First of all: sorry for my bad english.
And then: I did
borrow Penumbra: Black Plague from my friend, so I have not bought it,
yet, unemployed and so on... And this is way how we did do back in time with Commodore 64 games too when we both weren't able to buy 'em at just that moment. I hope that this ain't too big crime.
And then to the point. There are few things in your game that I really enjoy. First of all, I am really bad with adventure games, I just don't usually get the logic, but with this one; almost (I am not
that clever) everything were so logical and close to real that even I did get the idea without any help!
And second: I just love the athmosphere. One of my hobbies is urban exploration and you have catch the mood of abandoned places really, really well. I am really happy that in this game there weren't so much enemies - I'll think that those places and sounds with just few well placed enemies are much, much, much more thrilling than that usual '200 enemy- shoot everybody' shit.
Actually this is first game that have get my neck hair rise up; when only option is run or hide... It have that something.
And then to my wish list.
First of all, because of those really beautiful places and my hobbies, that urban exploration and photographing...
(if anyone feels interested what abandoned places in Finland are, feel free to check out my website:
http://www.surffi.net/~pvola/index.html )
...please include camera in game and if possible, with possibility to play with aperture; there were so many places where I did feel 'damned, if I really would be there this would be view that I sure would photograph'. Light, shadows and details are important for me, and you have done them extremely well.
And second wish: keep it real. Or at least quite real. Don't include too much enemies, let sounds and places and players mind create the threat. As I did wrote before, real life is often much more thrilling than anything else. In my opinion, thrill comes from realism, from that it could be real. Maybe few enemies (with good reason) are fine to get your neck hair risen, but not too much.
Anyway, you have done it alredy better than anyone else (only thing that gets even near is System Shock 2), so once more I must thank you really, really much for this great experience. So I will rise my this evenings third pint for you and your game, and also every whisky shot that I will drink today.
Thank you very much.