Please answer these questions so that we can try and make the upcoming episodes even better!
1) Where did you hear about Penumbra: Overture?
2) What do you want to see MORE of in the next episdes?
3) What do you want to see LESS of in the next episodes?
4) What things would you like to see added to the next episodes?
5) What are you the most curious on knowing in the upcoming episodes (story wise).
This thread might contain spoilers on Episode One, so please only answer question after you have completed the game (or decided not play it anymore).
1) Through a discussion at
MobyGames
2) Both physics-based and inventory-based puzzles.
3) Enemies certainly add to the atmosphere, but I did nothing but running from them. I'm glad the game allows me to, as I was usually unable to kill as much as a spider :) It would be great if future episodes still allow you to sneak around all the time and don't force you to engage enemies. The running around in a single area to move between the different sections became a little tedious after a while, especially since I didn't manage/bother to kill the wolves.
4) The mix of gameplay elements in episode 1 is great, though I kept wondering if the flashes through the artefacts wouldn't progress into visual images, instead of just text.
5) I'm patient, no special requests.
It's been a long time I've played a game in a single gaming session and completely lost track of time, hats off gentlemen. This will go straight into gaming history.
1) I read an article in Computer Gaming World (I think) about 100 free games and the Tech Demo was one of them (and the one that looked the most interesting).
2) More physics based puzzles.
3) Not sure... I may need more time to think it over.
4) A few more different types of monsters.
5) I also have no idea on this one either.
I would give more but it's currently 3:45 AM.
1) From
Jay Is Games first, if I recall correctly. Spotted it in a couple of places though - it was the demo that got me.
2) I'm with the above guys - the physics and inventory puzzles were excellent. The only one I wasn't sure about was
3) Yeah, I never once managed to kill an enemy, so sneaking around those corridors to get between sections began to get a little slow. I'm not sure if I was meant to be killing them - and I was quite happy not to, I like sneaking - it's just those linking sections felt a little repetitive.
4) The set piece scares
were great. More please... :D
5) Surprise me :)
1. Seen it mentioned in a list of games a guy suggested to try out, on Rage3d forums.
2. I want more scarier environments and more jumpy scenes, just little things that add to the atmosphere. More puzzles like the conveyor belt puzzle but with more physics usage.
3. Less of the annoying spiders, they should be easier to kill. In the part where the boulder chases you down the hole and the game saves at the bottom then spiders are right there.. I died a lot there and ended up running all the way out of the tunnel, throwing dynamite into the hole and trying to kill as many spiders as I could, a lot of trial and error cuz they kept killing me if I just tried to go forward with pick axe.
4. I would like more of Red, he was really unique in his speaking and I liked the accent. I would like if the story brings you deeper into the mine, like reallllly deep so you feel like your so far from help and ever getting out that you just know you gotta continue to the end of the place.
5. I wanna know more about what Red was talking about towards the end. Want to know more about the little ornament things that flash white and let out voices. Want to know who that guy was standing in the very last corridor. Want to know more about his 'dead' dad.
1) I forget where it was I heard about the Penumbra Tech Demo, but that was my first contact with the Penumbra 'Universe'.
2) I liked the way there were multiple ways to do things such as killing the hounds. You could go for it with your pick axe, use dynamite, use a propane canister, lure them into one of the steam cages etc.
I think offering multiple ways to do things is the right way to go.
3) My answer here is more 'don't add more of' rather than 'have less of'.
The major part of the atmosphere was the feeling of being alone. It wasn't just a feeling that you were trapped inside the structure, as in: if you could get out you'd be OK. It was a feeling of complete isolation, as there were some times when you could just about see the surface but knew there was little point in trying to reach it as you would die out there probably quicker than you would if you stayed down. You were actually safer inside - as scary as it was down there.
I think any more humans will need to be carefully handled. Red offered the tiniest hint of hope, though you still felt miles away from him. He was just enough to make you feel it was worth progressing and not giving up. If there were lots of humans, it would take away that isolated feeling - even if you couldn't reach them.
4) Different 'monsters'. Not in an over the top way, or different ones for the sake of different ones. But ones that offer a different challenge. For example, as the hounds couldn't see you when you were still with no light on, this could be contrasted with a different enemy who would run from your light. Or perhaps would run from loud noises.
Then you would have a situation where creating a loud noise would potentially have a positive or a negative effect. It would frighten this new enemy, but it would attract the hounds. So do you make the noise or not?
Also, the healing over time wasn't the best idea I don't think. I found myself attacking a hound, then sitting till I was healed, then going after the next one.
Maybe the healing could only be if you are in red, you can heal to orange. But no higher.
5) Find out more about Red's story. Perhaps not in a way that he is central to the story or anything. You just read or hear one or two more things explaining how he got in his situation, and how horrible it was. Have that at the start of the next episode and then he could be forgot about for the rest of the episode. Just to tie up the loose ends, and answer the remaining questions about him. But not overly, as a vale of mystery is part of the atmosphere.
And, what kind of society exists down in these tunnels? I can't remember the quotes at the end, but it seemed there was an organised group operating. It would be interesting if there was a couple of factions which had formed. Not goodies or baddies - but maybe one group existed on hunting animals down there, where as another traded with them some how. And the factions were rivals?
I don't know, that was just an idea off the top of my head and contradicts what I said in point three.
:)
Hope this was helpful.
1. I found the demo on Fileplanet one day
2. Yeah I agree with the others, more physics puzzles
3. Less sneaking around, I dont mind the occasional sneaking but there seemed to be too much sneaking around the dogs this time, maybe making it easier to kill them might help
4. Hmm maybe some mini games or unlockables would be nice
5. Im curious what this caste thingy is also who the guy in the tunnels was
1. I found the tech demo on Fileplanet while I was downloading a mod for Clive Barker's Undying (Against my will was I using FP, the website that had the mod was using that retched evil site as it's file host :()
2. Physics puzzles are definitely great, but not when they rely on careful placing of objects. I can never quite move an object, especially a big object like a plank, how I want to with the Newtonian physics. If you could make those a bit "less" movable: Dragging one end wouldn't move the other so much, or something- that would be great.
3. Item hunting puzzles. A puzzle consisting of "find piece X, Y, Z, combine + use" isn't really the most brain-busting of situations. I was intrigued reading the explosions manual, but disappointed when the three needed items to set off the TNT where ALL you could find to complete the puzzle, so the only skill tested was breaking the barrel of powder and basic reading comprehension. :| If there were multiple ingredients, for example, such as the unstable explosive ones mentioned in the pamplet that you could make and use on enemies or explode in your face during creation, as a test of putting the clues of the explosive manual together, maybe even make a second bomb to defeat a monster guarding the cave-in, would have really made that puzzle shine.
Basically, yeah, less simple item puzzles, more phsyics interactions and brain busters. :P
4. You know, when I originally saw the media screenshots of Overture, I had the impression it was set in a small town or a house somewhere. I thought that it began before the tech demo and we'd actually get to explore an abandoned town or something before entering the mine, something along those lines. It was kinda disappointing to find the whole game was the mine. Now I see how it's unlikely you can LEAVE the mine for the course of these games, as we've been going down and down and down... but it would be nice for some variance in the enviroments. Maybe even a hallucination segment or dream or flashback where we briefly visit the outside world. No need for human interaction- just for a wide-open enviroment with a sky. Hell, even a giant cavern room with a lake and a hole in the ceiling would work. :P
And I agree with above, a wider variety of enemies. Not a huge lot, not a crowd, not a legion of hell-fiends. Just a bit extra variance.
5. You've definitely got me intrigued by the plot. I just want to know what's going on, and where the monsters are coming from- and WHAT makes them monstrous. Are the wolves just beaten up starves wolves? Are they zombies (my first impression on getting a good look at one)? Are they genuine out-of-this-world monsters?
1.I saw some pictures on
http://www.gamespot.com
2.more types of monsters
3.less spiders
4.more types of monsters & as a weapon a chainsaw would be great :D
5."why did his dad died?"
1) I heard about the tech demo ages ago in some forums, and downloaded it.
2) Puzzles and exploration, no doubt. This isn't really a survival horror: it's an adventure game. And that's why I love it ^^
3) Combat, specially against generic enemies (Also known as dogs :P).
4) As I said in another topic, if you're gonna add more chases or enemies, try to make them a bit more interesting... Sure, having different ways to kill enemies is nice, but not if there are so many of them to kill. In the end you're just doing the same thing every time you meet one.
5) Well, there's not much we know yet... I guess I'd like to know about Red, the guys in the ending, and whatever the character's father did that (I guess) attracted those beasts to the mine...