Unofficial Tex Murphy

I was just browsing around the net, looking for some games for my new MAC Book Pro and came along a title called Penumbra, a highly critically acclaimed adventure game built on a first person shooter. The concept is similar to the forthcoming Mirror's edge where the player must survive by solving puzzles, interacting with items and occassionally fighting off enemies, but no guns. It's not a dedicated FPS as such since it combines many elements of adventure gaming. It had me thinking (which was discussed briefly in another thread), if a major criticism of adventure gaming is that it cannot take full advantage of the latest hardware, couldn't building an adventure game on an engine like this remedy that argument? If ever there is action in Penumbra, it's simply by means of improvised melee attack rather than a whole slew of mindless shooting. This satisfies both fans of the action genres but also of the adventure genre's who prefer action to be in moderation (in my opinion anyway).

Check the game out here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penumbra:_Overture

Here's some videos:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=wQa-oVk3Eoc

http://youtube.com/watch?v=9dHDqlcX7FU

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ux4OwkS9ybA

Several things annoyed me severly - one: the dog should be able to SMELL you. Not run right by you. Two, when the player is bitten, things slow down and you're seemingly unable to do anything. This lag that happens when you take damage in games is a bad gameplay mechanic that I had hoped went out with the old Castlevania titles. Obviously not.

Other than that... it looks okay, I guess.

-Fred

Very impressive. I like the way they use physics instead of animation for the object interactions. The only trouble I have is with the dogs. I love dogs too much to try and hurt or kill them. Even if it's a bad dog. I don't think I could get past that scene.

I hope not. Adventure games should have as much gun puzzles as Black Dahlia.

Adventure games should have as much gun puzzles as Black Dahlia.

Black Dahlia! I just finished playing that last week. Fabulous game.

Looks like an interesting game. I'll have to check it out further.

Black Dahlia rules. Awesome FMV. The main character wears a fedora like hat and the game takes place in the 1940s the era Tex was supposed to be from.

I played Black Dahlia for the first time probably six years ago, and have very fond memories of it. I definitely think its in my top five, or at least my top ten games every played, right behind Tex.

A lot of people claim that the puzzles were too hard, and had nothing to do with the progress of the game. While I do think that some of the puzzles were certainly difficult, they all had something to do with the story line.

I've always wanted to play Black Dahlia. I've found a few places that you can buy it, but is it XP compatible or does it have Tex Murphy type compatability issues?

I've managed to run Black Dahlia in XP. You'll most definitely want the patch (it should still be available online somewhere, or I could probably email it). I think it also requires a little bit of tinkering with the compatibility settings in XP...but should work out fine. Only issue I've had is with the scrolling of the picture in the game when looking around. My computer must be fast for the game, so the controls might be a little sensitive, but still workable.

Also remember press F1 to get help for those puzzles interfaces and some items can be clicked and dragged by holding down the mouse button.

as far as I'm concerned Omikron 2 should it ever be made will be the future of adventure gaming. (I just hope they get rid of the stupid combat system )

Quantic Dream are being very innovative with their games, just look at Farenheit.

Adventure games are making a decent comeback, but they aren't pulling in very many new players... It's still the same old adventure gamers who are playing them... The new generation for the most part just wanna shoot and blow things up...

I just got this and I am really enjoying it. When I first came across a spider I didn't want to play anymore. I was too scared, I didn't want that thing to sneak up on me. I get the feeling however that it will be unavoidable in the future.

The story is very subtle, mostly text, which I am enjoying a whole lot. I recommend for anyone who may have passed this up.