On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode 1

Next up, I decided to take a crack at "On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode 1", developed by Hothead Games and based on the world of Penny Arcade. I didn't really know what to expect from this game because I was mostly interested in what I saw about Episode 3, which is made by an entirely different developer in an entirely different style. BUT...I have the inability to start a series somewhere in the middle, so here we are.

It's kind of a bizarre game. The main gameplay is 3D, but the dialogue/in between bits are 2D, more in line with the style of the comic. The guiding force in the game is that there's a giant robot running around breaking shit, including your house, and you're chasing after it...because you're pissed at it, I guess. It's not the strongest of objectives, but whatever. I'll go with it.

You run around somewhat simplistic and linear environments where you run into robots, mimes, hobos, etc, and you fight them via an Active Time Battle system similar to what you've seen in Final Fantasy games. The battles seem rather repetitive, and I got bored of them quickly. I think one of the problems with the battle system is that when you unlock these new attacks, the icons are tiny and not very distinct. I can't remember what does what, so I'm just clicking blindly, knowing whatever that attack is, it will do something better than the standard attack. How's that for strategy!

There's no real compelling objective leading you from one place to the other. I'm following a robot. Okay. And on my way, I run into people that want me to kill some mutant trash, find some meat, and stuff like that. These things just seem disconnected from the primary task, which I'm not all that into anyhow. The "cases" just seem like uninspired MMO quests. Gather 10 of this. Kill 15 of that. It makes me sad how disinterested I am.

Putting aside the complaints I have about combat, I do enjoy the 2D cinematics and the humorous dialogue between characters. These are in the style of the Penny Arcade comic, and the humor is probably what you came to this game for anyhow. The majority of the game though is sloughing through the kind of meh bits. This was a pretty short game. I finished it in just under six hours. I'm sad to say, I kept playing this game merely to check it off my list of things to play rather than for the sheer joy of it. I'll probably play the subsequent two games at some point, but I'm not real eager to at this point.