[Review] Penumbra: Black Plague

[Consider this Part 2 of the Penumbra: Overture review]

Penumbra: Black Plague is a first-person, horror game developed by Frictional Games, published by Paradox Interactive, and released in February 2008. Running on Frictional's in-house HPL Engine.

/// Premise

Picking up immediately where Penumbra: Overture left, right after leaving the mines behind and entering the secretive research facility, Philip finds himself knocked out and imprisoned by unknown entities. After a hasty escape and possibly being infected with a Xeno virus, Philip must find a cure, while piecing together the truth of this place and his father.

/// Structure and pace

As the direct sequel to Penumbra: Overture, the two are intrinsically linked. I will be skipping over the more basic mechanics that have stayed the same, focusing on what has changed or improved instead. For a more detailed overview of the basics, I suggest reading the Overture review, as the bulk of its core mechanics have carried over to Black Plague, with some exceptions that will be covered later.

If you don't feel like reading the other one, here's a quick rundown of the game:

The focus is on exploring hub-like areas that lead to separate isolated locations. Within these locations, you will collect items and solve puzzles. The completion of all puzzles in a given hub is required to move forward with the story. The fantastic music and soundscape are ever-present and create a moody atmosphere. The quiet exploration is interspersed with occasional monster encounters.

Here we leave the mines behind and delve into this hidden research facility. It's a nice change of scenery, bringing more of a grimy scientific/medical aesthetic, complete with the titular black plague, an out-of-control virus that's turning people into monsters.

In general, things move along at a solid pace but unfortunately steps on the gas a bit too hard by the end. Like Overture, it can be finished in about 4 hours.

Is Black Plague scary?

Again, that depends. Fear is a very personal thing, as it changes from person to person. Deja-vu.

But, overall I would say Black Plague can achieve heights that Overture could not. And even if you don't find it scary, they are still very memorable moments worth experiencing.

Do I need to play Overture to enjoy Black Plague?

Enjoy? No. Understand? Perhaps.

Well, in truth, the answer for these sorts of questions for me will always be: No one makes a game in a series with the intent of being skipped, so you should.

But if you are in it just for the spooks, then go right ahead. It's a more polished experience, and there is a quick summary of Overture events. Just be aware that the more minute "a-ha!" moments and references to Overture will make no sense whatsoever or pass you by unnoticed.

/// Gameplay

What was improved

Frictional was quick to show its iterative design process and how they were eager to listen to player feedback and critiques Overture had received.

Monsters roaming the hub-areas are still a thing but more restricted. Less is more here. Enemy presence is in specific moments, allowing the developers to produce tailor-made moments of built tension to culminate in a chase. Replacing the constant state of pursuit Overture had (They even removed the dogs entirely).

I'm not 100% certain on this one, but I feel like the flashlight got both an angle and brightness boost when compared to Overture. Its batteries drain faster, but the player can keep extra batteries in its inventory for a quick refill, which was impossible before.

As part of the player feedback, the story is less text-heavy, has fewer letters and notes, relying more on voiced characters to convey information. I did not mind the texts in Overture and even considered it charming, as cryptic notes are a pretty nostalgic trope of the time for me. But I can see how some people might find annoyance in it.

The level design has improved, a reflex of Frictional growth as developers. More work went into the layouts and details to make areas more visually distinct from each other. For a game set in a facility, would have been easy to make every room and hallway look the same. But they went the extra mile, and I appreciate that.

The puzzles continue to be well structured and satisfying to solve in Black Plague. They have even more of an emphasis on clever ambient interaction. Some of the solutions will need a bit more creativity this time around, but again, it never crosses the realm of "I've been stuck for an hour and don't know what to do." a sin many horror games of the time did.

Extra hidden collectibles have been added for the completionists out there, with some secret goodies hidden in the game files if you manage to find all of them.

What got the axe.

No more dogs. and it doesn't stop there. The combat system has been removed. Some saw it as a detriment, but this further increases the potential dread and tension a chase can have. Blindly flailing around a hammer in the hopes to stun-lock a monster wasn't particularly engaging.

Like I mentioned in the Overture review, some items felt underdeveloped, so Beefjerky and Dynamite are no more. For whatever reason, the flares remained though, still useless.

/// Story (Spoilers for Overture and Black Plague)

Frictional Games plan for Penumbra was for it to be an episodic series. Shorter but polished experiences with a plotline spanning over three episodes, Overture being the first, followed by Black Plague, and then a third.

But plans changed, and Black Plague was devised as the second and final episode instead. According to an interview with the lead writer, Tom Jubert, done by Rock Paper Shotgun, the change was due to disagreements with their original publisher, Lexicon Entertainment.

This bit of info is key to understanding the rushed ending sequence of Black Plague. (And for the expansion Penumbra Requiem, but that's for another day).

Black Plague contextualizes a lot of information left unclear and unanswered in Overture. In Greenland, the North-Western mines, opened in the early 20th century, had many unsettling stories tied to their decades-long history.

Strange psychotropic substances were found to taint the rocks within the mines, noted to have chemically affected the miners, who claimed to experience supernatural hallucinations. The wildlife turned increasingly hostile and mutated. Something was poisoning the underground. After continued issues and disturbing incidents, such as collective suicides, the North-Western Iron Mine shut down in the '70s.

In the late '90s, enters Archaic, a shadowy organization dedicated to Xenology. They aim to find, study and preserve anything of possible alien origin. Its foundation harkening back to the 16h Century renaissance period.

Drawn to the mines for its stories, Archaic decided to build a deep on-site research lab. Named "The Shelter", the lab's operations were to remain completely hidden from the outside world. Howard, an expert in linguistics, and the protagonist's father is among the employees.

Following the completion of the shelter, the Archaic crew discovered a Xenos tomb during their excavations. Named in honor of the local Greenland Innuit legends as the "Tuurngait". The violation of the tomb, however, unleashed the titular black plague upon the crew driving them mad.

Within 11 hours, all of those infected died, their corpses reanimated shortly after, with something else inhabiting the husk. Archaic had several emergency procedures already in place, but it proved ineffective to contain the disease. The infected were proven smart, coordinated even. They behaved as part of something larger, more than just zombies. Within three weeks, most of the Shelter staff was either infected or dead.

In his determination, Howard was committed to studying and containing this outbreak. In time he understood the nature of what they were dealing with. The magnitude of it so big it drove him to suicide.

But first, he had to make sure the horrors of that cave remained buried forever. With the secretive nature of Archaic, He had already won half the battle. But he had to make sure that the North-Western mine paperwork, which had been stored in a safety deposit box in Mayfair, was destroyed. He sent an email to his son, asking to burn them all. But Philip's curiosity to know what happened to his father, which he assumed died a long time ago, took the best of him. Luring him into the mines.

Following the events of the first game, Philip is imprisoned and infected. In the wake of his escape, the symptoms start to show. When the 11th hour came for him to die, he somehow resists the virus, but the new consciousness that was supposed to take his body is now inside his head. Like a dangerous parasitical second personality, he declares himself as Clarence, a wisecracking, passive-aggressive disembodied voice that will mess with Philip's head.

Philip will then continues his track across the secret facility in search of both a cure and his father.

Clarence

He's a joy of a character that deserves its little section here. The new personality in your head is a sarcastic asshole who has obvious evil goals but appears to be... weirdly human?

Clarence desperately wants freedom, to leave Philip's mind. Kill him, or take over his body, whatever comes first. To achieve his goal Clarence toys with Philip's memories and senses, causing vivid hallucinations, sabotaging plans, and leading him into danger.

What makes him more human is his behavior when a cure is finally at hand, facing what is essentially his death, fear, and desperation surface in Clarence's voice, his sarcastic demeanor melting away under the prospect of being silenced forever. The voice acting is on point.

As for the ending

It's rushed. There's no way around it, once you get the cure it feels like it was supposed to end there. The following interpretative "revelation" sequence feels like it should have developed over an entire third game, rather than crammed into the last 15-minutes.

It's revealed (although it was clear beforehand) that the Tuurngait is a Lovecraftian hive-mind that has been buried here on Earth for millennia. They claim to have lived peacefully among humans once, but that our individuality bred violence that drove them into being locked in the tomb, and that they only wish to be left alone.

They recognize Philip as Howard's son, one of the few other humans able to communicate with them. They decide to give him a chance, to be put through an ultimate test, and prove that mankind can be compassionate even as an individual. This ultimate test consists of three anticlimatic puzzles.

After being spared for completing the trial, the Tuurngait expects Philip to sacrifice himself, to die there as the last person to know of their existence, to leave them at peace in the underground.

I think the idea Frictional had here was to have a grey area open for interpretation and debate, is the Lovecraftian monster peaceful or are they lying? They speak of peace while killing and turning all people in the shelter into their puppets. Philip does betray them by the end, sending an email asking for someone to kill them all. Perpetuating the cycle his father began, one of violent intent nonetheless, proving the alien right.

This is where Black Plague suffered the most, it's a neat concept, but it's a bit vague and can't be fully explored in a satisfying way, not in 15 minutes anyway.

This is alien vs human morality aspect is where I think the story could have gone if the third episode hadn't been scrapped. Given the amount of hype built surrounding the Tuurngait Tomb, which we never get to see, I've always assumed that a third episode would be set there, with more esoteric puzzles with a Lovecraftian twist. But this "should have, could have" is waste of time and pure speculation on my part.

/// Conclusion

Penumbra: Black Plague is a well-executed horror game, in a span of a year, the developers were able to refine the formula started in Overture substantially, improving on what worked well and cutting a lot of the excess that didn't.

The approach to puzzles feels natural and integrated into the world, rather than being the overcomplicated unrealistic contraptions common to the genre. Similarly, its environment is believable within the setting and dripping with the atmosphere.

While their best titles were still to come, Black Plague further cemented Frictional's reputation for knowing how to make good horror. Despite its abrupt ending, it is a flat improvement in all departments over the previous entry. More than a decade later Black Plague is still highly enjoyable and easily recommendable as a classic of late 2000's PC horror.

"Kill them. Kill them all." - Philip Buchanon