Penumbra: Requiem

Okay puzzle game, about 2-3 hours length. Only grab it while discounted, and don't expect a game like the first two Penumbras.

Penumbra Stripped out of Its Soul

Requiem indeed... Very apt choice of words, because this game is dead on arrival.

That may have sound a bit harsh, but just wait and see... So, you know how you love the Penumbra games because of their atmosphere, constant tension, fantastic story, and fun puzzles? Well, they decided to remove most of that and leave us with just the puzzles; not taking the piss. I don't know what the PR was like when it came out or the full retail price, but goodness me, this is not worth more than £2. I only finished it because I thought there would be a few worthwhile story nuggets, but unfortunately that is not the case. The few strokes of plot are scarce and really not worth the 5 hours-ish you'll have to spend solving puzzles.

For the record, I have nothing against puzzles, but when you take away the story, the fear factor, and the tension, the game just falls flat. I recently played a puzzle game called DARQ. Wonderful little game worth both my time and money. This on the other hand, felt quite dull and I couldn't wait to complete it so that I could move on to playing Amnesia: The Dark Descent. The puzzles are alright, nothing wrong with them. If you love puzzles a lot you probably will enjoy this game. It's just not what I expected from a Penumbra game where the thrill is not in solving puzzles, but doing so while in dangerous situations. And just to be clear let me reiterate: there are no enemies, scares or logical progression in here. In fact, the only peril comes from the crippled controls that will make you miss your jump and plunge into the abyss every once in a while.

Since all 3 games seem to be bundled these days it's hard to give it a thumbs down based on cost. Nevertheless, I'm going to thumb it down because I didn't enjoy the game much, and I don't think it's worth anyone's time; even if you got it for free. If you are one of the 2 people who thought "I really like this game, but I wish it wasn't this scary and there wasn't any plot to digest so that I could just focus on solving the puzzles", then 10/10: a must buy! For everyone else this is a 3/10 at best.

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its basically a puzzle pack dlc. Its alright i wish there was more added to the story but i understand that there isnt much more to add since black plague ends most things. Puzzles themselves were decent enough for me to give a review but dont expect too much and just enjoy the experience

Ta bueno

ummmm guys?

I feel like this just messes up the ending of black plague by keeping it ambiguous but a narrowed down ambiguous that makes it less fun to theorize about what might've happen.

Also not much in the way of significant lore development

I don't hate it.

4/10

It's taking a different turn from the previous games.
There's no more survival horror, story progression is completely lacking. It's more like an epiloque that wraps up everything from the previous games, rather than a sequel.
This game invested a lot more in puzzles, which are actually creative and challenging, but it wasn't what I was expecting from a Penumbra game.

nice

More puzzles to solve without the monsters getting in the way. It follows the theme of the first two games with some story related chatter as well.
These games would be better and more intuitive if the player could see his feet.
I had to set the Gl settings in my Nvidia video cards driver control panel to get the lighting related stutter out of the way. I set the default renderer to the video card, turned off thread optimisations, and set every other Gl related setting to what I thought it ought to be, and it runs at the highest settings.

Although disappointing in comparison to its predecessors (i.e Black Plague and Overture) "Penumbra: Requiem" isn't actually that bad. The puzzles, although confusing at times, are all quite fun and entertaining, additionally it was quite nice to hear more from Red and get some much needed characterization for Emisses. Penumbra: Requiem has one glaring flaw, its lack of closure. As an end for Philip it feels rather unfulfilling. It still feels like there's so much left to explore and so many questions unanswered. For example what really was the deal with the Archaic? where did the turngaait come from? Honestly, I wouldn't mind another game in the Penumbra univurse, that way we could possibly get a more fufilling answer.

7/10

This game doesnt fit the Penumbra series at all, its more of a standalone game that solely focuses on puzzles with some atmosphere than horror. Even then its just boring in general

This game is really just a couple puzzles with a penumbra theme. Only a few lines of dialogue that resemble the previous games. However, It was a somewhat fun game to play.

Mid/Frustrating

This is the weakest of the three games. I only recommend it if you get it on sale and if you liked the previous ones.

Unlike the first 2 games, this one has no mystery or lore to explore. It's purely an atmospheric puzzle game that leads you to the conclusions you already knew in Black Plague. Storywise this game is pointless, but I did enjoy it for the most part.

Maybe. Some of the puzzles started to get strange towards the end of the game, but it's doable without a guide.

If you have the 10fps while looking at a direction bug and own Nvidia GPU, disable "Threaded optimization" for your penumbra.exe in Nvidia Control Panel

These puzzles... I think my brain... Doesn't work anymore...

bad, don't bother

Pioneers of this genre, realistic physics...

6 of 5 must play.
5 of 5 great story great game-play.
4 of 5 great story average game-play.
3 of 5 average story great game-play.
2 of 5 give it a go if it's you're favourite genre.
1 of 5 play if you have nothing better to do,
0 of 5 play if you're a masochist.
-1 of 5 avoid.

Penumbra Requiem score is 2 of 5.

liked it

I played this so you don't have to. Penumbra ended at Black Plague

Bad escape room game. No horror and it doesn't hold up like the first two. I had more questions at the end of this than I did at the end of Penumbra: Black Plague.

Despite this being a "Penumbra" game, it has nothing to do with the survival horror elements and the intriguing story of "Penumbra".

"Penumbra Requiem" is just a boring puzzle game with no meaningful story or any horror elements. It feels like a worse version of portal due to the fact that it is way more outdated than portal and has nothing interesting to offer to the table, other than generic "escape room" puzzles and awful mechanics.

If you are a massive fan of "Penumbra" you can give it a try, but I personally don't think that this game is worth it.

If you had a sinking feeling of abandonment after solving the final puzzle in Penumbra Black Plague, this is basically a quick fix to what might actually be a larger problem in your life..

Requiem is a short puzzle-focused DLC that adds a conclusion (sort of anyways..) to the ending of Black Plague. To put it bluntly, this is a rather mediocre DLC that could easily have been way better had the writing been sharper and the puzzles felt less arbitrary. Since this is bundled together with the rest of the setting I guess there is no harm in trying it out, but personally I would have skipped it. The atmosphere and setting is still great, it's just the gameplay and story that feels lackluster.

Weak recommendation since it is most likely part of the package already, but feel free to skip this one unless you are a completionist of the highest order!

Short Review

This is solely a puzzle map pack expansion. There is some dialogue to make it less stale but generally not really anything worthwhile to make up the tediousness for me. Some might enjoy just doing puzzles, that’s fine. But I mostly played penumbra for its setting, story and horror gameplay. If that’s gone the game is not for me. You might enjoy it but I don’t therefore I wouldn’t recommend it.

... no thanks. I don't want any more of their generic terrible puzzles.

6/10