Just finished playing through Requiem (the last of the trilogy) and am left with mixed feelings. The first one (overture) started with quite a bit of promise and a few rough edges to work out. Black Plague (the second) largely resolved the rough edges, got rid of most of the annoying combat and was a fairly well rounded experience. There are enemies present, but you spend your time hiding from them since you can't fight them. I've got a soft spot for stealth games so that's a plus. For the most part the puzzles make sense and are solvable by anyone who's spent time with these sorts of games. The real negative for me in this is the voice for Clarence, a 'personality aspect' you pick up part way into the game. The voice was super annoying, and the dialog didn't do that much for me. Well on its way to achieving its potential, it's too bad the third installment didn't follow the same trajectory.
Requiem dispensed with any story for the most part and presented itself as a set of puzzles. Even with the annoying voice over (Clarence) for most of Black Plague, I still preferred it to Requiem largely because of the story elements. Removing them really hurt the package... I've read someplace that Frictional Games originally intended it to be a trilogy and did most of what they wanted to do in two games and intended on leaving it there. The third (Requiem) was apparently an afterthought and it feels like it was. The graphics, puzzles and sound are all there and acceptable given its age, it's just that it lacks that 'something' to draw you in. The moving block puzzles that didn't pretend to be anything but, and an audio commentator that announced how many keys you had left to find did not help to draw me in at all (it took me out of the experience). Not a bad experience by any means, it just feels unnecessary.
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