Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness - Episode One

Publisher: Penny Arcade
Developer: Hothead Games
Genre: RPG
Release Date: May 21, 2008
Platforms: Xbox Live, PC, Macintosh, Linux

Reviewer: Eric

It has been a long time coming for the Penny Arcade game to come out on Xbox Live. The game is quite the interesting game; with a title like this you would assume greatness, right? Yes, but the price tag may be a bit too much for the average XBLA buyer; this game goes for the price of two games.

In the Penny Arcade game (I am going to refer to the game as this) you start out by creating your own character. This process can take a few seconds or a couple minutes. It all depends on how creative you want to get. The choices are not as big as you might think, but for a $20 game you can’t go wrong.

The story itself is one cliché after another, which is what they were going for. Penny Arcade’s general story is about doomsday. All of the humor is the developers bringing the Penny Arcade comics to life. Some of the games jokes fall short, however over half of the jokes are real funny.

Penny Arcade is a turn based RPG, which is right up your ally if you enjoy old school role playing games. The in game battle antics are smart and funny too. It keeps the game funny throughout the entire experience. Some of the game text is a bit on the tiny sized and I was playing this on a high definition television. Old gamers may have to strain their eyes to read the helpful hints in the beginning of the game.

Each character has the ability to attack, use items, and bash there foes with special attacks. All of the characters build up their speed differently so you can put strategy into battles if you’d like. Towards the end of the game the speed of the characters will be key in winning battles.

You can block attacks if you time the button pressing just right. Penny Arcade also has you pressing buttons during special attacks. It is nice to have some interaction in battles, but action RPG fans won’t enjoy this too much, this is a turn based RPG no matter how you coat it.

Every RPG lets you pimp out your characters. Penny Arcade is lacking in the customization category. You can’t change your stats or powers, even certain equipment can’t be changed. I know this is a $20, but there is no reason why an RPG in 2008 can’t have a basic RPG feature.

How much gameplay do you get for $20? New RPG fans may need eight to nine hours to complete this game. Veterans of this genre may only need five to six hours. This necessarily isn’t a bad thing, but for the price you can get more than one game on Xbox Live. The achievement points do help reply value if you didn’t get them all right away. Though when you consider that games like Heavenly Sword only take nine hours to beat then the $20 price tag doesn’t look that bad.

Final Verdict
Fans of Penny Arcade will adore this game for all it’s worth. If you haven’t played an RPG before then this may be a good place to start. Since the game doesn’t have the best RPG elements you should enjoy what Penny Arcade has to offer. The games price tag may seem like a lot, but I think it is well worth it.

Rating
8.75 out of 10

Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness - Episode One Trailer