Self Made Miracle / Team 17 (studio)
12 (certificate)
22 September 2015 (released)
01 November 2015
Penarium; The sadistic circus extravaganzas offers a great time for all the family and the most deranged sickos out there. It has fast action and bloody thrills for everyone to enjoy. Players will take on the role of Willy, a poor farmer’s son who’s been kidnapped and forced to become the latest attraction in Penarium.
Willy participates in a great number of challenging and death enduring events, becoming more dangerous as Penarium grows into a massive spectacle. Each of the three arenas will host a range of mechanisms and death traps that will end poor Willy as he attempts to complete the tasks at hand, from rocket turrets to random flash floods and killer bees. Penarium offers an energetic and nerve wrecking experience filled with fast pace action and lateral thinking. You’ll be kept on your toes and relying on speedy reflexes and quick thinking, making this a truly engaging game to play.
But there are some design choices which put down the overall experience. The general difficulty is extremely unfair, even in the very early stages of the game. With objectives such as breaking barrels or pushing buttons not sounding too challenging, the game punishes players with unfair end states and a lack of checkpoints in levels. It doesn’t help that tasks get repeated too often with minimal change in the objective, making them tedious and long winded by the second act.
I understand a game is an exercise in player skill, but asking a player to smash 40 barrels with a changing array of traps, only to be killed and having to do the task all over again from the beginning. You can guess it gets a little tiring after the 4th or 5th attempt. Failure becomes damn right infuriating as it seems that game itself is unfairly punishing players in the most monotonous way.
Not to mention that game doesn't grow in sense of size or scale. Just to repeat the same assortment of tasks through each of the three acts and use the same traps with minimal changes. It lacks the creativity seen early on in the later stages of the game without adding further elements for the dynamic edge.
Penarium is portrayed as a black comedy of sorts with a cartoony presentation. But this venture could be considered far darker for its own good. Super meat boy and other like it excel in their excess of dark humour for how extremely off over the top and cartoonish they are. Penarium feels as though its pitching a very serious tone and the game’s ending seems to convey a message more suited for something like Bio-shock rather than giving us a laugh. Sadly it doesn’t succeed in being a dark comedy but rather a seriously depressing fairy tale of epically gruesome proportions.
What we do get in return for the flaws? We’re given a ton of content at least and multiple co-op play and single player modes to enjoy. Co-op can be played as a either shared or competitive experience against one another for the title of Penarium campion. It reminds me of the hilariously brilliant Nidhogg where the pressure and extreme nature of the game works well in the multiplayer sections and playing together eases on the difficulty. Along with a bunch of unlockable goodies that add a cosmetic flare or a well deserved boost in the player's ability.
Aside from the extremely painful difficulty spikes, flat humour and repetitive nature, Penarium does give a fast, thrilling exercise of gruesome entertainment. Enjoyed more with friends, Penarium is a game worth checking out but sadly not a spectacle it could have been.
A Steam copy of Penarium was provided by Self Made Miracle / Team 17