A fan review of Penumbra! (Spoilers)

[naturon]

Excellent review. I especially enjoyed your theory of the characters in the game being allegories for humanity. The characters' contribution to your character form somewhat of an equilibrium. Clarence being a malevolent, insane, wise-ass trickster meaning you nothing but harm (he offers help, but his intentions remain evil), Amabel being a benevolent, kind person still in touch with her humanity and sanity and finally Red being somewhat neutral (he isn't quite sure what he's doing most of the time; he intended to help you reach your goal and yet was ready to send you to your doom on several occasions).

I also agree with all the flaws you found the games had, although I thought all of the puzzles in Overture were fun, engaging and difficult. The game is definitely somewhat reminiscent of Silent Hill with all of its obscure puzzles that took you days to figure out without a walkthrough, and I definitely enjoyed that. None of the puzzles took me that long, but some of them took a bit of logical thinking and speculating. In fact I would've enjoyed even harder puzzles. Not necessarily obscurer to the point of being seemingly impossible and nonsensical, but complex in their design. What I mean is, having puzzles that have a seemingly pragmatic goal and yet complicated method of reaching said goal. That's why I much prefer Penumbra's puzzles over the puzzles of other games. All of them are straightforward and realistically set forward, but not easy. Again, great review, and I agree with the above poster; I will definitely read your Amnesia review if you decide to do one.