On some audio cards the game will crash when set to use audio hardware, this is a known problem and we are working on a patch. This article will be updated with new information as soon as the patch is ready.

A temporary fix is to run the game in audio software mode. Open My Documents/Penumbra Overture/Episode1/ and delete the settings.cfg file. This will make the game use the default settings next time it launches.

You can also open the settings.cfg file in a text editor and locate UseSoundHardware="True" and set it to False. This will save you from having to reconfigure all the settings again.