Penguin Colony review – an Antarctic odyssey of Nazis and Lovecraftian horrors

PC; Origame Digital This odd but absorbing adventure sends you waddling across Antarctica in search of an eldritch entity – uncovering a world far stranger than it first appears

A Nazi kneels down on frozen snow, staring at an endless Antarctic horizon. Another holds a gun to his head, ready to end his own life. I direct a small waddling penguin up to them, trying to imagine what it could be thinking. Dismay, perhaps. Likely bewilderment. But then a faint smile seems to break out across its beaky face, as if amused by these silly humans and their misguided belief that they could ever best this howling, harsh landscape.

For most games, the idea of playing as a penguin observing Nazis losing the plot near the south pole would be weird enough. But Penguin Colony, developed by Origame Digital, pushes further. This is an audacious, frequently brilliant retelling of HP Lovecraft’s 1936 novella At the Mountains of Madness, in which eldritch horrors are just as common as Nazis. Further weirdness abounds: the many collectibles scattered about this place are not shiny gold objects à la Super Mario or Sonic. Rather, they are words. So tottering about as a semiaquatic bird, you have a unique mission: collect human language.

But let’s zoom out for a moment because playing Penguin Colony is more straightforward than this description suggests. First and foremost, it is a semiopen world exploration game in which you direct a penguin to the same unearthly entity that the Nazis are chasing. You hop, swim and glide about tummy-first, chewing up miles of frozen wasteland like an indefatigable snowboarder. Tapping a button next to another penguin lets you swap into its body. Some of these, like the rockhopper penguin, are nimble movers, capable of jumping especially high. Fluffy penguin chicks, meanwhile, can squeeze through tiny gaps.