Yezide wrote:Aphex wrote:Another 'review' in UK PC-Zone October, page 108 - congrats (again!)
Awesome thanks
If anyone can scan the article I would be very happy
(Yes i know writing is not a scan but anyway. Note its on page 106 not 108. Ignore the bad spelling, etc. Trying to speedtype. Note: Bold highlighting added by me, rest is like the article, i.e the italics)
Penumbra
The basement of death
Your dad dies and leaves you a key to a safe deposit box which contains stuff thats leads you to Greenland where you immediately get lost in a terrible storm and end up hypothermic and close to death, so you take shelter under some rocks in the middle of nowhere and find a metal door. It leads to a bunker. You go in and its haunted.
Worst. Day.Ever.
Penumbra is all about atmosphere, and its highly impressive engine and sound certainly do a good job in that reguard.
What's more, the physics system - dubbed Newton Game Dynamics - is not only impressive but brilliantly implemented. The familure hand icon lets you grab things (boxes,doors, drawers, etc), but once gripped you move them by dragging the mouse in whatever direction is necessary. It's far better than the one step-removed 'gesture' systems of
Fahrenheit, or
Black & White, and much more satisfying than the usual click-to-activate 'interactivity' of most FPS games. You move things about in entirely intuitive ways, tracing the arc you want with the mouse.
It certinly adds something to the 'build a way round the problem' that even the mighty Source engine fudges with its mysteriously floating objects. In fact, with all the credit to Frictional Games, we wouldn't be upset to see similary inspired control in some of the other supposidly cutting-edge, physics-enabled shooters.
Not that this is rearlly a FPS. It focuses on multi-solution problem solving(block steam, turn it off or find a way round, for instance), item collecting and spooky scares. It might not sound wildly original - and the
Doom III/Resedent Evil/Silent Hill infulences and plain to see - but it does what it does impressivly well.
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LOL, nice bit about Source Engine's physics suc.king. Btw its also on the CD/DVD according to the mag.
