In February, Frictional Games released a chilling first person adventure called Penumbra: Black Plague. Now, Frictional Games brings us the final chapter in the Penumbra adventure in the form of Penumbra: Requiem. While much shorter and different in a few key ways to Black Plague, Requiem is still well worth your consideration.

The Adventure Reaches A Conclusion

Requiem picks up from the end of Black Plague and players reprise the role of Philip. As you may or may not know, Philip is a young man who found himself in Greenland after receiving contact from his father that he hadn't spoken to in years. His search led him to a large underground facility called the Shelter, in which various secretive experiments and the like were performed. When you arrive, the place seems deserted, and the eerie and intense stage is set. It's here, in this facility, that your character solves a variety of puzzles, encounters bizarre dream sequences and aural distortions that push your sanity to its limits, and face chilling infected foes that can easily overpower you. While the graphics weren't great and the presentation simplistic, Frictional Games was able to create a stirring atmosphere that was established very quickly and lasted throughout the length of the adventure.

Requiem carries on a lot of what we saw in Black Plague, only this time I felt more alone than in Black Plague. It's not to say that this is necessarily a good thing; in Black Plague, I felt alone, except for the company of some really angry infected folk ready to destroy me if they spotted me. In Requiem, it's okay to be much more relaxed, which detracts from the intensity that made the first game extra spooky and intense. Nevertheless, there are enough environmental dangers and uncertainty in Requiem that you will want to tread lightly.

The puzzles are numerous in Requiem, and solving these is still as satisfying as before. I think a few too many of these puzzles involve questionable touch plates to open doors. Why would a facility be designed to use touch plates to open doors? To defeat these you just have to look around for a large box or object and push it onto the touch plate. It seems a little too blatant, but there are many other puzzles that are more sensible and engaging. Also, and you might see this as a good or bad thing, but the puzzles do not involve your inventory items at all. Instead, all puzzles are solved with items in the environment. Obviously, this can reduce the time it takes to solve a puzzle because there is no need to access the inventory and try each item against a puzzle when you're stumped.

Besides being a short adventure, on the order of about five or six hours, Requiem is split up into 'levels' that are a bit jarring. To advance from one level to another, you have to collect these glowing metallic balls that are scattered throughout the environment, and only by collecting all of these can you open the portal to the next area. Black Plague handled these transitioning phases much smoother and better.

The graphics engine hasn't changed, so don't expect a great looking game, but you can expect a moody, industrial look that still does an admirable job of infusing uneasiness. Effects and the soundtrack are still fitting and work very well towards immersing the player in The Shelter once again.

Otherwise, Requiem is just an extension of Black Plague. If you've played the original and enjoyed it like most people who played it did, you should obviously get Requiem to bring closure to the story. You may be a little off put by its brevity and different direction, but it's still worth it.