Having reviewed the first two Penumbra games, which encompass the full story of Penumbra, the Penumbra: Requiem review is now to follow.
Penumbra: Requiem sort of takes places following the events of Penumbra: Overture and Penumbra: Black Plague, but is not really related to the story of those two games, and in fact isn’t really related to any story at all. Basically the game is a dream, or nightmare, that Philip has before the end of Black Plague.
Requiem, however, is very different from the first two games. It is divided into a series of distinct levels where Philip must find one, two, or three keys, which activate a portal to the exit of the level. There is virtually no story, only a few references to the events of Overture involving Red, and nothing which reveals more about the Turngait, or anything else about The Shelter. This is perhaps the most disappointing part of this game. The first two games had very interesting stories and characters, and this game offers none of that.
Requiem does offer the same types of physics based puzzles offered in the first two games, and they are still fun in this game, not too difficult and still challenging. There are no enemies whatsoever, which is a major improvement as in the first game enemies were ridiculously annoying. The level design isn’t as interesting because in the dream based story there doesn’t seem to be much consistency and the levels don’t feel like real world locations.
Overall the game is okay and it is fun to play. If the you got the game as a packaged deal with Penumbra: Black Plague it is definitely a welcome addition offering about three more hours of Penumbra gameplay, but not something you would want to pay money for, it just isn’t that interesting.