Monsters, and Why They Aren't Scary.

[Akong]

Penumbra was scary, as in, really scary. Probably the scariest game I have ever played. With that said, there were some things that could have been scarier.

The doggies. I think we all felt that absolute feeling of dread when we first heard the cry of a dog in the mine and when we first saw those glowing eyes scouting for fresh Protagonist meat. And it was very effective.

It was mainly effective because it was you and him. He could be anywhere in that tiny area and if he found you, you were probably going to die (If you played on hard, that is). He was a looming presence, we knew he was there, but not where.

What I'm trying to say here is, we only needed to see him once for it to be scary. Every following time we saw him, it got decreasingly scary, eventually leading to the general annoyance, rather than scariness, the dogs posed towards the end of the game. (Also, figuring out that you could jump on a box to avoid them detracted a little too.) Many people simply took to running as fast as they could to avoid them, which isn't really all that scary.

I think many people would have liked less, but more varied threats. We like to think that every enemy can potentially kill us, and not just be more of the same old thing, which we already know the key to defeating.

This was true for both (Requiem doesn't count) Penumbra games. The Tuurngait really lost their effectiveness towards the end of the game.

I don't think I'm the only one who was more scared when not in the immediate presence of an enemy, simply because I didn't know what was going to happen.

Still, props to Frictional for making me afraid of a dog.

TL;DR: Hurr durr, look at that dog trying to get me on the box! I'm the cleverest! (Okay, maybe that wasn't the best summary.)