Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness – Review

Penny Arcade Adventures: On The Rain Slick Precipice Of Darkness is the first of four titles that are inspired by the Penny Arcade comics and developed by Hothead Games. When you first start out you will create and customize your own character and once that is done you will join Gabe and Tycho as you are basically trying to save the world. Throughout your adventure you will come across various colorful characters some of which who will even join your party. While going through this game you will instantly notice that not only is the humor from the comic strip intact, it is presented beautifully throughout. Aesthetically the game looks awesome and looks just like a comic book. When you are having a conversation with someone the screen breaks up into panels just as you would see in a comic. Those of you who were wanting to hear what Gabe and Tycho sound like will be disappointed though as all of the conversations are text based.

Penny Arcade is a turn based RPG however with an action twist to the combat. Some of the combo moves that can be performed are really cool to see and it can definitely lend to your strategy as the enemies you can encounter get harder and harder. There also happens to be some mini games at times to determine how successful your attack will be. One such mini game is when you have a ring and you have to hit certain parts of this ring as the hand rotates. RPG players will immediately recognize this mechanic as it is reminiscent of the Shadow Hearts series. With that being said there is very little that you can do to customize the abilities your character possesses. You can upgrade the weapon that you use but you can’t really build up your character as you see fit. Some of the best parts of an RPG title is how you can build up your character and develop whatever skills you want your character to have, yet in this game that notion is pretty much non existent.

It will take most players around 6-8 hours to get through this adventure. Unfortunately once you have beaten this title, you can’t really do anything else until Episode Two is released later this year. It could have been a lot of fun if I could have gone through the world a second time with all of the powers and items that I gained from the first play through. This is also one of the more expensive Live Arcade titles weighing in at 1600 Microsoft points, also known as $20. With there being four episodes planned that means that theoretically you would be spending $80 if you were to play through the whole series and that doesn’t take into account any downloadable content that may or may not be released in the future. If you are a fan of the Penny Arcade comics you should definitely enjoy your time in New Arcadia. Even if you are not familiar with Penny Arcade RPG fans should enjoy their time spent getting to know Gabe and Tycho. I definitely recommend downloading the demo and trying it out and if you enjoy yourself go ahead and get the full version. They have done a great job introducing everyone to the Penny Arcade universe and one can hope that the upcoming episodes will only be bigger and better.