Penny Arcade Adventures: Episode One

The short-length and other minor nitpickings aside, Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One is absolutely worth every cent of its $20 price tag.

The dialogue is effortlessly hilarious and seriously crass. This game is the crudest in recent memory. [July 2008, p.72]

While there could have been more variety in the enemies, and the sound definitely should have been better, I was left thoroughly pleased with the game. It may seem a bit expensive at 1,600 Microsoft points ($20), but if you are looking for a few good laughs and an interesting story line packed into a five- to eight-hour package, you really won't find anything better than this.

If you're a Penny Arcade fan then Episode One is an enjoyable if overpriced and short-lived experience.

Of course, the real star of PAA isn’t the gameplay, but the humor. It’s a lot like playing a comic strip, and should be approached as such.

Fans of Penny Arcade will get a good laugh out of playing alongside Gabe and Tycho, but the game is a little more than interactive comic strip fun. [July 2008, p.82]

While the light RPG elements aren't suited for more hardcore RPG fans, the game's humor and wit make it worth a look for fans of the web comic.

As a first episode, Rain Slick succeeds in leaving you wanting more, and anxious to drag your party and stats on into Episode 2. Sure at its core, it’s an extremely light weight JRPG, but if you’re playing this game for ingenious game design then you’re missing the point.

The good news is even those who've never seen the comic strip can enjoy the fun combat system and great artwork. And if the storyline is only moderately interesting to those not familiar with the series' in-jokes, it's serviceable enough to hold the game together for its roughly six-hour play time.

The fights in this adventure are quite rewarding, but the best part are the hilarious dialogues, biting humor and absurd jokes. Finding all the easter eggs and little winks will keep fans of the webcomic busy for hours, but one can enjoy this game without even knowing about the existence of Penny Arcade. [July 2008]

This game just cannot be recommended to everyone for that price, but your decision should be based entirely on the demo itself.

An excellent piece of fan-service, but the actual game part doesn't stand up to much dispassionate scrutiny. And now, if you're not a Penny Arcade fan, you can't criticize it for that. It's not for you. [June 2008, p.74]

To its credit, the Penny Arcade team doesn't attempt to pimp its own website and nothing about this smells of marketing tripe. It's a smart, fun game that would have been truly great with a wider range of enemies and environments and a touch more depth to the gameplay.

But for those of us who are members of the PA cult, Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Episode 1 is just what the doctor (Dr. Raven DarkTalon Blood that is) ordered.

Respectably faithful to the Penny Arcade style. The battle system is fun, but otherwise the lack of meaningful content brings the game down; a story-based game should have a story that grabs you and won't let go. [Sept 2008]

Well, yeah. I think it's pretty darn fun.

Penny Arcade Adventures is slick with rain, hobo stew, and all sorts of awesome, but it's for fans of the comic's brand of humor only.

$20 might seem like a bit much for a little over five hours of gameplay, although there's a lot of content packed into this first installment: Four largish 3-D environments, a dozen or so main characters, and reams of funny dialogue.

The kind of eccentric humour and senseless attention to detail makes this worth a look, even if it can seem somewhat short, repetitive and claustrophobic. [Aug 2008, p.61]

A frustrating experience. [June 2008, p.106]

A great accompaniment to the Penny Arcade canon, but ultimately feels a little thin on its own in the RPG field. [Issue#9, p.54]