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| The Entertainment Review |
| Genre: RPG Developer: Hothead Games Publisher: Microsoft |
About six months ago Penny Arcade made its transition from a website that pokes fun at the videogame culture to one that helps create games. The first Penny Arcade Adventures Xbox Live Arcade title, “Penny Arcade
Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One,” was a part of a continuing series. The promise of a sequel is finally being delivered. With a six month, the perfect amount of time has been taken
between the episodes. What “Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode Two” offers is more of the same game, with a few overall game play improvements. This is a good thing
because of the fact that the first game in the series has a formula that included a crazy storyline, funny dialogue and fun combat, making it a package that would be a great thing to copy.
For those who have played “Penny Arcade Adventures: Episode One,” the character that they have already created will be transferred into “Penny Arcade Adventures: Episode Two.” Players will be able to use their same
stats and appearance that are copied over from the previous game. Also, the difficulty scales to match the player’s ability. For those who didn’t play the first episode of the game, there is no need to worry, they are still
able to create a new character and start at a decent level of experience. There are only minor ties between the first and second episode. It is easy for players to catch up on the situation, though a few of the jokes will be
lost on those who didn’t play the first episode.
Players don’t need to have any previous knowledge of the Penny Arcade comics to be able to enjoy the humor that it offers and the storyline. Players don’t even have to know that there is a website called Penny Arcade
that offers comics that poke fun at the videogame culture. Those players that can run an Xbox 360 controller have a basic understanding of RPG games, a sense of humor and a won’t be offended by robots humping
oranges, will have a lot of fun with “Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode Two.”
This second episode of the game takes everything that worked well in the first episode and uses it all again in an even more effective way. The humor that was very crude and sarcastic continues to be, and the combat
system that is engaging while not being overbearing. The core game play is the same as in the first episode. Combat is still turn based, with players taking on the role of their created character, Gabe and Tycho. All of
the characters again are able to perform three sets of actions: use an item, basic attack and special attack. Each action takes a specific amount of time to load, with item use being the first to be ready and special
attacks being the last to be ready.
Special attacks are performed with a mini game. Each character has a unique mini game, all of which are pretty easy to master. These are different mini games from those of the first episode, but are not any more
challenging. It would have been nice to get some added variety, since it gets really old really fast when players perform the exact same action over and over again. The “Penny Arcade Adventures” franchise is set on
keeping things easy. This works very well for an Xbox Live Arcade game, especially since there are almost no downloadable RPG games at the time, though some will find the lack of depth to be a little bit disappointing.
Even though players gain levels, there are no points to distribute to different attributes, no skills or perks to select, no way for players to evolve the characters. This added layer gives players a greater investment in the
characters and more incentive to explore and upgrade the character. This isn’t to say that the system isn’t acceptable, it is limited though. These limitations become even more evident as players work their way through
the game.
There have been several improvements since the last game. Players can now cycle through and choose which objects and people to interact with on screen. In the first episode, players had to shift around the
environment until their character was properly aimed at the item that they want to look at. While in combat, it is easier to tell when players need to block. The word “block” flashes on their opponent’s health bar when a
block should be used. Timing needs to be nearly perfect to pull off a successful block, but players won’t be left wondering when they should pull the trigger. The most important improvement is that the humor is much
more consistent than in the first episode. The first game was hit and miss with its humor, and this time around there are a few misses, but overall there are even more laughs for players to enjoy throughout the game.
When it comes to finding a role playing game on Xbox Live Arcade, there aren’t many to find. That alone is enough of a reason for any role playing game fan to try out “Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick
Precipice of Darkness: Episode Two.” For those that are looking for a fun and humorous game to play to pass six hours of their time, then “Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode
Two” is the game to check out. At a price of only 1200 Microsoft Points, or $15, this is a cheap title with a lot of humor and fun.
Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One,” was a part of a continuing series. The promise of a sequel is finally being delivered. With a six month, the perfect amount of time has been taken
between the episodes. What “Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode Two” offers is more of the same game, with a few overall game play improvements. This is a good thing
because of the fact that the first game in the series has a formula that included a crazy storyline, funny dialogue and fun combat, making it a package that would be a great thing to copy.
For those who have played “Penny Arcade Adventures: Episode One,” the character that they have already created will be transferred into “Penny Arcade Adventures: Episode Two.” Players will be able to use their same
stats and appearance that are copied over from the previous game. Also, the difficulty scales to match the player’s ability. For those who didn’t play the first episode of the game, there is no need to worry, they are still
able to create a new character and start at a decent level of experience. There are only minor ties between the first and second episode. It is easy for players to catch up on the situation, though a few of the jokes will be
lost on those who didn’t play the first episode.
Players don’t need to have any previous knowledge of the Penny Arcade comics to be able to enjoy the humor that it offers and the storyline. Players don’t even have to know that there is a website called Penny Arcade
that offers comics that poke fun at the videogame culture. Those players that can run an Xbox 360 controller have a basic understanding of RPG games, a sense of humor and a won’t be offended by robots humping
oranges, will have a lot of fun with “Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode Two.”
This second episode of the game takes everything that worked well in the first episode and uses it all again in an even more effective way. The humor that was very crude and sarcastic continues to be, and the combat
system that is engaging while not being overbearing. The core game play is the same as in the first episode. Combat is still turn based, with players taking on the role of their created character, Gabe and Tycho. All of
the characters again are able to perform three sets of actions: use an item, basic attack and special attack. Each action takes a specific amount of time to load, with item use being the first to be ready and special
attacks being the last to be ready.
Special attacks are performed with a mini game. Each character has a unique mini game, all of which are pretty easy to master. These are different mini games from those of the first episode, but are not any more
challenging. It would have been nice to get some added variety, since it gets really old really fast when players perform the exact same action over and over again. The “Penny Arcade Adventures” franchise is set on
keeping things easy. This works very well for an Xbox Live Arcade game, especially since there are almost no downloadable RPG games at the time, though some will find the lack of depth to be a little bit disappointing.
Even though players gain levels, there are no points to distribute to different attributes, no skills or perks to select, no way for players to evolve the characters. This added layer gives players a greater investment in the
characters and more incentive to explore and upgrade the character. This isn’t to say that the system isn’t acceptable, it is limited though. These limitations become even more evident as players work their way through
the game.
There have been several improvements since the last game. Players can now cycle through and choose which objects and people to interact with on screen. In the first episode, players had to shift around the
environment until their character was properly aimed at the item that they want to look at. While in combat, it is easier to tell when players need to block. The word “block” flashes on their opponent’s health bar when a
block should be used. Timing needs to be nearly perfect to pull off a successful block, but players won’t be left wondering when they should pull the trigger. The most important improvement is that the humor is much
more consistent than in the first episode. The first game was hit and miss with its humor, and this time around there are a few misses, but overall there are even more laughs for players to enjoy throughout the game.
When it comes to finding a role playing game on Xbox Live Arcade, there aren’t many to find. That alone is enough of a reason for any role playing game fan to try out “Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick
Precipice of Darkness: Episode Two.” For those that are looking for a fun and humorous game to play to pass six hours of their time, then “Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode
Two” is the game to check out. At a price of only 1200 Microsoft Points, or $15, this is a cheap title with a lot of humor and fun.
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