Trouble was brewing, and now everyone's gone. From the scraps of paper and worker logs found in the caverns, some sort of experimentation was going on, creating new substances, and exploring the power of the artefacts. The confusing notes intrigue him, and lead him to Greenland and a mysterious underground mine, filled with peculiar artefacts, and mysteries to solve. The story remains the same - a young man, Philip, has recently lost his mother, and soon after receives a letter from his estranged, and now dead, father. The popularity was such that the company is now developing it into a three-part episodic commercial venture, under the name Penumbra: Overture. The game's first incarnation was as a free tech demo by the indie developers, called Penumbra (available elsewhere on the Internet), showing off the engine they'd created to the Internet. Perhaps it's overkill to use dynamite on the spiders, but this game's giving us the option and we're going to use it. And no, dear God no, we don't mean like Myst. The four man team that makes up Frictional Games have remarkably hand-built a 3D engine that looks contemporary, effectively integrated Newton Game Dynamics physics, and then stripped out anything that might imply the term 'first-person shooter'. Whether it's a great one, especially if the awful combat stays in its current state, is to be seen.

Penumbra Overture is looking to be a very smart game. So, unless the FPS suddenly invades Iraq and starts introducing ID cards, there doesn't appear much hope for the traditional adventure game ever regaining a hold in a modern market. Every corporate redesign, younger-faced spokesperson or ill-advised PR event on a bouncy castle only serves to highlight quite how out of place it looks. It so desperately wants to appear up-to-date, relevant to a new generation, but cannot escape its own dated core. The problem is, the genre is suffering from the same wasting disease as the Conservative Party. Does it help if I point out that for once, I might have a positive suggestion, rather than forcing out half-laughs at another vapid attempt to resurrect decade old rabbit and dog jokes? In fact, even introductions pointing this out are cliché-ridden territory, and deserving of a sunken heart. Speculation over the future of the adventure game has possibly become the most tiresome dialogue within the videogaming press.

Penumbra overture generator