On The Rain-Slick Precipice Of Darkness, Epi I

On The Rain-Slick Precipice Of Darkness, Epi I - Busy Gamer Rating 5

On The Rain-Slick Precipice Of Darkness, Epi I - Busy Gamer Rating 5

First Glance:
An RPG type game based on the humor of the infamous Penny Arcade strip. Sounds line fun!

The Short Story:
The humor and dialogue is exactly what you’ve come to expect from Penny Arcade and that’s a good thing. The graphics also do a good job of capturing the art style of the strip, another good thing. Aside from the narrator, there’s very little voice acting to be had here but all in all, it’s a solid game.

The Score:
Weighing in at a lean 5-8 total hours of play time for a single run through, one would think there’s not a lot of meat to be had here. To a degree, it’s true. Replay value is a bit on the low side since you’re limited to three characters in your party and four areas throughout the game. But throw in the humor and artwork of one of the most popular comics on the web, a solid storyline, and an overall well programmed game and you have the makings of a Busy Gamer 5.

Body of review:
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a diehard Penny Arcade fan. I haven’t been around since the strip began but from the first day I stumbled into the insanity of the strip, I’ve been a fan. I read the strip (mostly faithfully) three times a week. This does not make me a raving “fanboi???,however.

In fact, I was hesitant to download this offering from the twisted minds of Jerry “Tycho??? Holkins and Mike “Gabe??? Krahulik, the creators of the Penny Arcade strip, from the X-Box Live Marketplace to my 360. The first prohibitive hurdle was the price… It hit the streets with a twenty dollar price tag. The next objection I had was that it was on X-Box Live Marketplace, where one must purchase points in odd increments to purchase goods that leave one with odd amounts of points useless for anything else but to collect dust. But that’s a topic for another article unto itself.

But the previews I had seen looked good and the strip itself has never failed to amuse me, so I took a chance… I’m glad I did.

While “On The Rain-Slick Precipice Of Darkness, Episode One??? could technically be classified as an RPG, there are other aspects to the game that keep it more action oriented. You create your digital self within New Arcadia but you never manipulate stats. Your weapon of choice is a rake (yes, you read that right, a rake) which you are allowed to upgrade a grand total of three times, one of those times being necessary to beat the game. You can also choose what to say to the people you meet along the
way which may affect what is said back to you but doesn’t affect the overall outcome of the conversations. For the most part, that’swhere the RPG aspects end. You don’t manipulate your stats or change your equipment, just converse, swat things with your rake, and laugh as thestory unfolds.

The party you eventually find yourself in consists of yourself, Gabe, and Tycho. There’ s an “initiative roll??? at the beginning of each combat between the members of your party and your enemies. The highest roll gets to attack first while a natural 20 also grants a bonus to that combatant.

Combat is handled essentially on three tiers of attack types; skipping one tier allows the timer for the next tier to continue building up. The first, and fastest, is items. These “attacks??? include bandaging yourself or a party member, special distraction items, buff and debuff items, or even bombs. The second is your standard attack. It doesn’t do much damage most of the time but when you’re facing off against weak enemies, it’s usually the best way to go. The third tier is the special attack. This is the most devastating, and most involved, of the three tiers.

Unleashing the special attacks of your party members involves, depending on which character it is, mashing one button repeatedly to build up attack strength, repeating a “Simon Says??? pattern, or timing a button push to coincide with markers. There’s also a team up option which allows all characters who have the Special Attack timer filled to team up for an attack. These party attacks aren’t just devastating, they’re humorous as well.

Along with the illustrious gruesome twosome of Penny Arcade, you will also pick up three “special friends??? who can only be called to attack every so often but who can quickly change the course of a battle. The three friends cannot be attacked or damaged at any time so in this respect, they’re more like special attacks than anything else. Once their timer fills, they’re ready to go.

The storyline is classic Penny Arcade humor and will have your party facing off against killer mimes, angry animated trash cans, and violent hobos. There’s also the Fruit… ahem, Fornicators… tiny robots with a fruit fetish who do very naughty things to very defenseless fruit. As I said, classic Penny Arcade humor. Fans of the strip will be delighted to see that the wordplay present between Gabe and Tycho has translated seamlessly to their digital counterparts. Of course, being able to add my two cents to the fray, scripted or no, was also very enjoyable.

Replay value may be a bit low for some who merely want to play the story through once and then wait for the next episode. Personally, there are some achievements I haven’t unlocked yet and I enjoyed it enough that I will be playing through a second time.

All in all, this is a solid offering from the gentle folk of Penny Arcade and I look forward to seeing what the next episodes bring forth from the hellish depths of their creative minds.

-Gritskrieg End of Line

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