Anyone online who has played and beaten Penumbra: Black Plague?

Clarence was 10/10 and the story and setting were great but the whole ending bit with the hivemind took a shit all over that.

>>386329142
Penumbra is pretty good OP
Good taste

File: 1422903970605.png (74KB, 265x294px) Image search: [Google]

74KB, 265x294px

>>386329142
>Can never convince myself to play the first Penumbra game again because of those tunnels you have to crawl through with all the spiders
>And all you have is your flashlight to scare them off

I got lost the first time and was frantic near the end since I started running low on batteries.

Fine, have it your way.

I'll reinstall them both (not the puzzle one) just so I can refresh myself on what the fuck even happened. Time to go broom dogs in the face for 20 minutes.

>>386331619
Just go to a high elevation spot (on top of a pile of crates or something) and beat them with a hammer. Puppers can't climb. I always started each area by building a doggo murder perch and then luring them there and hammering them dead.

I beat those games when they were free.
What a mess that was that ending, clearly they had no idea what to do anymore.

>>386329291
>>386334192
>What a mess that was that ending, clearly they had no idea what to do anymore.
Which kind of sucks, I think that Frictional kind of reached an impasse of sorts once Clarence was killed and they weren't sure how to wrap it up.

>>386329142
>I was curious about thoughts on the ending, namely whether it was good or not.
It's brilliant considering how troubled the development was and how they had to literally stuff TWO games worth of content into half of one.
The whole concept of the testing, the ending, the way it ties to the opening of overture... it's amazing, really. One of the best, most satisfying twist endings I've played, up there with games like Cryostasis and Bastion.

That said, your theory is pretty dumb. There is absolutely NO fucking reason that Tuurngait had any other agency that then one he presents you with. In fact, that is the whole FUCKING POINT of the game: the idea that humanity is the villain here compared to the assimilating virus-like hivemind. Denying that is literally contradicts the entire tone, the entire events of the last third of Black Plague, and the impact of the ending. So the whole theory is just completely ungrounded paranoid bullshit. Your father killed himself to cover up the loose ends, it's actually that simple.

>I beat those games when they were free.
What the fuck are you talking about?
Only the original Penumbra, a prototype that roughly corresponded to the first half of Overture, was actually free.
Also, the actual ending of Black Plague, while technically poorly executed especially with the trials segment, made perfect sense and formed a very consistent, tied up closure. It's obvious that they had a perfect idea of what the story is about, and how to wrap it all up.

>>386335159
>Only the original Penumbra, a prototype that roughly corresponded to the first half of Overture, was actually free.
The tech demo had practically no content.

>technically poorly executed especially with the trials segment, made perfect sense and formed a very consistent, tied up closure
Would've been better off leaving things unresolved. It may have been fitting in theory, but the delivery was so forced and out of place that it left a really sour taste in my mouth.

>>386335421
>The tech demo had practically no content.
Except for the entire German part of the outpost, you mean? Which was about one half, or one third of Overture.

>Would've been better off leaving things unresolved.
It really, really would not. It's a good story, with a great beginning and end, with loose threads all tied up (if we ignore Requiem, which we should), a proper story ark and clear message and point.

The ending was poorly executed because Frictional were told to develop three episodes, then half-way through the second episode Paradox told them that they are scratching the second one, and that they have to wrap it all in the second ark of the second episode with no extension of budget or development time. The second episode was more-or-less supposed to end with Clarence dying, and the whole introduction of Tuurngait, the whole testing your ability to be self-sacrifice and emphatic was supposed to take place on longer scale etc... But it's not awful.
But as a story it's actually fucking brilliant because it WORKS IN MECHANIC AND GAMEPLAY PRINCIPLES into the story. And that is something that even today very few games actually do.

The amazing part of it, aside from being a good twist that fits so well with the opening and makes an actually meaningful point is that the player kinda FOLLOWS the logic of the character. As the tests that Tuurngaint imposses on you are not really testing the players empathy, they are testing the players capacity to jump through hoops - with the twist, the game actually acknowledges and incorporates the players perspective, expands on his own actual feelings towards the gameplay scenario.
That is some damn good videogame storytelling that really takes into account the actual medium.

Compared to that, the fact that it goes on a bit too fast and the asset production values are low is trivial. If you actually pay attention and understand what is going on, the ending is one of the most satisfying I've seen in decades.