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At the conclusion of Penumbra: Overture, Philip makes his way down a dimly lit, winding staircase into the depths of a unknown, underground installation. Finally reaching the end, Philip is blinded by light. As his eyes adjust he sees a figure at the far end of a corridor. He runs toward it, desperate for contact, communication. Out out nowhere he is struck down. Darkness rolls in.
Set immediately after the events of Penumbra: Overture, Philip finds himself locked – in true text adventure style – in a room. He must find his way out. Rooting through various lockers and desks in his room, he realises that this place is new, not old like the mines before. It has been used, it has fallen into disrepair. Outside his room he hears heavy breathing and screaming. Things move past the door, obscured and unknown.
You know, I hate re-telling a story. Especially when that story is a complex, sometimes cliched, but is ultimately original. What am I supposed to say? This happened. And then that. And wait, oh – then this! So alas, I’m going to be a pain and not tell you much about the story. It keeps up the mystery and isolation of Overture but adds in some Da Vinci Code like institutions, musings on intelligence and consciousness and even manages to pull a few scary surprises.
The Black Plague is linear. It’s a puzzler, it has to be. What doesn’t matter is that the story and the interactive parts are linear. Linearity can breed a controlled and great story. Max Payne and Mass Effect being wonderful examples. Maybe I’m going a bit too far into the inner workings of games here and off the subject of The Black Plague. What I’m trying to say is that linearity can also breed a tired, mechanical story if enough isn’t done to deceive you. BioShock wowed us with it’s living environment, but the choices didn’t really effect anything, so the interactivity and freedom is an illusion, but an illusion of the best kind.
The Black Plague resolves many of the errors in Overture – mindless puzzles, similar areas all with locked doors that you just have to open to escape – and replaces them with a voiceover of insane virus and genuinely frightening creepy case sequences from creatures that look as if they’ve been dug up and somehow had their genitals replaced with an agitated umbilicus (yey!). Oh, and the insane virus just doesn’t talk to you, he wants to be you, to take over. And he tries, many times, resulting in your view reeling around the screen like some drunken fool.
By almost removing the element of combat, which was tired in Overture, Frictional have managed to make a more frightening world. If you get cornered or something limps up too quickly, you have to run. There isn’t the uncomfortable swing of an pickaxe in Overture that would likely leave you bleeding on the floor instead of your opponent, this time there are corners, rooms and lockable areas to evade and contain your foes.
Once again Frictional prove that they can make an indie horror puzzler that is unique and interesting. Did I mention it was dirt cheap too?
