Penguin Colony review: Lovecraftian horror seen through a penguin colony’s eyes
The Umurangi Generation team sends a 1939 Nazi expedition to Antarctica. OpenCritic: 75. A strong story, clunky tech.
Photo: ravas51 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped and resized)
Trailer: YouTube · Fellow Traveller · youtube.com
Critics' rating
Scores: OpenCritic 75 · The Guardian 4/5
- Platforms
- PC (Switch 2 angekündigt)
- Studio
- Origame Digital (Fellow Traveller)
- Release
- 16.10.2026
+ Pros
- Sharp, politically pointed story about colonialism
- Unusual perspective of a penguin colony
- Strong narration and sound design
- Fun sliding across the ice
– Cons
- Clunky controls, camera and physics
- Oversized, intrusive stamina meter
- Thin puzzles, tedious backtracking
- Bugs up to crashes
Critics' verdict
Narratively one of the most distinctive games of the autumn – but with clear rough edges in play and tech.
Summary of published reviews – sources below.
Penguin Colony from New Zealand studio Origame Digital (Umurangi Generation) has been available since 16 October on PC via Steam, GOG and Humble; publisher Fellow Traveller has announced a Switch 2 version. On OpenCritic the Top Critic Average is 75. Opinions vary widely: The Guardian gives it 4 out of 5 and Checkpoint Gaming 8.5 out of 10, while Screen Rant awards only 6 out of 10 and NoobFeed 68 out of 100.
The game draws on H. P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness: in 1939 a Nazi expedition searches Antarctica for a monster, told by Howard Blakeley, a scholar seemingly unstuck in time and voiced by Lenval Brown. Players control a penguin colony whose species have different abilities – chicks squeeze through cracks, heavier birds press switches. Critics praise the pointed critique of colonialism and complicity, the narration, the sound and the sliding across the ice.
The gameplay is rougher: Aftermath criticises janky physics and geometry that leave you stuck or falling off the map, a pointless stamina meter and lots of backtracking in the second chapter. NoobFeed calls the controls sluggish and the puzzles thin and reports bugs up to crashes. NoobFeed still considers the story of the roughly four-hour, seven-chapter game outstanding.