On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One and Episode Two
Reviewing my steam games this time we go to look at On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One. And I think I'll throw in some thoughts on Episode Two as well. The game play doesn't change between the two episodes, with some rewards being carried over between the two.
This is an action RPG based on the writings of Jerry Holkins and using the art style of Mike Krahulik. Or if you don't know who they are, it is a game from the minds behind Penny arcade. Thus it is a often clever, sometimes very crude, well written story that seeks to both amuse and offend in equal measure. If you would not be ok with a game that has you seek out and kill all the hobos in a slum section of a city this isn't a game for you. The fact you do this mission at the request of a scientist who's dream it is to create a robot that can pee is not overly important.
To help you get into the world they have you create an avatar for the game. Gender, a large selection of facal features and a couple of clothing choices allow your character to be both rendered in 3d (for the fight scenes and exploring the world) as well as to appear in the 2d cut scenes that mark important plot turns. I have to say that seeing how they blended the 2d and 3d allows the cut scenes not to throw you out of the game when they show up. The 2d cut scenes are also done as if they were animated panels in a comic book, returning to the origins of the world.
I downloaded the demo of this game off steam, not sure if I would like it. Penny Arcade can sometimes hit it out of the park and other times leave me greatly disatisfied. After playing for about eight hours on the demo I thought this game is great. And on sale at the moment? How can I say no? It turns out the demo was glitchy and I had almost finished the whole game. (The demo was to be only the first area, perhaps 30 minutes of gameplay.) No matter, I still enjoyed the game when I finished it a short time later. (The demo was to allow you to roll right into the full game without having to create a new character. So I was eight hours into a ten hour game or so.)
I even finished the game twice, as the same time came about when I got episode two. I still think about going back to the game to unlock the bonus artwork and comic, only to do so is really a pixel hunt. You have to click on the right objects to get bonus art and music. Get all the art and you get a bonus comic. You can listen to any music you find from a sort of game status area. You can also see how many foes you've killed, how many are still at large and other stat information. I do have to say that this is unlikely to actually happen, as I have other things on my to do list as well.
The actual game play mechanics encourage a level of investiment. Your characters, when it comes to a fight, can block an opponents acts if you push space at the moment the attackers health bar flashes. If you push the space fast enough (ie learn the attack patterns enough that you go to push space before the attack starts) you can not only block but counter attack. Against minor foes you fight over and over this gives you a reason to pay attention as well as rewards you for learning when to react.
Where this system fails is that the boss fights move the health bar from right under the character to the top of the screen. So where I got into the pattern of looking is no longer where the bar is, requiring me to retrain my eyes for a single battle (as there are four boss fights at most in the first game).
Each character also has special attacks that require you to play mini games in the middle of combat. Some are easy like pushing space as fast as you can to build up an attack bar. And others are not as easy as they sound, pushing direction keys to shoot enemy targets and avoid friends in a shooting gallery. The more difficult the mini game the more powerful the attack overall.
Episode two
Episode two uses much the same engine and mechanics as the first one. The story gets picked up right where episode one ended, going so far as to allow you to import your old character so save some time leveling and to bring over a collectable from the first game. The crude/clever storyline continues as you once again get to save the city from people. And once again if you are offended I believe the game has done what it wanted to do. Killing a bunch of rich snobs instead of hobos, for example.
I didn't get episode two right when it came out, instead wanting to see if it would go on sale with episode three and four. From the game sales I wasn't the only one who bought episode one and then was going to wait or perhaps even skip the rest of the series completely. Sales were down enough that Hothead games took on another title and started to develop that game instead. Penny Arcade understood their choice and has promised to post on their website a conclusion to the story started by these two games.
Currently listed at 4.99 each I got a total of 15$ value out of them. Still ahead of the game.
This is an action RPG based on the writings of Jerry Holkins and using the art style of Mike Krahulik. Or if you don't know who they are, it is a game from the minds behind Penny arcade. Thus it is a often clever, sometimes very crude, well written story that seeks to both amuse and offend in equal measure. If you would not be ok with a game that has you seek out and kill all the hobos in a slum section of a city this isn't a game for you. The fact you do this mission at the request of a scientist who's dream it is to create a robot that can pee is not overly important.
To help you get into the world they have you create an avatar for the game. Gender, a large selection of facal features and a couple of clothing choices allow your character to be both rendered in 3d (for the fight scenes and exploring the world) as well as to appear in the 2d cut scenes that mark important plot turns. I have to say that seeing how they blended the 2d and 3d allows the cut scenes not to throw you out of the game when they show up. The 2d cut scenes are also done as if they were animated panels in a comic book, returning to the origins of the world.
I downloaded the demo of this game off steam, not sure if I would like it. Penny Arcade can sometimes hit it out of the park and other times leave me greatly disatisfied. After playing for about eight hours on the demo I thought this game is great. And on sale at the moment? How can I say no? It turns out the demo was glitchy and I had almost finished the whole game. (The demo was to be only the first area, perhaps 30 minutes of gameplay.) No matter, I still enjoyed the game when I finished it a short time later. (The demo was to allow you to roll right into the full game without having to create a new character. So I was eight hours into a ten hour game or so.)
I even finished the game twice, as the same time came about when I got episode two. I still think about going back to the game to unlock the bonus artwork and comic, only to do so is really a pixel hunt. You have to click on the right objects to get bonus art and music. Get all the art and you get a bonus comic. You can listen to any music you find from a sort of game status area. You can also see how many foes you've killed, how many are still at large and other stat information. I do have to say that this is unlikely to actually happen, as I have other things on my to do list as well.
The actual game play mechanics encourage a level of investiment. Your characters, when it comes to a fight, can block an opponents acts if you push space at the moment the attackers health bar flashes. If you push the space fast enough (ie learn the attack patterns enough that you go to push space before the attack starts) you can not only block but counter attack. Against minor foes you fight over and over this gives you a reason to pay attention as well as rewards you for learning when to react.
Where this system fails is that the boss fights move the health bar from right under the character to the top of the screen. So where I got into the pattern of looking is no longer where the bar is, requiring me to retrain my eyes for a single battle (as there are four boss fights at most in the first game).
Each character also has special attacks that require you to play mini games in the middle of combat. Some are easy like pushing space as fast as you can to build up an attack bar. And others are not as easy as they sound, pushing direction keys to shoot enemy targets and avoid friends in a shooting gallery. The more difficult the mini game the more powerful the attack overall.
Episode two
Episode two uses much the same engine and mechanics as the first one. The story gets picked up right where episode one ended, going so far as to allow you to import your old character so save some time leveling and to bring over a collectable from the first game. The crude/clever storyline continues as you once again get to save the city from people. And once again if you are offended I believe the game has done what it wanted to do. Killing a bunch of rich snobs instead of hobos, for example.
I didn't get episode two right when it came out, instead wanting to see if it would go on sale with episode three and four. From the game sales I wasn't the only one who bought episode one and then was going to wait or perhaps even skip the rest of the series completely. Sales were down enough that Hothead games took on another title and started to develop that game instead. Penny Arcade understood their choice and has promised to post on their website a conclusion to the story started by these two games.
Currently listed at 4.99 each I got a total of 15$ value out of them. Still ahead of the game.