Penny Arcade: On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness Episode 1

Platform: Xbox 360, PC, Mac - Developer: Hothead Games
Genre: Adventure RPG - One Player

Reviewed by Chris Cesarano (a.k.a. Grohdinger)

Introduction:

The creators of online comic Penny Arcade Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, code-named Tycho and Gabe, are well known for their criticism and satire of the games industry. The pair have now themselves stepped into the realm of game development, and one must wonder if they are able to put their money where their mouth is.

After playing through the title, I can certainly say yes, they can.

 
Note: the screenshots in this review are all from pre-release, and mostly for the PC version of the game. While they provide an accurate idea as to how the game plays, they are not 100% true to the Xbox Live version.

On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness (from here on simply referred to as Precipice) may not be a flawless experience, but it certainly packs a much more quality experience than you’d expect from a pair of webcomicers and a small, independent studio. The game begins by allowing you to customize your own character’s appearance in the game world. While you cannot detail precisely how you wish to look down to the last pixel, the options available are versatile enough that anyone should be able to make a decent enough cartoon version of themself. That is, unless you want to play as a female. While any limitations on male customization are understandable, the complete lack of options on a female character is inexcusable. The only real realm of choices available is in hair style or hats, and even these aren’t varied enough, with many hats or hair-do’s looking like replicas of one another.

Aside from this, however, the customization is pretty good for what you pay, and is also worked into the 2-D Flash animated cut-scenes as a bonus.

Once you have your character made, the game begins, and you are introduced to two of the three major gameplay elements: inspection and combat. The streets of New Arcadia, Precipice’s 1920’s setting, are filled, even cluttered, with objects, signs, crates and cans begging to be examined and busted open. Most of these objects have different descriptions, and are almost always amusing to read. Bashing open bins and boxes will fill your pockets with useful items to use in combat, and checking signs and shelves can often reveal an unlockable piece of concept art or musical track.

Unfortunately, objects will often be too close to one another in various areas and corners, particularly Anne-Claire’s room, where it ends up being very easy to miss an item to inspect. This can cause plenty of unlockable items to elude you, and possibly even frustrate you if you are trying to score some achievements.

Still, the various objects and the humor they share helps keep the world an interesting and entertaining place, as does the combat. Instead of random encounters, you will always see your enemies in the game world and must approach them in order to fight them. In most cases, you must approach these enemies if you wish to move on with the game, but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

The combat’s design borrows from various console RPG’s, including the active time gauges made famous in the Final Fantasy series, as well as tying certain buttons to certain actions, a la Super Mario RPG on the Super Nintendo. Each character has three available actions: item, attack and special attack. Item charges up first and swiftest and is executed with the A button, followed by Attack with the X button, and lastly with Special Attack, making use of the Y button. Special Attacks are tied in with short, five to ten second mini-games, where your performance determines how much damage you do. These mini-games certainly become more challenging as you gain more powerful abilities, but not so challenging that they cause you to wish to tear your hair out. The player can also perform blocks in combat by pulling the L or R triggers when an enemy is making an attack, specifically when the enemy healthbar flashes.

An example of a mini-game tied to a special move and its power

The combination of active time and blocking keeps a constant flow to the game’s combat system, as learning to block is essential to the success of the game. Similarly, while most RPG’s can easily be beaten without using assisting items to reduce enemy strength, or to boost character stats, it is almost essential to use these items in Precipice. The game will be greatly challenging when you first begin, but as you learn enemy weakness, strengths and develop strategies, it will become easier. However, it constantly maintains its fun, making combat a highlight when most console RPG’s seem to put a half-assed effort into this aspect of the title.

The third major aspect of the game is the narrative. When you encounter characters essential to moving the plot forward, dialogue windows will open up, where you are often given chances to discover more of what is going on, be given quests or even just fool around. Each dialogue tends to have various different branches you can choose, but most of the time you can go back and explore different branches. Very rarely are you truly given a choice as to how to react to a situation, and the end result is always the same no matter if you choose the “nice” path or the “asshole” path.

The writing to the game is excellent, though anyone that has bothered to read Tycho’s news posts on the Penny Arcade website should not be surprised. The man tends to have a way with words, and a sense of humor that can appeal to the intellectual and the dullard alike. While there is plenty of low-brow toilet humor that may turn some off, such as the Urinologist in Hobo Alley, there is plenty else to amuse. Simply put, there truly is something for everyone in this game.

The only real issue with the narrative is how it handles quests. None of them are optional, it turns out, though many of them feel as if they are. It turns out they are all, in some way, connected, which gives a feeling of coherency to the overall game. However, it also makes the story seem a bit disconnected. In the end, you complete several quests simply by fighting enemies and collecting items, and after you go back to the source of your quest you get more items in return that allow you to progress. There are no sidequests, nor is there much variety to them. Without the humorous dialogue and narrative, there would be little desire to take on these quests in the first place, and if it wasn’t for how refined the combat was, they’d probably get tiresome after a while.

In the end, the whole experience will clock you in at an enjoyable six to eight hours average, which is pretty good for an episodic title as many large studio games tend to last a mere seven to nine. The replay value is going to vary from person to person, though. If you are a completionist, then you may find yourself restarting the game to collect everything if you missed it the first time through. I say restarting because, once you have beaten the game, it automatically saves and prevents you from going back to tie up loose ends. This is incredibly frustrating, as it requires you to restart the game a second time just to grab two pieces of concept art, or to fight one group of robots you missed. However, the game is still fun a second time through, though much dialogue and items to be inspected will be skipped.

Conclusion

Penny Arcade: On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness Episode 1 is an excellent package at $20, especially since it can provide an experience much more pleasant than many $60 games (look out for EarthViper’s upcoming Two Worlds review to find out more about that). The writing is well done and humorous, the combat is unique, varied and fun, and the length is right for the price. If you have $20 lying around, then this game is a good investment.

Pros
+ Witty writing
+ Excellent combat system
+ Lots of items to inspect and explore
+ Excellent graphics, art, music and sound

Cons
- Poor female character customization
- Items clunked together make inspection difficult
- “Forced” replay value for perfectionists

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 28th, 2008 at 12:37 pm and is filed under Xbox Live Arcade, Reviews, Other Gaming. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.