Metareview -- Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One (PC/360)

by Justin McElroy { May 22nd 2008 at 8:00PM }

Though it's perhaps easier to write these metareviews when critics seem to agree, we really prefer to have some differing opinions in there. That's certainly the case with Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One which has already netted reviews ranging from a paltry 40 to a very respectable 80 (where Penny Arcade's own Gabe slots it, as a matter of fact).

That said, most of the critics are residing on the higher end of that spectrum. Here's a sample of what they're saying:

GameSpot (75/100): "This is not just some generic trash stamped with the Penny Arcade logo; this is the long-running webcomic seamlessly realized in video game form."
Edge (40/100): "With the episodic development cycle all but demanding that structure and form be locked down in the first instalment, with content added thereafter, the series' future looks precarious at best."
Wired (70/100): "...while it does try to bite off a great deal more than it can chew -- and suffers for it -- the game is a solid, clever, hilarious piece of entertainment that will more than please its audience."
OXM (85/100): "Twenty bucks is a perfectly reasonable sum when you consider how many retail Xbox 360 games offer the same quantity of content...and we'll bet you didn't laugh half as much playing any of those as you will playing this."

Tags: metareview, penny-arcade, penny-arcade-adventures

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

krizoitz @ May 22nd 2008 8:06PM

Never heard of Edge, looks like they are a British mag. Guess our pals across the pond just don't get the subtltey or nuance of America's sophisticated humor ;-)

zkey14 @ May 22nd 2008 8:10PM

Good games aren't made-of solely with good humor.

HighFiveJesus @ May 22nd 2008 8:16PM

edge is the balancing yang to play magazine's ying.

ScottyGEE @ May 22nd 2008 8:28PM

Sophisticated? Epic movie, Meet the Spartans etc etc etc.

krizoitz @ May 22nd 2008 8:41PM

@ScottyGEE:

Sophisticated enough that you completely missed the joke. Bravo sir, bravo.

Poisoned Al @ May 22nd 2008 9:55PM

Oh we have our fair share of morons in this country too. We just don't vote them in as president. Just the mayor of London.

ScottyGEE @ May 22nd 2008 10:08PM

Rofl =p
I R SMRT

ScottyGEE @ May 22nd 2008 10:12PM

I bet you were waiting for that too ^_^

BananaBoat @ May 22nd 2008 11:54PM

I loves me some Penny Arcade, but only when it's free. This is the kind of game where if I don't get a demo, I'm probably not going to buy (since it's hard to tell exactly how the game plays by reviews etc).

I think the real story here, is that two dudes can come out of nowhere and get a game featuring them made. It's quite the accomplishment.

As far as the scores go, I figured this thing would average a 80ish, even before it came out. I'm sure a few reviewers will heap praise on it for no other reason than the fact it's the PA game, and when combined with the low-ball scores like 40 and 70, it should add up to about 80 in the end.

Ian @ May 23rd 2008 8:26AM

Banana: there is a demo...

A Pissed-off English Gamer @ May 23rd 2008 12:16PM

Well, I'm English and I love PA's humour. The reviewer in Edge has his opinion, but I'm pretty sure he went into that wanting to not like it.

Also, the comment "Just the mayor of London." Boris Johnson speaks 5 languages including Latin and has written books. He's not as foolish as his antics may suggest. If anything, he's too out-spoken to be a politician. By the way, I'm not a Conservative.

BananaBoat @ May 23rd 2008 6:02PM

Is there a demo for the 360? I don't want it for PC. Though I see your point, that the PC demo would probably have the exact same gameplay, and show me if I'd want to buy it or not.

Thanks.

Matt @ May 22nd 2008 8:10PM

I finished it today and I would rate it at a 8 or 8.5. There were a few minor graphical problems, but besides that I thought the game was very well done, the writing was great, the story was pretty good and the combat was very fun, reminded me of paper mario.

Roto13 @ May 22nd 2008 8:28PM

The combat reminds you of Paper Mario? I need this game, in that case. My interest just jumped from "meh" to "zOMG"

Anticrawl @ May 22nd 2008 8:44PM

I'd give it an 8.5 if it was 5 dollars, but it is not worth the 20 dollars so in terms of value the review drops below the 5 mark. It is not worth your time or money unless you share the minds of the Penny Arcade guys and are extremely entertained by their 'antics'. I warn that only fans should consider the purchase.

Penny Arcade is great and all but their game isn't 20 dollars great.

JerJer @ May 22nd 2008 8:45PM

yeah.

pick up the demo.

it surprised the shit outta me that you had to do timed actions and block attacks and shit like that.

PM:PAA:OTRPOD

Autopsy15 @ May 23rd 2008 12:18AM

Actually, it's PAA:OTRSPOD:EO. Probably the longest abbreviation besides TLOTR:TBFME2:TROTWK.

Obie @ May 22nd 2008 8:11PM

I like Penny Arcade, but $20 an episode is not worth it for me.

Moorio - XBL: peacebyanymeans @ May 22nd 2008 8:13PM

Got the 360 version yesterday, finished it today. Took me about 7-9 hours total.

I can safely say that, like this one, Episode Two will be a day one purchase for me as well.

The game is funny and it's fun. Plays like a Final Fantasy game (on the 360 version) and the combat was simple, but satisfying that didn't get stale.

And the art and writing, awesome. It was all just awesome.

$20, or 1600 MS Points, is a good deal, IMO, for this game. I don't care if all four episodes total it to $80.

I give it an A in my book.

GRANTED @ May 22nd 2008 8:25PM

i like penny arcade but,
...wait, no i don't.

Gavin @ May 22nd 2008 8:28PM

Penny Arcade is so-so...sometimes it is good for a chuckle. I tried the demo and rather liked it but I have too much to play right now, with GTA IV alone taking up a huge chunk of my time. I might pick this up sometime in the future but not right now.

Kspraydad @ May 22nd 2008 8:31PM

I laughed at HAZE and it didn't get good scores like this.

ApolloIV @ May 22nd 2008 8:36PM

Look at it this way,
Like Penny Arcade? 8/10
Don't know about penny arcade? 7/10
Hate Penny Arcade? -10/10

Trickob @ May 22nd 2008 8:52PM

that's pretty much what I was going to say. The ratio of good-bad reviews seems to match the ratio of people who enjoy/"get" Penny Arcade (the comic) to people who don't enjoy/don't "get" it.

Velops @ May 22nd 2008 9:07PM

Chris Kohler, who did the 7/10 review for Wired likes Penny Arcade. He is a retro gamer and therefore has very high standards when reviewing current games.

It is obvious why the OXM score is higher than the rest. The review screams "I am a PA fanboy" since the review is never critical about the game. It doesn't make an effort to show why this game didn't get a perfect score since the reviewer only had praise to give. This is in stark contrast to the other reviews which clearly point out the flaws.

PointyThings @ May 22nd 2008 9:49PM

Hey is it not on PSN? Ooo, burn.
I need to get this game.

Velops @ May 22nd 2008 8:54PM

OXM's review is a bit shaky.

"Twenty bucks is a perfectly reasonable sum when you consider how many retail Xbox 360 games offer the same quantity of content...and we'll bet you didn't laugh half as much playing any of those as you will playing this."

Many retail Xbox 360 games have the same amount of content because they have fully featured online play. This downloadable game does not have fully featured online play and therefore cannot be compared to retail games along the same criteria. I still believe that $20 is too much to pay for a downloadable game.

Vcize @ May 22nd 2008 10:09PM

And many of those don't have fully featured online play as well..

A Pissed-off English Gamer @ May 23rd 2008 12:58PM

Also, since when does online play mean good online play? I'm sorry, but the assertion that online play (which you're already paying for, ala Gold accounts) makes a $40-$50 game worth it compared to PA's $20 price is absolute bollocks. $20 is less than you spend on a night out; how can you question this price if you enjoy the game and get 7-9 hours of play out of a run through?

meist3r @ May 22nd 2008 9:58PM

I just completed it and I gotta say for 20 bucks (13€ that is -the reason I got it) it's a good game. A little short and it has some pretty annoying flaws but it's fun to play nonetheless. Mainly I bought it because I like supporting stuff like that and those guys made the effort to make this for Linux (my platform) and since this is so rare these days I thought I would reward them with a little money. I'm not sure if I'll get the second episode though since the story is fun but not really something that would get me addicted like for example Half-Life2 and it's episodes.

John McPoop @ May 22nd 2008 9:58PM

How nice of Microsoft to up the minimum size of an XBLA game ...
Unfortunately they also raised the maximum coin for Arcade games ...

As for Penny Arcade - Obviously it total garbage because it got a lower review than Haze which just tickled all of you nimrods pink ...

Way to be an arsonist inciting flame wars all over the place by posting the lowest reviews of a PS3 exclusive (Haze) and posting mostly favorable reviews for an XBLA game (Penny Arcade) when the majority of the reviews were anything but positive ...

At least you guys are consistent - I will give you that much ...

John McPoop @ May 22nd 2008 10:01PM

You know what -

I was just being bitter - Disregard that last part ...

PointyThings @ May 22nd 2008 11:13PM

I don't think you can really cal a game an "XBLA" game when it's also for PC, Mac, and Linux

Kizzle @ May 22nd 2008 11:45PM

"to a very respectable 80 (where Penny Arcade's own Gabe slots it, as a matter of fact)."

As if Gabe is going to rate it any lower than the highest possible number he can before people just accuse him of flat-out shilling his game.

MasterInsan0 @ May 22nd 2008 11:59PM

I thought it rocked. 80-85 is pretty appropriate, since there are a few issues. Namely, the pathfinding sucks balls and the game is way too easy. If you only play games for the challenge (as opposed to the experience), then you will quickly become bored with this game.

Some positives to counteract the negatives: the combat rocks. If you liked old-school RPGs, specifically Chrono Trigger, you will immediately identify with this game's combat system. Throw in a little Paper Mario timed-button press stuff and it stays entertaining throughout the whole game. That said, they'll definitely need to vary it up a little for the next episode, because at the end you'll find yourself wishing there was more you could do. In fact, if this episode simplified the RPG formula, I'd like to see the next one re-complexify it. Give me swappable equipment and stuff.

Another positive is the story, although it's only a positive if you're OK with quirky (and often dark) humor. Basically, as others have said, if you like PA you'll like their game. They do a terrific job of making your character part of the "party"; that is, Gabe and Tycho never overshadow you, but they never feel useless either.

I should note, however, that I played the PC version. The demo for the 360 version was nearly unplayable on my TV because the text was so small. This is on a standard-def CRT TV too, so I can only imagine how bad it is for people with high-def TVs.

edgore @ May 23rd 2008 12:37AM

Actually, on a High-def TV had no problems with the text - super clear (ad a but stilted)

Tridus @ May 23rd 2008 10:41AM

Thats a common problem with 360 games. Dead Rising is the most famous, it was basically unplayable on a standard TV. I've found it in all sorts of games though.

Many of them seem made for HD, and don't downgrade well.

edgore @ May 23rd 2008 12:28AM

I am enjoying it, just like something that was enjoyable. But it's not really the second coming (third? fourth...let's say eighth, because even though you sucked, Putt Putt ruled the school) of Ron Gilbert that I was hoping for. The incidental humor is a little soft (really? Sinister mailboxes?)

I mean, I totally bought it, but I was hopng for a rebirth of the adevenutre genre, not a seq

edgore @ May 23rd 2008 12:28AM

edgore @ May 23rd 2008 12:31AM

uel to a final fantasy game where I had to actually had to think about combat (the oranges are the secret).

I will complete it, but it is not as funny or as adventure-y as I might have hoped. There will be no Pollo Diablo...that is clear.

jack shaftoe @ May 23rd 2008 10:09AM

Fucking clown.

edgore @ May 23rd 2008 12:34AM

I do not know how the multiple postings happened. I blame the man

Jhongerkong @ May 23rd 2008 12:38AM

"a very respectable 80 (where Penny Arcade's own Gabe slots it, as a matter of fact)."

I wrote a review too of my PC game. Sure, it only has 5 seconds of gameplay, and sure it erases your OS, but I still give it 11/10

Kevin @ May 23rd 2008 1:02AM

I find the game hilarious and very entertaining. I'll likely play through it a few more times (much like I did Portal) and hopefully get absolutely everything when I finish. (I was missing 6 collectibles at the end of my first run...)

Much like Yatzee's review of Psychonauts there is a list of awesome:
- stew made of delicious hobo hocks
- a man who's life goal is to urinate on a 1/64 scale ferris wheel
- evil barbershop quartets

I challenge those who haven't played it and criticize that if you were to play through it, it's quite enjoyable. Solid B+.