The Year’s Most Compelling Horror Game Is About Cute Penguins
Kotaku • • technology
Key Points:
- Penguin Colony, a new game by Naphtali Faulkner, reimagines Lovecraft's "At The Mountain of Madness" using adorable Antarctic penguins to explore horror themes without excusing the genre's problematic history.
- Players control various penguin species, each with unique abilities, navigating a harsh environment while uncovering an alternative history involving Nazis attempting to awaken an ancient god beneath the ice.
- The game critiques Lovecraftian tropes by highlighting the folly of Western explorers and incorporating indigenous perspectives that clean up the consequences of colonial arrogance.
- Despite its serious themes, Penguin Colony balances eerie storytelling with playful gameplay, featuring charming animations and physics-based platforming challenges across a vast, dark landscape.
- Narration by Lenval Brown adds a compelling layer to the atmosphere, while the game's design embraces both its narrative depth and occasional quirky gameplay moments.
