Penny Arcade Adventures.

On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness.

The ominous subtitle to the first episode of Penny Arcade’s brand new series, available through Steam, XBLA, and their own digital distribution company, Greenhouse.

Things that are awesome, and disturbing, about that Rain Slick Precipice:

• Crotch biting clowns that bleed colours.
• Fruit Fuckers engaging in their titular pursuit.
• The dialogue; in particular, the wonderfully voiced narrator.
• Flash Animation that doesn’t look shit.
• Mimes miming their attacks.
• Trapping the aforementioned mimes in invisible boxes.
• No random battles, thank god.
• Flying pricks!
• Beating the shit out of a barber shop quartet.

Visually, it’s the art of Mike Krahulik come to life, in vivid 3D and Flash animation, and it looks glorious.

Reminds me a lot of Anachronox, which was also a combat heavy adventure game, right down to the, Final Fantasy-esque, time based battles. There are some interesting features to the combat; damage doesn’t carry over, so there’s no downtime in between battles, and enemy attacks can be blocked with a push of the space bar, at the appropriate time. The damage limitation bonus of blocking makes it more than worth paying attention to attack animations, and makes the fights much more engaging, as you direct your team while timing blocks.

The demo of the opening area was intriguing enough that I happily laid down a tenner and upgraded to the full game. I finished it in about four and half hours, without getting stuck for too long on a couple of puzzles, providing a full evening’s entertainment. It’s a delightful, lighthearted romp, and a wonderful opening to the series.