Penko Park

After playing a few horror games for the month, including Amnesia: Rebirth, I needed something less horrific and more cutesy. Something like a palate cleanser to get me out of the downer moods some of these horror game stories leave you in. Lo and behold, I found a game titled Penko Park, developed by three-person team Ghostbutter, and found what I was looking for. 

Penko Park is a casual exploration-based horror game where you, along with tour guide Penki, take pictures of strange creatures in an abandoned wildlife park, akin to something like Pokemon Snap. The entire game is on-rails, with spots to change course to a differing path, but otherwise you’re taking a single course and you’re stuck with it. The job is to take pictures of each creature, with some of them requiring different pictures of them behaving differently, such as being happy or sad, being in defense and being on the attack. It’s all about timing with this, being able to take the perfect three star picture for the most points. 

To elicit such behaviors, you’ll have to upgrade your equipment. When you start, all you have is a camera, but as you take more pictures of creatures, and put them in your album, you’ll gain experience towards the next upgrade. You’ll gain items like a grappling hand to grab objects or destroy certain parts of the environment. More importantly, you’ll gain a ball that can be thrown at creatures to provoke them into certain behaviors. 

Along with items such as these, you’ll unlock other areas to explore and take pictures in. Each area is filled with new creatures to discover, making the acquisition of each a more exciting affair. It all leads up to a finale level that is more meant to be a means to an end than a climactic ending. 

Overall, Penko Park is a cute little horror game where you can just play it and relax. Not much to worry about except getting the timing down on that one creature that likes to hide. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and always adds in a tinge of humor (sometimes dark humor) to lighten the mood. For the price that it is, it may not be worth it to some, so I would just suggest waiting for a sale. Otherwise, it’s a nice grab if you’re looking for something less… horrific. 

Heavily Recommended

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Reviewed by Freelance7 on PC. Game provided by Ghostbutter.