Suggestions and Ideas

[Emon]

Then you would notice the immense lag, that comes when the CPU is decoding resource files and loading them up to the RAM.

It would be a non-issue with multi-core systems, and if the engine was designed right to begin with, shouldn't take that much recoding. Geometry data for a game like Penumbra is rather small, it's textures and maybe sounds that take a long time to load, which could easily be offloaded onto another CPU core.

However it would be just easier to make the loading zones much larger. You could still have "safety" points like the heavy doors, but don't have them as often. Making them more like the bulkheads in System Shock 2 would be good.

I think it would benefit the developers to study Thief I, Thief II and System Shock 2 for ideas for the next two episodes. Those games epitomize the horror and sneaker FPS genres.

One thing that I like about Shock 2 is that it actually has well done respawning of enemies. Enemies will respawn in areas after you've been gone a while, it always keeps the player on their toes. Not a full force of enemies, just one or two at random. You shouldn't be able to sprint about most areas in these types of games without fear.

The worst thing about Penumbra is the combat. It's not bad, and I know it's mostly an adventure game, but it could really be better. The simple swings tweak is a start, but the swings should behave more like the sword combat in Thief. Swinging with the crosshair to the left of the enemy swings the weapon to the right, and the crosshair to the right of the enemy swings to the left, etc.

Also, throwing objects to do damage is nearly impossible. I like the idea of controlling things with the mouse, but it's just not practical to try to kill a dog with a heavy rock or a barrel. One solution would be this: you pick up an object, then press and hold another button (say mouse 2) to hoist the object above your head. When you let go, your person chucks the object towards the target. The longer you hold mouse 2, the farther and harder the throw.