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"Game + Satire = ?"

A Review by PathMaster
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We all know the crew, mainly Gabe and Tycho, over at PA, aka Penny Arcade. We love their well written news posts and Op Eds. We love their comics. We love the characters from their comics. PA has recently teamed up with HotHead studios to give us Penny Arcade's first foray into games, On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One.

The Windows demo clocks in at 208mb, which also should be the full game size, as you just need a key to unlock the game from within the demo. The game installs quickly and runs well on my laptop with an ATI Mobility x1400. (I ran the game at 1024 with High settings.)

You are given a fair number of character customizations, from hair styles to type of footwear. The game starts out in the fictional town of New Arcadia, in the year 1922. You will immediately recognize the artwork if you are at all familiar with Penny Arcade comics or any of their artwork.

The Demo, while short, gives a great introduction to the game and its style of play. You have the option of using a basic attack, special attack, or using something in your inventory. The enemies in the game can be seen, ala Chrono Trigger/Cross. Battles are turned based, with some timers being faster then others. Anyone familiar with a number of Final Fantasy games should understand the battle mechanics quickly. Dialog in the game is typical Penny Arcade, which is to say excellent. It is infused with wit and sarcasm in just the right amounts.

Towards the end of the demo, you are given a peak at your future home base, which includes some dossiers, case files, a map, and even access to movie clips from the game and bonus content that can be unlocked.

The only issue I ran into had to do with pathfinding, stemming from the point and click style of movement. If I clicked a spot to move to, on the other side of something in the environment, the character(s) would stop when they ran into said item. Overall a minor annoyance and something that can be overcome with very simple planning.

The demo was well worth the download, and should be at least tried by everyone, even non fans of Penny Arcade.

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