This demo "review" comes from someone who hasn't play Penumbra. Although I did watch someone play them more than a year ago, I didn't play it myself and I hardly remember much about Penumbra except some basic stuff. However I'm really a big fan of horror games and I'm sure I could even name some obscure horror games nobody here has heard of, I'm not saying this to show off but rather to emphasize the idea that I AM a big fan of horror games and that I really liked this demo a lot (although I have to admit I was drunk when I played it).
The first thing that struck me when I played the game were the graphics. I really loved the art direction and everything looked really creepy and dark.
I really liked how limited in oil the player was. Some games have great concepts like this but don't take them far enough, so let me do a quick and fitting comparaison: in Eternal Darkness there is also a Sanity meter, except that in ED I NEVER ran low on sanity until I forced myself not to use healing items. In the demo of Amnesia I didn't have to pretend or to force myself, I was really limited and when I realized how little oil I actually had I began to feel insecure.
Also in the first level, of course at first I had no idea how the place was, so I kept checking every room, every place, until I got familiar with the layout. Of course when doing that, again, I felt insecure because I had no idea what I could expect, but once I had seen every place that I could go in for the moment, in a fraction of second it began very clear to me how the place was and what to do in order to progress.
After that, when I thought about what had just happened, it reminded me of the "hint" text that I could see during the loading screen or something, the one that said that making in game progress heals your sanity. At first when I read that I thought it was some kind of gameplay mechanic that was there, because it HAD to be there and that sanity had to be healed somehow, but after what had just happened in the first level I realized I was wrong: it all makes sense. The gameplay mechanic makes sense with what actually happened for me, in other words, once I had my hands on the place and once I realized what I had to do in that one place, for a short moment I began to feel better; and considering that when you make progress in the game your sanity gets "healed" (supposedly, I didn't check myself but I trust that hint message) it all make sense and it is all one and same thing. This reminds me of your blog post when you said your goal was to create an "experience" and get rid of any "gimmicky" gameplay mechanic, which you think are a barrier for immersion. Well, as far as this little thing is concerned, you did it, since gameplay mechanic and actual feeling and experience are linked.
This also brings me to another point: hearing the character's heavy breath (and other stuff) when the player is supposed to be scared. I'm pretty sure that you're gonna get comments from people disliking that thinking that they are "told" to be scared when they aren't. I think this can be justified, for them, if really they didn't feel insecure or scared when playing (and after all there is little we can say for that, as being "scared" is something very personal, and some people won't get scared as easily or by the same things). As for me, I didn't mind those kind of stuff at all, since I actually felt insecure when playing, and again, even though I surely wasn't breathing as heavily as the in game character, it was the same thing: game mechanics and actual experience were linked, at least for me.
However there was one moment where I thought the game might be taking it too far: when I was forced to crawl through one of the door. Since you even said yourselves on your blog posts that a game should never take away the control the player has, this felt contradictory. Although it wasn't really a big deal and it was short, but it was a small moment when I felt that the experience of the character and my own experience were different.
The transition to the 2nd level did feel a bit abrupt, but like you said, that was only made like this for the demo and won't be like this in the finalized product, so I can't really blame it.
When I was told not to look at the water enemy, I instantly started to stop walking for a second and stared at the wall, opposite of where the enemy seemed to be. After that I began to feel dumb, to feel like a little kid who thinks that if he tries not to look or think of something, that something will disappear. I thought that was really well done as it helped making me feel weak.
Anyway as a whole, what I really liked about this demo, is that after all it really had very little horror elements. Instead, it was all about terror, with a few bits of well used "actual" horror here and there to help me feel bad.
Finally, I noticed a couple of small "issues" that you should taken note of. First, I couldn't use that lever unless I crouched, but perhaps that was done on purpose.
http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m51/C...-20-03.jpg
Secondally, when somebody talks to me on Steam and the message pops up on the lower right part of the game, if I press ESC, and then shift+tab immediatly to open the steam menu, and later go back to the game, the pop up message will stay there, except blurred, until I go back to the game. EDIT: come to think of it, perhaps that happened because I was also using fraps, and as you can see in the screenshot the number of FPS is located at the same place my friend's text is. But then again, I don't remember this happening any other game I've played on Steam, while using fraps at the same time.
http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m51/C...-30-29.jpg
The last and most important "issue" I had is that I was able to jump behind those rocks (if I recall correctly, it was near those corridors with armor) and see outside the boundaries of the level, and part of the rest of the level.
http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m51/C...-01-57.jpg
http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m51/C...-11-31.jpg
oh and be sure to check my friends' youtube video if you haven't already, he was completely unable to play the game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7y8CSHmvZrE
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And... it was a good decision.
