Get your backup pants ready.

I’ve been a bit deprived of modern horror games. I’ve played System Shock 2 but not Bioshock. I’ve played the first couple Silent Hills and Resident Evils but none of the later games in the franchise. I have no experience with titles like Dead Space and F.E.A.R.

But I can say with certainty that the game developers at Frictional Games knew what they were doing when they made the “Penumbra” series.

Today I’d like to tell you about the first game in the series, “Penumbra: Overture”, released in 2007. I’ll do my best to detail just how the game plays on fear and helplessness to create an experience that will frighten you, scare you so much you are afraid to continue playing, and yet draw you in so that you can’t help but suck it up and keep going.

Game: Penumbra: Overture

Developer: Frictional Games

Genre: Horror/puzzle

May appeal to fans of: Silent Hill (the early ones), Call of Cthulu

Key points: physics engine, no guns, terrifying elements

The game begins with the main character, Philip, detailing how he came to be on a boat headed for Greenland, chasing after the father he believed to be dead. This trip, coupled with harsh weather conditions, drives him into an abandoned mine shaft. The shaft caves in, trapping him underground with no choice but to continue on in search of answers, or a way out, or both, with every expectation of finding neither.

This entrapment is the meat of “Overture”’s suspense. The game does a wonderful job of instilling the feeling that all the securities and safety nets of civilized life are no longer available in this cold and unfeeling realm. The only contact with the outside world that Philip finds is the occasional ray of light pouring in from a hole in the cave ceiling, along with a few handwritten letters and notes left by those who originally dug the mines.

But Philip is not alone. Something isn’t quite right about the mine. The queerness of it all is first noted in a bit of paper left by a miner, mentioning how something in the rocks has driven people mad. What’s more, some element of the environment has altered the wildlife, leading to abnormal growth and hostility.

What this boils down to is vicious animals with unnatural strength and an urge to kill. The fierceness of these predators is hinted at early on, when something terrible-sounding hits up against a closed door – one that the player must pass through to continue. Soon after, Philip finds himself stalking through the mining caverns, hiding in the darkness to avoid terrifying wolves, giant spiders and other horrors.

Such horrors are hinted at before they are encountered. Much of the suspense of the game comes not from running into terrible things so much as waiting for the horrible things to appear. Instead, they are mentioned in found memos, or heard behind walls and closed doors.

The series draws its name from a word for a part of a shadow, and for good reason. The player must crouch and crawl through the shadows, sneaking past these animals to complete the necessary tasks to proceed. Combat is an option, as the player is provided with items such as a hammer and a pickaxe, and elements of the environment can be used for defense, but the odds are stacked in favor of the animals. The wolves move with a swiftness that trumps that of the player, and the spiders leap without warning to bite at your face.

Even so, one gets used to dealing with the creatures, which are manageable at least on normal difficulty. What really generates fear in the game is the ambience and the way the environment is used to inspire suspense. Not only is lighting an important part of survival in the game, it is also used to cast frightful shadows and set the mood of the location. The player also experiences audial abnormalities during gameplay, such as the whispered sound of voices emanating from the solid rock walls, or the heavy beating of Philip’s heart when enemies are nearby. In fact, even looking at an enemy while hiding can cause the character to freak out and stand up, alerting the enemy to his location.

The game uses a physics engine comparable to the one found in Half-Life games, in which objects can and must be picked up and manipulated.

The player has to manually push doors open, a little touch that causes one to hold back with apprehension before venturing into new territory. Even better, the game plays on this point to great effect in a number of places, requiring the player to use doors and obstacles to temporarily hold back oncoming dangers.

The physics engine is also used in a number of ways to create challenging puzzles for the player. Items and moveable objects must be used to continue through the game, all the while as deadly creatures and environmental elements threaten the character’s life. All the puzzles are fresh and unique, also, rather than re-using the same trick with a slightly different twist each time.

All of these elements are pulled together to create a frightening experience that is only amplified by the story that goes along with it. Amid the sneaking and frantic combat of “Overture”, the player pushes Philip further and further into a dismal mystery, with escape becoming less and less likely with each step. By the end of the first game, Philip has transformed into an altogether different person than when he first entered the mine, completely separated from the outside world and effectively pulled into one much darker and stranger.

Below is a video showing an example of the sort of suspense one can find in “Penumbra: Overture”. Not shown are the frightful moments when one is sneaking through the dark caverns, weapon in hand, catching glimpses of enemies at the corner of the screen and tensing up for attack at any moment. The scene shown in the video is actual gameplay. For more footage of gameplay, view the trailer.

That said, after playing through the game, I have to say that the enemies were not that difficult to overcome at normal difficulty – except, perhaps, for the spiders, which may give me nightmares. If you play this game and feel like the atmosphere is diminished by the ease of combat, try getting through the game while killing as few animals as possible. Or, better yet, play the second game, “Black Plague”, in which the player has no weapons and the enemies cannot be killed. My goodness, that game is terrifying.

It is also worth noting that Frictional Games has a new title in the works, currently dubbed “Unknown”.