Penumbra:Overture is a first person survival horror game, emphasizing on survival and problem solving instead of mindless violence and gore. Played from a first person perspective and powered by a 3D engine utilising cutting edge technology, Penumbra is a substantial advancement of the genre.

Set in the year 2001, Penumbra: Overture follows the story of Philip, a thirty-year-old physicist whose mother has recently died. After receiving a mysterious letter from his supposedly dead father, Philip follows a series of clues that lead him to a mysterious location in uninhabited northern Greenland.