and I like the way that the game imposes few limits on what you can and can't do in the game. You can for example pick up more or less anything you see and move them around by dragging and dropping them with your mouse.

For atmosphere, this game wins full marks although it's very slow moving and if you're not the puzzle solving type, you'll probably lose interest very quickly.