
Penumbra: Overture is a first person survival horror game, emphasizing on survival and problem solving instead of mindless violence and gore.
Modeled estimate, not a reported figure. How we estimate →
Prices
Each in the currency that store quoted — not converted: the gap between two rows is the publisher's pricing, not an exchange rate.
10 of 15 markets; the rest we haven't asked for this title, not markets where it is unavailable.
Discounts
Every price cut of more than 20% we have observed, in each market that quoted one, with this game's chart position on either side of it. These are episodes, not a model: a sale is one event, and one event cannot tell you what the next one will do.
Reviews, worldwide (the counter carries no country): 1.29/day in the week to Aug 26 → 0.71/day in the week after.
For scale, across Steam · Top Sellers · Brazil over the last 30 days: the 25 chart moves that followed a price cut of more than 20% went a median of 10 places towards #1, and the 2,413 moves with no price cut behind them went 2 away. One store, one chart, one country — it is the only place we have enough observations to say even that.
Prices outside the United States have been collected since 6 August 2026 and chart positions since 19 July 2026, so a cut older than that has no market to compare and a market that joined later has no history yet. Nothing here is converted between currencies.
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Themes across 96 recent reviews and how positive each mention is. A keyword signal, not full sentiment analysis.
Reviews
After playing through the first two Amnesia games and SOMA, I was highly interested in exploring the origins of Frictional Games' catalogue. After starting Penumbra: Overture I quickly realised that it was much closer to an alpha version of Amnesia than I had anticipated. It runs on an earlier version of the same engine and features most of the same gameplay elements. The story is far more vague and doesn't really pull you in as effectively as in the studio's later titles. I also didn't fully realise until the end that when they wrote "Chapter 1" during the intro (and the outro), they truly meant it. The story progresses quite slowly and only by giving you more and more questions the further you dive in. Just before the end the questions keep stacking up exponentially, after which you're hit with: To be continued... So don't expect to get anything fulfilling out of this game storywise, in case you don't plan on playing the following chapter(s). The gameplay is, as mentioned earlier, almost identical to Amnesia. The puzzles mostly consist of finding the right tools, combining the correct items and using the physics engine. This was probably the weakest area of the game, as the puzzles were not really challenging but still felt a bit counterintuitive and took a while to figure out. There were multiple occasions were I pondered for a while and then came to the conclusion that you probably need to get additional clues or tools from another area to proceed. Instead the puzzle in the area was always self-contained and you just had to kind of brute force the physics engine to proceed. This also resulted in a diminished horror aspect as my annoyance level started to rise with every death and reload – especially during the few chase sequences. I was also forced to reload one puzzle after most likely bugging it by getting all the available rocks stuck on a ledge and then attempting to use barrels to proceed, which apparently clogged up the puzzle. The only major difference is that there are combat mechanics that allow you to kill the monsters instead of just shivering in a corner. In my playthrough this led quite fast to me grabbing a propane canister and bunny hopping around the map in search of enemies to clear the area so that I could explore in peace afterwards. Understandably, this had a major impact on the horror aspect of the game and would be changed already for the second chapter of the series. Nonetheless, I still found the atmosphere itself to be well-crafted and unsettling – as I nervously hopped around while carrying a big rock everywhere, just in case. All in all, Penumbra: Overture is essentially Amnesia 0.5 and provides you with a bit less refined horror experience that nonetheless works decently. The story, combat and puzzles are all quite basic, but the atmosphere has a nice, oppressive feel to it. [h1]7– / 10[/h1]
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All-time low is the lowest price we've recorded for this game since we started tracking it.
Languages: English
Hours played at review time, across 97 reviews with recorded playtime.
positive critical· bar length = how often the theme comes up
I didn't really enjoy this one. I've heard so many good things about the Penumbra series so I was really excited to play this but ended up going away very disappointed. Maybe if I had played this when it came out I would appreciated it more but as it stand today, it is a deeply outdated game that isn't scary nor fun to play and has been outclassed in every way. I think Overture has a very strong start but it falls of extremely quickly and turns into an absolute slog. You fall through a hatch and start off in an abandoned mine and you get all of these notes about a trapped scientist who started eating spiders and eventually seems to have turned into a monster over time and trapped himself in a small room from which he eventually escapes out off while you're in the next room. I really thought he was going to be the main enemy and would stalk and chase me throughout the game, that would have been absolutely amazing. This unfortunately does not happen and when I found out that the wolfes, spiders and the big worm are the only enemies you will ever encounter, I was extremely disappointed and any remaining horror I had felt went away. One big issue is how much the game overuses the wolfe enemies. If they had used them sparingly and maybe only had 1 or max 2 wolfes per map roaming around (like at the start of the game where there is only one wolfe that is involved in a really cool sequence where it breaks down a barricaded door that you had just barricaded), they might have been scary all the way to the end of the game. Instead, the developers made these extremely large, maze-y levels and spammed them with like at least 1 - 2 wolfes around every corner. So you end up having to deal with like 6 wolfes at once. What also does not help is that the wolfes do not even seem to patrol any set path, they fumble around aimlessly so sneaking past them is almost impossible because the levels have barely any hiding spots and the wolfes never get out of the way. They keep camping the same corners and hallways, never giving you any window to sneak past. At first, I attempted to stealth past them but I was not getting anywhere, so I eventually learnt that you can abuse the clunky combat system and get rid of them by sneaking up behind and stunlocking them by continously hitting them until they eventually die. It works nearly 100% of the time. I say nearly because they like to sink into the ground briefly. And that's what Overture can be summed up as. It's bunch of boring, uninteresting mazes with multiple wolfes that can be stunlocked and killed. Once you do, you end up with bunch of empty hallways to get lost in until you eventually find your way to the next area where you do the same thing again and again until the game ends. By the time I had reached the last chapter, I felt absolutely no fear and very underwhelmed when I found out that it was yet another maze with the same wolfes that I had been stunlocking and killing for the past, what? 8 hours? And yes, there are puzzles but I can't say I'm a big fan of them. I think the one especially at the start involving the generator is just annoying. I managed to figure out without a guide but I can't say I had fun.
я думал что в дарк соулсе самые мразотные собаки, но здесь... Бабадзакич нервно дергает в сторонке
Penumbra teve sua importância, mas não vale a pena ser jogado hoje em dia. O que salva são os puzzles, que são consideravelmente desafiantes, mas o resto desagrada bastante, a ponto de transformar o jogo em algo casual, de ficar simplesmente dando picaretada nos inimigos.
note: since all three [i]penumbra[/i] games are now part of the [i]penumbra collection[/i] i will leave the same summary on all of them. i first got my hands on the [i]penumbra[/i] games in late 2012. (actually i still found the old savegames on my current rig.) they are gripping survival horror games with dense atmosphere and a weird but interesting story. back then it was THE scariest game young me with full hair had ever played. still creeped me out this time around actually and probably added a few grey hairs extra. the puzzles are good and straight forward but it's one of them old pacifist games where you can't even pick up a hammer on the floor to defend yourself with. back in the days this seriously annoyed me buuut it's part of the game i guess. obviously by today's standards absolutely everything about [i]penumbra[/i] feels dated and dusted. but for me they are a must-have for all horror genre fans IF you don't mind the old school presentation. time to complete [i]overture[/i]: 5 hours [i]black plague[/i]: 4.5 hours [i]requiem[/i]: 3 hours
халф лайф + сайлент хіл = імба пенумбра 1
Очень добротный хоррор. Эти разрабы всегда умели делать хорошие и интересные хорроры и их первая работа уже показала, что они в этом мастера.
[h1][b] Reseña de Penumbra Overture[/b][/h1] [h2]Resumen del Juego[/h2] Penumbra Overture es ese indie de terror en primera persona que te invita a hacer turismo extremo: bajas a unas minas heladas, oscuras y nada amigables, con la promesa de “buena trama” y la realidad de “¿por qué sigo avanzando si todo suena como que me van a masticar?”. Es aventura con rompecabezas, sigilo y supervivencia, pero con un corazón muy clásico: te asusta más la atmósfera que los sustos baratos. La primera impresión es clarísima: esto no quiere ser un shooter moderno ni una montaña rusa de acción. Quiere que te sientas pequeño, vulnerable y culpable por haber abierto ESA puerta. Y lo logra. La “acción” está ahí… pero muchas veces es más “acción de cerrar la puerta y rezar” que otra cosa. [h2]Lo Cordura y Lo Que Te Rompe la Linterna[/h2] Lo Bueno: Terror psicológico y atmósfera tenebrosa: el juego te mira fijo y te dice “no estás a salvo”, y tú le crees. Sigilo y supervivencia: el miedo funciona porque no eres un tanque; eres un humano con malas decisiones. Rompecabezas y exploración: ritmo de aventura que premia observar, leer y conectar pistas. Buena trama con vibra lovecraftiana: misterio que se cocina lento, como debe ser en este tipo de terror. Subtítulos disponibles: porque gritar no siempre viene con traducción incluida. Lo No Tan Bueno: Acción “de nombre”: si vienes buscando adrenalina constante, aquí te van a dar ansiedad… pero no necesariamente por combates. Diseño clásico y “austero”: se nota que es un clásico indie; a veces se siente más rígido que la moral del protagonista. Comunidad microscópica: 3 jugadores actuales… básicamente una reunión familiar en una mina embrujada. Cero logros: no hay medallitas para tu sufrimiento, solo trauma y progreso. [h2]Tabla de Evaluación[/h2] [table] [tr][th]Aspecto[/th][th]Puntuación (0-10)[/th][th]Comentario[/th][/tr] [tr][td]Jugabilidad[/td][td]7[/td][td]Sólida para su estilo: explorar, sobrevivir y pensar más que disparar.[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Dificultad / IA[/td][td]6[/td][td]Tensión bien lograda, pero el enfoque depende más del diseño que de una IA brillante.[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Contenido[/td][td]7[/td][td]Aventura con rompecabezas y narrativa; cumple sin inflarse artificialmente.[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Gráficos / Video[/td][td]6[/td][td]Funcionales y atmosféricos; se sienten clásicos, no “bonitos”.[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Historia[/td][td]8[/td][td]Misterio con buena trama y toque lovecraftiano que engancha.[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Ambientación[/td][td]9[/td][td]De lo mejor: opresiva, fría y con personalidad propia.[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Efectos (VFX)[/td][td]6[/td][td]Cumplen: más servicio a la tensión que al espectáculo.[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Música[/td][td]7[/td][td]Acompaña sin estorbar; sabe cuándo callarse para asustarte.[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Voces[/td][td]6[/td][td]Correctas; no son el gancho principal, la atmósfera hace el trabajo pesado.[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Diversidad[/td][td]5[/td][td]No es su foco; es una experiencia un jugador muy centrada en el terror clásico.[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Rendimiento[/td][td]7[/td][td]En general estable para un clásico indie; nada “next-gen”, nada dramático.[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Rejugabilidad[/td][td]6[/td][td]Más de una buena primera travesía que de rejugar por sistemas o retos.[/td][/tr] [tr][td][b]Total Puntuaciones (Muy Bueno)[/b][/td][td][b]6.7[/b][/td][td]Terror clásico bien hecho: fuerte en atmósfera e historia, más sobrio en lo demás.[/td][/tr] [/table] [h2]Conclusión (Muy Bueno)[/h2] Penumbra Overture es como ese amigo edgy que no sonríe en las fotos: no está aquí para complacerte, está aquí para incomodarte. Y en terror, eso es un cumplido. Si te gustan los ambientes opresivos, el misterio y el “terror de pensar”, este juego se siente como una cápsula del tiempo que todavía muerde. Ahora, seamos controversiales: que tenga 3 jugadores actuales no significa que sea malo; significa que la gente prefiere sufrir en tendencias nuevas. Pero con 3632 recomendaciones totales, queda claro que los que sí entraron a la mina salieron diciendo “sí, me traumó… pero bien”. Vale la pena si buscas un clásico atmosférico y no necesitas que el juego te dé palmaditas con logros inexistentes. [h3]Recomendación de Compra (Recomendado)[/h3] Puntuación Total: 6.7/10 Número de jugadores activos al momento de hacer esta review: 3 Descuento máximo registrado: N/A Veredicto: [i]Recomendado para amantes del terror atmosférico y la aventura clásica; no para los que necesitan acción constante.[/i] Si te atrae el terror psicológico, el sigilo y los rompecabezas con vibra lovecraftiana, entra. Si tu idea de “acción” es correr hacia el peligro con confianza, mejor quédate afuera… o al menos trae una linterna nueva y expectativas realistas.
Achei o 'Penumbra Overture' decente. Gostei da atmosfera mas o combate não presta, os inimigos são irritantes de matar, não podemos gravar quando queremos, etc. 5.5/10
Неплохая бродилка ходилка страшилка. Из главных плюсов наверное физический движок с взаимодействией окружением и эмбиент. Бои здесь конечно...спецефичные. Больше всего разочаровывает разнообразие врагов (всего два и один скриптовый). Ну и открытый финал с приглашением в сиквел, ненавижу такое. Как хорошо, что Frictional переняли опыт Пенубры в Амнезию бункер. У этих игр много общего (включая скудный бестиарий монстров:)
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