Penguin Colony reviewed: Lovecraft-inspired penguin game divides critics on ambition

Mixed · 2Penguin Colony, developed by Origame Digital, is a PC game that retells H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness from the point of view of a penguin in Antarctica. 1 2 Mixed · 2Both reviews describe a semi-open exploration game in which the player waddles, slides, swims and leaps across ice and ruins, and can swap into other penguins nearby, such as the high-jumping rockhopper or small chicks that fit through gaps. 1 2 Mixed · 2The collectibles are words rather than shiny objects; the Guardian's reviewer describes the aim as collecting human language, and Screen Rant says the orbs of light hold words that have no effect on gameplay but add an archival feel. 1 2

Mixed · 2Both say the story involves expeditions, including one driven by Nazi or fascist aims, and that the game repudiates Lovecraft's racism and the beliefs of those expeditions. 1 2 Left · 1The Guardian's Lewis Gordon praises the game as "audacious, frequently brilliant" and "one of 2026’s boldest, most original games", citing its unsettling layering of space, time and narrative, its jagged low-poly look reminiscent of a PlayStation 2 game, and an end-of-game cosmological map showing what the player found and missed. 1 Left · 1The Guardian notes a few audio glitches and control bugs but says they do not overly detract from the experience. 1

Centre · 1Screen Rant's Ben Brosofsky is more reserved, headlining the review "Sliding, Not Soaring": the sliding is fun and the soundscape and narration work, but the game lacks scares, its cosmic horror and ruins feel routine, its ideas are underdeveloped, and the few-hour run time becomes monotonous. 2 Centre · 1Screen Rant argues the penguins are largely impassive, so the game offers a dispassionate kind of horror that reframes human insignificance but will disappoint players wanting scares, and it finds the differences between penguin types too small to matter much. 2