Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Episode 1; A review
Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Episode 1 is the first of four short games in a series based on the webcomic Penny Arcade. Set in the Lovecraft-meets-steampunk city of New Arcadia in 1922, you create a character and adventure around with the two main characters of the comic, Tycho and Gabe. I beat it last night (I'll get to the length later) and decided I'd write a rambly review of it.
Graphics - the 3D graphics are pretty good, though they are cartoony in 3D and actual cartoons when in 2D; there is plenty of the latter in dialogue and cutscenes. I didn't have any complaints since it's not supposed to be hyper-realistic.
Sound - as far as I remember (I was playing pretty late) there is little voice acting - only a narrator in the first level. The music is good and fits well with the setting, not much to discuss since it gets the job done. I might try listening to the tracks I unlocked alone some time.
Gameplay - Lots to discuss here. PAA:ORSPD1 () is essentially a point and click adventure game. Click somewhere and your character will move there or try to interact with whatever you clicked. The game has a very large amount of minor clickable things (with secrets hidden in a few) and it has many nice little touches.
You enter combat by walking near enemies, which stand in place and give a warning when you are almost close enough to fight. Combat itself is based on timed actions - your attacks and items take a certain amount of time to charge up, with items taking little time, basic attacks taking more, and special attacks taking the longest. It is pretty chaotic, particularly when facing fast enemies. In addition to that, special moves test your reflexes - damage dealt is based on how many keys you hit in a certain time etc. I generally prefer turn-based combat, but it's not too challenging. You can also block enemy attacks by hitting space bar just before they make contact with you - and the effectiveness of the block is determined by the timing of your space bar.
There are lots of items, and it makes the game a bit too easy until the very end. It's also nifty that between combat you heal fully, meaning you are always ready for the next fight, but that also decreases from difficulty.
Etc & Conclusion - the game is very funny (of the Penny Arcade flavor, mind you) and tells a good, if short, story. I told myself I wouldn't spend $20USD on a short game, but I tried the demo and got hooked. It took about 5 hours to complete (I unlocked about half the secrets but completed all the quests) which was disappointing, especially since there is not a whole lot of replay value - there is much in the way of randomness.
You can get the demo (and the full game) here:
http://www.playgreenhouse.com/featuredGame
Anyone else try it yet?
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Originally Posted by Alexander the Pretty Good
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