A true opinion from the Frictional Games community

**Funman** · 07-14-2011, 01:10 AM

So, I played Amnesia, found it to be the scariest game in existence, and decided that I should look into Penumbra. So I did. I played Overture and Black Plague, and found them mostly ok, but with some holes and things that could be improved. Still great, though, awesome story and everything. The reason I didn't like them as much though, I suspect, is that because I played Amnesia first, I was used to higher quality and bigger scares, so when I switched to Penumbra, I wasn't satisfied as much. This leads me to believe that people who played Penumbra first, think of it as a classic that can't be beat, and like it better than Amnesia, while people who played Amnesia first like it better because it is of higher quality, so to speak.

Now, I'm not dissing Penumbra or anything, they were great games, but I want to ask this question to the Frictional Games community: Which game/series of games is better/scarier, Amneisa or Penumbra?

Also, I've played Requiem a bit, but it doesn't look too promising to me :/

**hollowleviathan** · 07-14-2011, 01:57 AM

Penumbra is a different game than the horror-fest sanity-shatter that is Amnesia. It's a horror-adventure game, and should definitely still be a very fun experience in a world that holds Amnesia. Requiem is yet another step away from Amnesia, in that it's the puzzle adventure portion of Penumbra distilled into a unique experience. I'm all sorts of biased, but I think they're all excellent games, despite and because they're not all the exact same thing.

**plutomaniac** · 07-14-2011, 11:59 PM

Penumbra= Puzzle Horror
Amnesia = Survival Horror/Adventure

**theriotear** · 07-17-2011, 07:38 AM

Penumbra Overture was truly awesome and a breakthrough. Penumbra Black Plague changed my life and made me think about many of the things I believe - I felt truly enriched after playing it.

Penumbra Requiem made me cringe with annoyance at every turn - WTF were they thinking, ruining a perfectly good series. Its not scary at all. It makes no sense at all. Its just a collection of senseless puzzles with no point. JESUS CHRIST this game's context blows. Uninstall this pile of WTF and move on to Amnesia.

Amnesia I haven't beat yet cause its so damn scary, but I love it so far and it is undoubtedly the most polished and probably the best, though its gonna be hard to top Black Plague.

**Sexbad** · 07-17-2011, 07:45 AM

I found Requiem's puzzles quite good and it told a lot of little bits of the Penumbra story with symbolic stuff. It's not that bad, just not a horror game.

**hollowleviathan** · 07-17-2011, 09:48 AM

Yeah, I cringe at the description of Requiem's addition to the plot as senseless. It's absolutely not, it's worth a closer and slower examination if you want to get into the deeper psychology of the series, while at the same time obviously, it's just not the same genre at all.

**Tanshaydar** · 07-17-2011, 03:48 PM

Its name is 'Requiem' and I think it pretty much explains everything.

**Funman** · 07-17-2011, 04:03 PM

True, I guess it's hard to compare Penumbra and Amnesia. They're both so different, but yet, similar at the same time. I guess the main difference is that the puzzles in Penumbra were a lot harder for me to figure out than the puzzles in Amnesia.

**SquigPie** · 07-17-2011, 09:39 PM

(07-17-2011, 09:48 AM)hollowleviathan Wrote: Yeah, I cringe at the description of Requiem's addition to the plot as senseless. It's absolutely not, it's worth a closer and slower examination if you want to get into the deeper psychology of the series, while at the same time obviously, it's just not the same genre at all.

I found Requiem stupid. It just seemed like it was incomprehensible for the sake of being incomprehensible. And its puzzles where wierd and boring (Exploding ketchup bottles. Seriously Frictional?).

It felt more like a creepy Portal knockoff than a Penumbra game.

**Sexbad** · 07-18-2011, 02:37 AM

(07-17-2011, 09:39 PM)SquigPie Wrote:
(07-17-2011, 09:48 AM)hollowleviathan Wrote: Yeah, I cringe at the description of Requiem's addition to the plot as senseless. It's absolutely not, it's worth a closer and slower examination if you want to get into the deeper psychology of the series, while at the same time obviously, it's just not the same genre at all.

I found Requiem stupid. It just seemed like it was incomprehensible for the sake of being incomprehensible. And its puzzles where wierd and boring (Exploding ketchup bottles. Seriously Frictional?).

It felt more like a creepy Portal knockoff than a Penumbra game.

It was certainly comprehensible. Just required more work than you may have been putting in. It's not as good as what was in other FG games, but it's by no means trash.