Penumbra: Black Plague
| Penumbra: Black Plague | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Developer(s) | Frictional Games |
| Publisher(s) | Paradox Interactive |
| Designer(s) | Thomas Grip Jens Nilsson Tom Jubert |
| Programmer(s) | Thomas Grip |
| Writer(s) | TJ Jubert Mikael Hedberg |
| Composer(s) | Mikko Tarmia |
| Series | Penumbra |
| Engine | HPL |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux |
| Release date(s) |
Microsoft Windows
May 12, 2010 |
| Genre(s) | Survival horror |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Aggregate score | |
|---|---|
| Aggregator | Score |
| Metacritic | 78/100 |
| Review scores | |
| Publication | Score |
| Adventure Gamers |   |
| GameSpot | 8.0/10 |
| IGN | 7.7/10 |
| PC Gamer (UK) | 7.4/10 |
Penumbra: Black Plague is the second installment of the Penumbra series of episodic computer games developed by Frictional Games. The story continues from the previous episode, Penumbra: Overture, showing the protagonist Philip moving away from the abandoned mine setting of the original to explore an underground research base. Black Plague was released on February 12, 2008 to generally favourable reviews from critics. Although originally intended to conclude the series, a further expansion called Penumbra: Requiem was released later that year.
Black Plague is an exploration-based survival horror game that takes place from a first-person perspective. The game's survival horror aspect mostly consists of avoiding various enemies which seek to injure or otherwise harm the protagonist. Compared to the previous game Overture, combat has been heavily de-emphasized, with the player no longer able to make weapons or create makeshift traps to fight enemies with. Instead, the emphasis is on the use of stealth tactics and fleeing to avoid attacks by enemy creatures. Gameplay features a mixture of exploration and solving physical puzzles.
Puzzles vary between traditional inventory puzzles often found in similar games of the survival horror genre and primarily physics based puzzles, such as grabbing and stacking boxes in order to build a rudimentary stairway in order to get past a laser tripwire, or placing boards in order to cross an environmental obstruction such as a pit. Unlike in the previous episode, the player must also frequently interact with the base's computer and security systems by acquiring passwords, retrieving biometric data or keycards, and repairing or overriding certain electronic or mechanical devices.
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