Rated: 100% (1 votes)
Loading ...On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness.
Big_Adam
“Four Gods move on the windowsill, where erst octad Gods did struggle and will. And if the Gods themselves haw die, what does that feature for you and I?”
The opening line to “On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness” the game/comic from the chaps of Penny Arcade. As I love this game I’ve decided to do a little review.
Game;
The basic of the game follows you (player) on a nice morning in New Arcadia (well, after you make you character fitting the Penny Arcade style). After some intro you start to rake (stay with me) which then results in your house being flattened.
From there, you and your trusty rake carve your way through Fruit Fuckers, Mimes, Hobo’s and a brilliant collection of freaks and weirdo’s along with Gabe and Tycho.
Game play;
The game play is a mix of quick real time and slight turn based fighting. You can just keep hammering attacks but if you wait they build up to a sort of “super” move of sorts. Most people seem to hate the old turn based system but it really works well in the OtRSPoD (no, I’m not writing “On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness” every time) it’s quick enough to be enjoyable and hectic enough to make you think. You can just hammer enemies with the basic attack or you can use various items (ranging from stupid to brilliant) to help. Just hammering enemies will only take you so far, you have to start to use tactic at some point (Xbox live Halo players need not apply). When not fighting you’re either questing or wondering about. You can skip some quests entirely (like the Hobo “quality” meat quest) but their all fairly fun and not too difficult.
Style;
The whole game is a sort of steam punk/Victorian/Penny Arcade mix and it’s all in a 3D/2D (for comic bit) style and it really looks rather good. It fit the style of Penny Arcade beautifully and because the whole game was made by Tycho and Gabe it all looks right. As you’re playing you recognise some characters and giggle like a school girl at the new ones (like the Professor of Urology who basically just pees … on everything. In a scientific way though). If you’re a fan of the comic you’ll love the style of it as it just works.
Music/Sounds;
Big problems with brining comics to life are voices. Look at Dilbert or even CAD when they became animated. In your head you always have an idea of how they sound to you. So, how dose Penny Arcade over come this problem? Simple, no one talks. Being a comic they stuck with the comic way of doing things, with speech bubbles. Not to say there’s no voice work. A slightly Lesley Phillips (hell, might even be him. Not sure) sounding narrator guides you along and stop the game being too stagnant from all the reading. Bar the narrator, the only other voice sounds you get are the odd evil laugh and song from a hobo bin man.
As for music, the game uses a nice set of orchestra sounds and song to give some gravitas to the situation in the game and give the game more death. Again, for the style of the game it really works well.
Graphics;
Graphically the game isn’t too demanding. Okay it’s some all singing, all dancing super graphics engine that make Crisis crumble. It’s a good solid looking game with some nice attack effects but the simple look compliments it. The environments never look dull. Everything looks good, turn it all up and enjoy it. Even the older computers can play it nicely.
System Specs;
Minimum:
OS: Windows® 2000/XP/Vista™ with latest updates
Processor: Pentium® III, AMD Athlon™ 1.0 GHz or better
Memory: 512 MB of available system memory
Graphics: ATI Radeon™ 9500 or better, NVIDIA GeForce™ FX 5200 or better, Intel® GMA 950 or better with 64 MB of video memory (shared or dedicated)*
Sound: OS-supported sound card
Hard Drive: 350 MB of available hard drive space (185 MB installed)
Input Devices: OS-supported keyboard and mouse
*All video cards require latest drivers supporting OpenGL®.
Recommended:
Processor: Pentium® IV, AMD Athlon™ 1.5 GHz or better
Memory: 768 MB of available system memory
Graphics: ATI Radeon™ or better, NVIDIA GeForce™ or better video card with 128 MB of video memory*
Sound: 16-bit stereo- or surround-capable sound card with latest drivers
Right, that’s enough about the game. Here are some good and bad points.
Good Points;
• Awesome story.
• Great Characters.
• It all works right. Just feels correct.
• Fruit Fuckers!
• “Pure” liquid (if you played it, you’ll know).
• Fights are more than mindless “hack at it” play.
Bad Points;
• Mimes, god damned mimes.
• Level system seemed to level up enemies as well. So the more hardcore you got, the harder they got.
• Semi-static camera. You gone 3D why keep the camera in one plain.
• Nope, that all I got.
Conclusion;
I really enjoyed OtRSPoD I still have yet to finish it (damn boss battles). I liked the silly script, the character banter, the fruit fuckers, the look, the fell of the game. It’s just a really well done game that keeps you happy while playing it. The only bit I really didn’t enjoy was a fight with some super mime thing, kept kicking my arse. Still, overall the game just works. I’m a big fan of Penny Arcade so this game worked for me; it hit all the right fan buttons for me.
So give it a shot. It’s cheap on Steam this weekend and there’s going to be more.
Go on, go and get it!
Media;
[…] Continued here: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness. […]
[…] Original post by Big_Adam […]