Penumbra: Overture started as a tech demo, but it has since grown into a full-blown trilogy, put together almost as a labor of love by Frictional Games, a small independent development studio. The results might be a bit mixed, but the game shows a great deal of polish, considering the odds stacked against it.

Upon loading up, players get treated to a typed message from the narrator, Philip, who claims to have seen horrible things while journeying across a dark path. If his efforts turned out well, then he'd be dead by the time anyone read his letter. The story then goes back to the beginning, where Philip (returning from his mother's funeral) receives a letter from his deceased father, which leads to a map that his father cryptically writes, "should be destroyed." However, curiosity gets the better of Philip, and after some detective work, he ends up in Greenland, caught in a blizzard. He takes refuge in an abandoned mine, which doubled as a WWII bunker, and gets caught up in a strange mystery that involves heavily mutated creatures linked to a substance that drives people insane. Players take on the role of Philip and travel with him down the dark path of this Lovecraftian horror story.

The goals of Penumbra seem high, specifically to create a suspenseful horror game that doesn't rely on violence. Although the game uses a first person point of view, it should not be confused with a shooter. Instead, it utilizes the classic adventure gaming system, where players collect items and combine them to solve puzzles. In fact, the game discourages direct confrontation with creatures. The main character lacks a gun, and often needs to sneak past or outwit the dangers he encounters. Philip also ends up being a fragile character, and only takes a few hits to critically injure or kill him. Relying almost solely on lighting and sound, the developers nearly achieve success in creating a masterful suspense story, were it not for a few technical issues.

Penumbra's first problem comes from its independently developed physics engine. Don't take that to mean that the game handles physics badly. On the contrary, using a proprietary engine, the game feels like Half-Life 2 in how it allows players to interact with the environment. Rocks and other random items can be picked up, while barrels and crates can be shifted around to barricade a door. A hand icon shows up in the middle of the screen when players pass over an object that can be interacted with. However, the game makes a big point of separating itself from shooter games. That means no crosshairs, leaving players to guess when an object passes into interactive range. Secondly, players move their mice around to simulate real-life movement with equipped items. Swinging a hammer means moving the mouse up and down or side to side. It takes a great deal of getting used to.