For those who aren't fully au fait with the undercurrents of gaming culture, Penny Arcade is a frequently sarcastic and often irreverent webcomic favoured by many gamers. On the other hand, calling Penny Arcade a webcomic is like calling Hello Kitty a doll - Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, the creators of Penny Arcade, also established Child's Play, a charity raising over a million dollars to make the lives of children in hospitals that much more enjoyable. And, if that weren't enough, they've also established one of the largest gaming expos in North American, the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX).
The devil went down to Georgia, he met a man named Gabe ...
With this kind of background, it was only a matter of time until the boys with the consoles decided to test their creativity by actually making a game rather than just laying on the criticism thick and fast. Teaming up with Hothead Games (and specifically gaming heavyweight Ron Gilbert), the fruit of their unholy union is the mouth-filling game Penny Arcade Adventures: Episode 1: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness. As the more astute among us would have already noticed, this is only the first episode in a collection of planned episodic content.
The game follows the investigatory brilliance of Tycho and Gabe, paranormal academic and the man who fought the devil, respectively, as they race to find the source of a giant robot responsible for the destruction of parts of New Arcadia, their home town. On seeing your house trampled, you insist on joining their motley crew and helping to solve the mystery, uncovering a sinister plot in the process and slowly unravelling the events foretold in The Quartet for the Dusk of Man. Supported by the rag-tag team of Anne-Claire (Tycho's niece), a fluffy kitty, and a third who shall remain nameless for fear of (very minor) spoilers, only time and persistence will reveal the horrors awaiting you.
Combining exploration with active-time battles to deliver a story, this is Penny Arcade brought to life in a steampunk setting. In what's actually an extremely innovative design mechanic, the game starts by having the player design a 2D / 3D representation of themselves with a 3D model. The characteristics chosen are then translated into a 2D comic representation for use within the storyboards. While the customisation options are fairly (and understandably) limited, it's still fascinating to see in action.
Design-o-matic for the the win!
Combat relies on rapid selection of the standard attack / use item / super attack choices in a real-time context. The super attacks are delivered through a variety of minigames ranging from hitting a button as fast as possible to playing a very rapid 'Simon says' game based on directional inputs on the analog stick. If successful, the attack delivers extra damage, and if this attack actually kills an enemy, a permanent powerup is bestowed on the player, providing extra damage in future battles. Not that it's actually that important given the difficulty levels, but it's a nice touch.
The game is an adventure game only in the very loosest sense of the word. If one took any of the classics (such as Day of the Tentacle, for example, also worked on by Ron Gilbert) and boiled all the intelligence out of the puzzles, leaving only the pixel hunting, you'd probably end up with the puzzles in Penny Arcade Adventures: Episode 1. With lots of running back and forth for the sake of running back and forth, it feels a little sparse. However, it's still a far cry from the incomprehensibly bizarre puzzles in games such as Silent Hill 2, so on the balance, while it isn't quite inventive, at least it isn't horrendous.
The graphics are passable, if quite simplistic, but it's the comics within the game that really shine. Holkins and Krahulik have their own distinct illustrative style, and without a doubt this style gushes throughout. Whether it's through the shifty glare of a satanic mime or the fear of a grovelling hobo, there's no doubt who the team was behind the game. Of course, that's potentially a negative, especially if one doesn't enjoy Penny Arcade the webcomic. That and the content - the scatological humour is thick, and the language is pretty blue for most of the game.
Trust me, Gabe always looks that shifty ...
And that, in a nutshell, is probably one of the game's biggest weaknesses. The core premise of the game is Penny Arcade's unique sense of humour and storytelling, and if these don't appeal to you, this game will probably make you froth at the mouth. The combat mechanics, while extremely well designed, aren't used enough to really make the game stand on its own. And, as it's possible to run away from all combat without penalty, and as your team's health fully regenerates between fights, the only challenges really occur during the 'boss' stages.
However, on that note, it's important to remember that this is designed to be episodic content - many of the perceived inadequacies of the game probably have more to do with the length (it's short, at around 5 hours), the linearity (beating the game on the 360 should net you most gamerpoints pretty easily, assuming you don't hit any credit bugs), and the lack of breadth and depth (there's a limited number of levels, enemies, and weapon upgrades). With other more expensive games offering less creativity and as little play time, it's actually a pretty good offer once the price is taken into account.
If you're a Penny Arcade fan, you've probably already bought and beaten it by the time you've read this review. And, you're probably nursing some very sore gut muscles by now. If you're not and you despair for a world where people actually find them funny, you're going to utterly hate the game and should probably stay well away. For everyone else though, it's well worth picking up as long as you're aware that it's just the first part in a series, designed as a bite-sized chunk of gaming. And don't forget, don't let the kiddies near it.
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