Review: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness (X360)

Fans of the web-comic, Penny Arcade showed up in droves to download the creation that has been over a year in production with Hothead Games and dubbed "Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Episode One". As the name would suggest, it's an episodic RPG filled with the verbose scribe laid down by none other than Jerry "Tycho" Holkins. Set in an alter-reality 1920's universe called New Arcadia, Rain-Slick follows the misadventures of you, the gamer and two companions you meet along the way, Johnathan Gabriel and Tycho Brahe.

Along the way, you'll meet notable characters directly related to the comic, such as Tycho's brainy neice and the always lovable fruit fuckers as well as new characters created specifically to push the story further. You begin life as a custom created avatar who is content with his life in his perfect house on the perfect street in the perfect neighborhood until it all comes crashing down when a giant robot steps on your house and thereby thrusts you into the adventure with Gabe and Tycho. Hellbent on vengeance and armed with your garden rake, you team up with these anti-heroes in their quest to stop that which is running amok in the streets of New Arcadia.

The story is expertly written by Penny Arcade's Jerry Holkins who is known for his often long, detailed and rather verbose blog posts. Fans of the series will be glad to know that much of the same humor found in the comic resonates through the game as well. Simply selecting random objects in the game world brings up their description which often range from mundane, to side splitting hilarious in their details. Notable quotes by the characters such as "I could stand to kill a few more hobos" are just a mere taste of what gamers will be treated to. Sadly, those who prefer not to exercise their minds with reading will be forced to do so as the only voice acting in the game is done by a narrator that only reads dialog between major scenes in the game. There is no voice over option for your avatar or those of the characters in game. I personally feel this adds to the mystique of the game and doesn't detract from what would eventually turn into a gamer battle of what Tycho's voice SHOULD have sounded like. The story and world itself is an odd one, but that shouldn't come as any surprise to fans of the series. I'm sure it was entirely on purpose that a player would have to think to themselves at one point in the game, "I should grind on a few more hobos so the Urinologist will give me a pass to the carnival so I can get the mini ferris wheel for him to pee on."

Graphics in the game need special mention as Mike "Gabe" Krahulik has, together with a team of animators, expertly re-created his artistic style directly from the comic into a 3D realm with apparent ease. Every character, every landscape, every facet of the game world looks exactly as it should. Its colorful and vibrant, yet sets the grim mood of the story with its attention to gloomy detail. For obvious reasons, the entire game poises itself within the frames of a comic. When you reach the edge of a game board, you change panels as if flipping a page in a comic book. Character dialogs take place on comic panels too, as you would expect them to. Everything in the game world is as it should be and the creation team should be credited for that. An impressive feat all while keeping within the confines of 350Mb file size.

Gameplay takes a unique spin on classic turn-based RPG combat. With an obvious throw-back to old paper-and-pencil RPGs, the beginning of each battle starts with the roll of a D20 dice to decide initiative. Whatever friend or foe gets the highest D20 roll, goes first. Once initiative has been decided, each character has a rechargeable action button for things like their basic attack, item usage and special attacks. It's the player's job to manually select which character will move next, what they should do and when they should do it. Alternatively, there is a blocking/counterattack system that is put in place to further add challenge to the gameplay. During the course of a battle, a player will be tasked with selecting appropriate characters and action, selecting appropriate targets, minding incoming enemy attacks to watch for blocking and counterattack possibilities, which become very necessary early in the game, and item management for buff and de-buff opportunities. This system proves to be rather robust and enjoyable once the initial frantic phase passes. Players just starting out might find themselves getting overwhelmed by the sheer interaction that is required of them. All in all however, the system works. It never seems to get old and works well with the feel of the game. Buffs are handled through items gathered throughout the game world and leveling up your character offers no customization, as any new skills or attribute points are already tallied for you at each new level.

Sound never gets boring in the game as they have added many chuckle inducing sound clips for some of the most innocuous of items. In Hobo Alley for example, examining a steamy pile on the road will conjure up sounds of flies buzzing as the description informs you that the small coils are much like a fly apartment complex. Background music is fitting, well done, and not overbearing. The attacks sound like they should and everything fits nicely. I didn't notice anything jarring or out of place. To the contrary, I found myself enjoying most of the sounds that are produced during gameplay.

The Verdict? I can easily see how this is a fan-only game. Being a longtime fan of the comic myself, I found the humor and gameplay spot on and worth the $20 price tag. If you aren't a fan of the comic or have never read their columns, a lot might be lost on you and you will walk away with a mediocre 10 hour RPG experience. My advice is for fans to purchase the game and enjoy it for what it is. Others who have not heard of it might want to checkout the demo available either on Xbox Live Arcade or Play Greenhouse. For this fan, I give the game a stout 8.5/10