Gamertell

Title: Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice (Episode 1)
Price: 1,600 Microsoft Points ($19.95)
System(s): Xbox Live (PC, Mac, Linux)
Release Date: May 21, 2008
Publisher (Developer): Hothead Games (Hothead Games )
ESRB Rating: “Mature” for language and sexual humor
Pros: Signature Penny-Arcade art style and sense of humor, you can make your own Penny-Arcade style avatar and it at least tries to be more than your average arcade-style Xbox Live game.
Cons: Super small icons, poorly timed opponents, awkward controls, pace-cutting cuts and crappy camera angles. A bit too pricey.
Overall Score: One thumb sideways, one down; 63/100; D; * 1/2 out of five

The Penny-Arcade gang (Mike “Gabe” Krahulik and Jerry “Tycho” Holkins) swear they don’t often read reviews, but their curiosity will definitely get the better of them since a game bearing their name and starring their alter egos has finally been released. And, it kinda sucks.

Don’t get me wrong Mike and Jerry - I thoroughly enjoy your sarcastic humor. I enjoy your web comic. I like your art style (which has greatly improved over the years). I respect your achievements with PAX (the Penny Arcade Expo) and the Child’s Play charity. I’ve even shared a few jovial words with you in person.

Your game, however, is wrought with the limitations of an Xbox Live game (though it strives to be much more) made for an HD TV: Text is too small to read and be thoroughly soak in the humor, icons are too small to be helpful during combat, the camera angle/perspective is so wonky it’ll make you scream and the combination live-action/tune-based game play is poorly executed. The best game-related thing it has going for it is that you get to make your own character and even that is a way-too limited collection of Penny-Arcade style features.

First Verse, Hope it’s the Worst

This first in a four-part episodic game is primarily a role-playing game (RPG) where you roam around the recently invaded ye olde 1920s town of New Arcadia, fighting fruit ####### robots and busting open crates to gather sometimes helpful, sometimes detrimental items for your quest. A few segments also include dialog trees for interacting with characters, although the choices don’t seem to really affect the game much.

Penny-Arcade icons Gabe or Tycho eventually join your in-game investigation of the robot attacks, going with you down the Shithole (it’s a place in the game, not my assessment) to fight the fruit ###### army and defeat Fruit ###### Prime.

Rain-Slick Precipice of Cliches

The game looks great and will certainly make you laugh with PA style quips and gamer in-jokes. The entire world is well drawn in the same cartoonish art stylings as the web comic and the goofy narrator keeps the humor coming with a well-executed straight-voiced delivery. Even building your own PA-esque avatar is kinda cool since it all looks like PA comic character parts. Unfortunately, there are way too few options and parts to choose from, likely due to Xbox Live limitations (or, more probable, more will be made available as microfee downlaods).

From there on, the game pretty much falls apart.

To cover the game’s crappy camera angles, it switches to a comic panel visual style as yu pass between areas to give a quick cutscene or story pause. That not only breaks the pace but means you’ll need to visually reorient every few minutes. The angles also make it hard to move around with invisible walls blocks seemingly open paths and objects being awkwardly in the way or hard to lock on to.

The attack scheme involves a trinity of small (hard-to-see on non-HD TVs) meters that, once filled, let you attack, use an item or use a special ability on an opponent of your choice. You can also tap a button to block an incoming attack but the timing is impossible to gauge since the audio cue, visual cue and actual attack are rarely well coordinated.

Penny for Your Game?

Super small icons, poorly timed opponents, awkward controls and crappy camera angles make this a frustrating mess of a game. I’ll chalk up at least some of the game’s faults to Microsoft’s Xbox Live file size limitation and give the game a few extra points for it’s only saving graces, the Penny Arcade art and humor.

Even though this seems to be a bit more beefy than your standard Xbox Live offering, it’s really hard to recommend this game for $20, even to hard-core Penny Arcade fans. It’s even harder to think that, after all four episodes are released, you might have to pay $80 for the entire game. If you must give Rain-Slick Precipice a try, I highly suggest waiting until after the entire series is released and pray for a reduced price package.

Sorry guys - but I still love you like cross-country half-brothers I’ve only met once.

Read [Penny-Arcade] Also Read [Gamertell] Product Page [Penny Arcade on Xbox Live]

EDITOR’S NOTE: Those crazy symbols in the post, those are naughty words being edited out so kids can still read the review and enjoy our kick-ass site..

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Check out the gallery: Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice Episode 1 screen shots