Penumbra: Requiem tries to be a combination of two things, but doesn't manage to entirely succeed in this attempt, and while it's not a bad game, it's obviously not as good as it's hoping to be. The experience is certainly atmospheric, the gameplay is solid enough, and the puzzles are certainly challenging, making it worth the ten dollar asking price if one owns Penumbra: Black Plague, or the twenty dollar asking price for both games. However, thanks to a heavy reliance on jumping puzzles and fetch quests, combined with a lack of an interesting storyline, lack of any real dread or terror, lack of length.
The sneaking suspicion that it's trying, and failing, to be Portal, make the game feel less like a worthy expansion pack to one of the best horror games of this year and more like an inexpensive add-on product meant to cash in on one of the best puzzle games of LAST year. Penumbra: Requiem isn't so much bad as it is disappointing; it's certainly fun and playable, but you can't help but feel it could have been better than it ultimately is, and that's a shame.
