Penguin Colony offers a unique and often hilarious take on Lovecraftian horror, transforming cosmic dread into a creaturely absurdity. Developed by Indigenous Melbourne-based studio Origame Digital, the game reinterprets H.P. Lovecraft's "At The Mountains Of Madness" by placing players in the flippers of a penguin navigating a world of cultists and ancient horrors.
A Penguin's Perspective on Eldritch Horrors
The game opens with a scene of bleakness: a ravaged polar campsite, burning tents, and uniformed corpses. Amidst this chaos, a pioneer is found sawing off his own face. Lenval Brown's narration provides the Lovecraftian exposition, detailing eldritch relics, madness, and interdimensional empires. However, the player's response is not one of existential dread, but a series of penguin noises, such as "Fnaaarp" and "urk urk urk." This establishes the game's central conceit: you are a penguin, largely indifferent to the grand, often disturbing, events unfolding around you.
This critical distance amplifies the absurdity of Lovecraft's themes, particularly his explorations of imperialism and racial hierarchy. The explorers in Penguin Colony are not the original scientific expedition but German Nazi occultists, with English collaborators. Their quest to awaken a dormant starspawn is misguidedly framed as seeking an "Aryan king." The game also introduces a redemption narrative with playable Māori warriors who attempt to thwart the fascists' plans.
Gameplay Mechanics and Presentation
Penguin Colony features several playable penguin varieties, switchable at will. Should a penguin meet an untimely end, the world is populated with numerous backup birds. Rudimentary class elements are present, with heavier penguins able to activate floor switches and smaller ones fitting through tunnels, opening new paths. While the game aims for a penguin-like waddle, the controls can feel janky, with penguins stuttering up inclines or sliding unexpectedly. The presentation also suffers from occasional glitches, such as reappearing tutorial tips and an intrusive stamina circle.
Despite these rough edges, the ponderous movement can encourage a deeper appreciation of the game's environments. Later areas shift from icy wastes to dessicated modern cities built on stolen land, and bizarre, monumental ruins. One striking structure resembles a colossal brain coral or a petrified god's brain, defying comprehension with its squamous and primordial immensity.
An Unexpected Soulslike Homage
Perhaps the most surprising element of Penguin Colony is its Soulslike influence. A later "boss battle" against a giant Shoggowotsit directly references FromSoftware's design, complete with orchestral music and area-of-effect attacks. However, the game subverts these expectations. Instead of engaging in combat, the player can often simply slide beneath the creature's ankles, bypassing the challenge. This deliberate subversion earns it the label of "anti-Soulslike."
The Soulslike parallels are more strongly felt in the level design, which can be torturous and reminiscent of areas like Blighttown, and in the collection of lore items. Instead of gear or experience points, players collect glowballs containing words in English and Te reo Māori, which comment on the surrounding environment. Photographs taken by Nazi propagandists also provide flashback dialogue.
Lore and Replayability
Upon completing the game, players are presented with a Zodiac constellation of all collected lore, visualized as a web of secrets and lies. This system encourages replayability and community discussion, aiming to recapture the feeling of collaborative secret-finding seen in older games. The developers at Origame Digital intend to continue exploring Lovecraftian themes in future projects, potentially with Cthulhu himself as a subject. Penguin Colony's experimental approach to genre conventions and its unique satirical voice suggest a promising future for the studio.
