Now THAT's an adventure game:

[The Book]

http://frictionalgames.com/?q=penumbra

[Ubel]

Yeah I tried this out some time ago. I very much liked the interface and the atmosphere the game had. One thing that really bothered me though was that you can't save the game manually, and the game doesn't let you know when it automatically saves. :\ But apart from that it's really worth to try out.

[Mozesh]

One of the few games that makes you feel you really are using/moving objects in the game. And that for a homebrew.

[BOYD1981]

apparently they're working on a commercial version...

[Ishmael]

Looked like Doom 3 on the Oblivion engine to me by the trailer

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

I had not heard of this before, so thanks for the link.  After playing it for awhile I quite enjoyed the interactivity, though it is a bit dodgy at times.

[ciborium]

I would have liked to have downloaded it, but unfortunately, I don't have a 1Ghz processor.  :'(

After the trouble I had with The Silver Lining Demo, I didn't think I should bother downloading something with even higher MSR.

[hedgefield]

It's well worth the playthrough, even though it ends abruptly.

Especially when

Spoiler

I was checking drawers, and I heard a creak. I stopped moving and wondered if it was a drawer, or the door behind me. After a second or two I decided it was probably the door, turned around, and saw it was open, even though I kinda barricaded it. Then out of the shadow between me and the door jumps one of those demons, straight at me. Scared the shit out of me.

[close]

They're still expanding it, more enemies, weapons, levels. Also highly moddable. Almost makes me wanna learn 3D modelling.

[Helm]

I enjoy this enough, even though the writing is meh. Shows how physics make old puzzles new and enjoyable again. Totally a step in the right direction. I can only hope for more FPAGs.

[Kweepa]

Reminded me of Trespasser. Trying to pick up and throw a bottle shouldn't be this hard.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

weapons

1 would be more than what they had in the game, the dynamite barely stuns the creatures.  I agree with Steve as far as the trespasser-like control defects go.  You should be able to pick up and wield those pick axes, boards, etc. effectively and not like you're using psi power to make them hover in front of you.  For throwing things they should add some kind of a charge button you can hold down, since swinging from left to right or whatever doesn't yield good throwing results at all.

[thewalrus]

     I had a very hard time with the controls of this game, I couldn't even pick any objects up..... maybe I'm just slow..... lol ...... 

Thewalrus

Goo, goo, ga, joob!!!!

[InCreator]

What--?

Impression:
The ages-old variable of "graphics quality" is about to die nowadays.
Bump mapping & realistic shadows make all new games alike, and you can't really compare realistic 3D to realistic 3D.
This game stands on Doom3 and Half-life 2 standards and that's quite weird for a game of this type.
Although that was a pleasant surprise, I must say.

This makes making great graphics easy: Bumpmap, shadows, good level design.
Add a good physics engine and your amateur project looks as good as any commercial.

The good:
Atmosphere rocks! I really like idea of walking around and interacting with everything in adventure game style.
The game reminds Silent Hill games, but with the exception that this one I actually like.

The bad:
Awful controls! Dragging things around was quite a pain.
Nerd as a protagonist! With so much heavy things around, it's stupid to run from tiny winged monsters...

I also expected more text in this game. But oh well.
Thanks for the link & hint, The Book!

[DoorKnobHandle]

I agree with everything you, InCreator, and pretty much everybody else said before me, however I have to ask you back about this statement of yours:

This makes making great graphics easy: Bumpmap, shadows, good level design.
Add a good physics engine and your amateur project looks as good as any commercial.

I don't know whether I am misunderstanding you here or not, but contrary to your belief, it's quite (and I mean quite) a hard task to implement realtime shadows, bumpmapping and shaders (etc.) into a 3d-game such as the one we are talking about. And "good level design" is probably even harder to do.

Using a free physics engine is easy (or "easier") to do though, however I am not sure whether Penumbra uses a premade one or whether they made one for their own game (which is incredible hard to do again).

[InCreator]

With so many free or cheap graphics engines around - can it be really that difficult? OGRE 3D alone reaches pretty close to highest wonders nowadays graphics could do.
And for a good level design you simply have to be clever: hire someone of these guys pumping out Quake or Counter-strike maps. There's people who do it as hobby, and are quite proffesional at that.

I believe that any project team with little budget, lots of time and heavy willpower could do commercial-level graphics and physics.

Optimizing for mass use and actual playability of the thing is way another thing...

[ManicMatt]

I was impressed with the graphics!

Now that's out of the way..

I enjoyed the game until it got dark. I can see it creates an atmosphere and makes it a bit scary, but I really dislike playing games where I'm stumbling around in the dark bumping into things. They make these great graphics and then hide it all in darkness.

I also didn't like the defenceless abilities of the main character, and the dynamite is pathetic. Their intention was to make you weak and need to survive, but I guess it's of a personal preference that I would have much prefered to have just smacked the enemy with a crowbar or shot a few rounds into it with a crummy old gun found lying around.

I really like moving doors and lockers though. Yeah, the things on the floor you had to crouch to pick up. Realistic perhaps, but annoying as a gameplay mechanic.

Also, codes for doors. Not a great puzzle element.

I didn't finish the demo, the annoying flying monster put me off. Maybe I'll try again later.

[Helm]

InCreator, what you're saying strikes me as odd.

There's a huge gap from a dark game mostly obscured in shadows with a few bumpmaps like this, and UnrealTournament2007, or Crysis or what have you. I thought this was plain to see, but apparently it's not?

Creating art assets for 3d that look good is extremely difficult.

Making a good looking 3d game is extremely difficult.

Making good level design is extremely difficult.

There's nothing easy about all this.

[InCreator]

There's a huge gap from a dark game mostly obscured in shadows with a few bumpmaps like this, and UnrealTournament2007, or Crysis or what have you. I thought this was plain to see, but apparently it's not?

Yes. But you have to admit that this game looks quite modern also. Just in much smaller scale.

And in *this* game, I actually don't see anything that a small team of enthusiastic people couldn't do.

Fact is, high-tech wonders are becoming available for amaetur games without hardcore programming and that's definetly good.

But taking a look at Crysis screenies ensures me in my theory: Few more years and no new game is rated by it's 'graphics'. Because they will all reach highest human-recognizable-level of realism and only level design is then that matters.

[LimpingFish]

For a freeware game, and remember this is a scratch-built engine, it's pretty damn sharp.
And its physics system, interaction-wise, is far better than most 'professional' games on the market at the moment.

But a handful of guys, no-matter how talented, are never gonna produce something to to rival, visually and from a design standpoint, a game made by a studio like Valve.

I'm talking logistics.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

What if the handful of guys are former Valve employees?