Penumbra: Black Plague

Surrounded by enemies and assaulted by terror from all sides, Philip must collect clues and solve vexing puzzles while combating the gnawing psychological terrors that assail his mind and threaten to strip him…

80 12 February 2008

Adventure Indie Puzzle Action Horror Science fiction Stealth

Penumbra: Black Plague is an adventure developed by Frictional Games, released 12 February 2008 on Linux, Mac and PC (Microsoft Windows). The main story takes about 8.7 hrs to finish.

Verified 27 Sep 2026 Sources: IGDB , Steam , Wikipedia

What Penumbra: Black Plague is

Penumbra: Black Plague is an adventure game developed by Frictional Games and released in 2008. It was published by Paradox Interactive. It is available on Linux, Mac and PC (Microsoft Windows). It runs on HPL.

The premise, in the publisher's words

Trapped in a shadowy, underground complex, intrepid explorer Philip is determined to discover the truth behind his father's disappearance. Surrounded by enemies and assaulted by terror from all sides, Philip must collect clues and solve vexing puzzles while combating the gnawing psychological terrors that assail his mind and threaten to strip him of his sanity. Can Philip master his fear and finally uncover the truth behind a mystery that has haunted him for a lifetime? Only you can decide...

Description from the publisher · source

How it plays

It is played from a first person perspective. Its themes are action, horror, science fiction and stealth. It is a single-player game with no multiplayer component.

How it was received

Penumbra: Black Plague holds a critic score of 80 out of 100. That places it above 64% of the 7,530 rated adventure games in our database, which average 72. Games released in 2008 averaged 65, so it scored 15 points above the year average. Player ratings track closely with critics at 80, across 85 votes.

How long it takes, and what that costs

The main story runs about 8.7 hrs.

What you need to run it

The minimum specification calls for 1Ghz, 256MB of RAM and Radeon 8500/GeForce 3 (GeForce4MX not supported). At 0GB of RAM, it will run on essentially any working PC — that is below what a budget laptop ships with today.

Full requirements and PC checker →

What it launched against

Penumbra: Black Plague launched on 12 February 2008, within three weeks of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Burnout Paradise, God of War: Chains of Olympus and Devil May Cry 4. All of them reviewed better.

Released around the same time: Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Burnout Paradise, God of War: Chains of Olympus, Devil May Cry 4.

Cheats and codes

We have not confirmed any working cheat codes for Penumbra: Black Plague yet. Rather than reprint a list we have not tested, this section stays empty until one is verified.

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