I’m not a gamer. I play video games from time to time, and I’ve been known in years past to play them to excess, but I’m really not a gamer.
Still, I had to try out On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One from Hothead Games and my friends Mike and Jerry over at Penny Arcade.
In short: I loved it. It was challenging, but I was able to beat it. I was short 50 parts for an additional weapon-upgrade for Tycho’s tommy-gun, and none of the characters had their full +15 overkill bonus (they were all at +10.) Honestly, I don’t think those additional 5 damage points make much of a difference in the final battle… not unless there are multipliers attached to them.
It earns its “M” rating very cartoonishly. The jokes are obscene, the dialog is about what you’d expect from a Penny Arcade comic, and you spend a lot of time killing fellow human beings for little more than the crime of being hobos, clowns, barbershoppers, or mimes. Oh, and the little “fruit robot” is there (in great numbers — he’s your source of parts), and you can “distract” him with an orange.
I’m not a better human being for having played it, but I did learn a thing or two about the craft of animation by watching closely. It’s quite pretty, and I liked the music. I LOVED the writing. Jerry Holkins does things with words that border on sorcery. Not to knock Mike’s craft at all — I love his artwork — but it’s Jerry’s writing that always carries the day for me.
The game is definitely worth the $20 I spent.
I’m nearing the end of it myself, just need to collect the soul, and it looks like I’ll be a little short to upgrade Gabe’s knuckles the second time.
The whole thing has been very entertaining for me, I definitely have to give it a thumbs up. It just delights me to get such a big chunk of Jerry Holkins’ writing, because I’m like you in being a fan of it.
I did the math – there are EXACTLY as many available parts as there are parts requirements for upgrading knuckles, guns, etc. The thing you’re likely to run out of is enemies you can collect overkill bonuses on.
This game was so much fun. I beat it the day after it was released. I’ve already started up a second game so that I can make sure I collect all the overkill bonuses (and upgrades). I want my characters to be as perfectly twinked as possible for Episode 2.
Thanks for the heads up, I’ve been to busy to read comic news posts lately. ^_^
I’m having a rough go with the Mimes on the version for the 360. I should probably NOT have gone right back home when Annarchy suggested…
Those guys beat the snot outta me…
Loved the game, and ever since I beat it I’ve had images in my head of a Schlock game using the same engine.
Just a thought.
I’m the only American male who didn’t like the game, apparently. I uninstalled the demo after it became clear that I wasn’t, in fact, going to be solving puzzles with an occult investigation team, but was rather going to be taking turns smacking little robots. Yaaaaay.
That’s like solving a puzzle. But with violence. Sort of randomly.
And there’s juice.
But otherwise, completely like puzzle-solving.
“Adventure” stopped meaning “involves using your brain” pretty much around the time that hack journalists bought into the PR garbage which was calling Tomb Raider an “action adventure”, not the more accurate term “3D platformer”.
I beat it today twice. Once without getting the last 46 parts I needed for the final upgrade and once with. I didn’t max out my overkills but I was over 10 on Gabe and myself. I enjoyed it, I think a $15 price point would be a bit more worthwhile maybe though.
Oh for added fun in the screen with the Inventory and the fruit bot under glass, roll the dice until you get a 20.
Oh yeah, I guess On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness IS out, isn’t out! I’ll have to make time for that someday soon.
I’ve been praising Jerry’s wizardry for years. The man is simply astonishing. I did not know the English language could perform the tricks he manages to coax out of it.