Developer: Hothead Games
Publisher: Penny Arcade

Let’s get it out of the way right up front — Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness costs too much money. Unlike so many of our colleagues, our complaint has little if anything to do with it’s length or it’s complexity (four to six hours is more than enough time for me.) As someone who’s read Penny Arcade for three or so years now, I felt fairly justified in spending $20 on something I ostensibly haven’t paid a dime for (their comic strip); not just that, but I was getting a pretty sizable package in return. And then I started thinking…episodic, huh? If one episode costs me $20 and there’s four episodes…well, that’s a lot of goddamn money! (6400 spacebucks if you want to get down to brass tax.) Now, I truly enjoyed the humor in this game, the combat, the adventure elements — but $80 for an (admittedly very good) XBLA game? That’s starting to sound pretty crazy. Hit up the break for the rest of our review.

Precipice is not an adventure game. It’s not an RPG and it’s not an action game. And it’s also every single one of those. Though your actions are limited to exploring items (such as garbage cans, mailboxes, paintings…), combat (which becomes surprisingly deep by games end) and speech (almost always hilarious), Precipice handles each of these elements with relative ease and delivers a story akin to something you’d find directly on the pages of Penny Arcade.

One thing’s for sure: Penny Arcade readers will love this game. The dialog legitimately made me laugh audibly on more than one occasion and the PA references come sprinkled heavily. Readers will even make excuses for it’s lack of boss battles (arguably the best part of the game), it’s nearly non-existent replay value (a Cave of Ordeals-esque play mode would have been an excellent addition) or the straight up aggravation that you just paid $20 for a game you can’t even let your friend borrow — I know I did.

It’d be hard to discredit those parts of the game though without examining the (thankfully accessible) combat system that held me to Precipice all weekend. Rather than employing turn-based action, it relies on a mash-up of time-based, tactical and classic Western-RPG elements to sew together its (at points) surprisingly deep combat system. As the game progresses and assist team members are added to your party, a 20-sided die becomes de rigeur at the onset of fights (’Roll for Initiative!’), adding an element of chance to an otherwise structured battle. In fact, I enjoyed the battles themselves so much that when the game ended and there wasn’t an option to keep fighting baddies with my maxed out characters, anger began to set in. My save file read “Completed!”, as if mocking my inability to return to New Arcadia’s dangerous streets with a mission from God. Worse, the game won’t even allow for repeat attempts at its ludicrously difficult final boss — especially ‘double mild weak sauce’ considering the seemingly impossible achievement for defeating “it” without using any health power-ups. Can you create a separate save file just before the boss fight? Actually, no, no you can’t. Is the only way to play these battles again done through replaying the entirety of the game? Yes, yes it is.

Additionally, character control can at times be a bit underdone. Directing your avatar towards garbage cans located along the line between panels can at times be arduous and unpredictable (a problem almost certainly solved with a mouse.)

If there’s one major flaw with Precipice, it’s in the mini-games. Between the button mashing and the quicktime events, you will quickly become bored with Hotheads implementation of special moves. Also, if there’s anything more infuriating than the required mini-games found in the boardwalk section (we’re looking at you, Vandalism) on this whole planet, we’re not aware of it.

Though I may sound all ‘Negative Nancy’ about Gabe and Tycho’s first venture into videogame development, I assure you my gripes come with a rather large caveat — Precipice was so enjoyable (in fairness, as a fan of PA) that I’m inclined to play it once more, poor mini-games and all (an action I’m oft to avoid.) Hell, I don’t even really like RPG’s and here comes along one that makes me actually want to level up! For shame!

Unfortunately, due to XBL’s debilitating digital rights management issues, I’m unable to share the $20, six-hour, fruit-f$&%ing escapade with anyone else (and worse, online/offline co-op isn’t even a gleam in someones eye at Hothead.) While we’re looking forward to Episode Two with bated breath, it’d better come at a lower price point (at very least for those who bought the first at $20), otherwise the excuses that allowed me to spend $20 this time may very well have dissolved.

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