On rain-slick precipices… and doom!
Penny Arcade’s much awaited game launched yesterday, and while others were watching their TIVO’d recording of American Idol, I was battling hobos and distracting fetish-bound robots with plump, succulent fruit.
What initially struck me in this game, and it kept reinforcing the fact all throughout, was how charming and well put together it seemed. As you click about the world (your means of locomotion), the cursor can fall on any number of mailboxes, billboards, resting birds, or whatever else you may find in the dark city of Arcadia; Tycho did an excellent job of giving witticisms for every little thing, and the dialogue is funny if not laden with vulgarities. It’s what I come to expect from Penny Arcade in terms of writing, really.
The artwork, too, talks of a deep commitment to certain style. The 3d models mesh up very well with the drawn dialogue characters, and I was constantly amazed at how well my customized character (the aptly named “Boner”) looked both on screen and in talking bits where he was drawn as if actually done by Gabe. It was worth working through the game just to see my pudgy avatar haul his ass through the different cut-scenes, all drawn in a moving comic-book style not unlike Viewtiful Joe or that one scene in FLCL.
The battle system is fast paced, in my opinion, and I would hate to play it on a console. That goes for moving, too, while I am at it. One involves using my left thumb and the other involves the finesse of an entire hand. It more or less resembles Super Mario RPG’s combat with characters pitted against each other and the ability to block enemy attacks (even prompting counter-attacks if you do it well enough!); the team up system reminds me of Chrono Trigger and the nostalgia is welcome. Items can take a while to get used to, and I wasn’t sure how plentiful they were until halfway through the second part of the game.
I bought the game around 10 PM and played it non-stop until I completed it at 3 AM. For five hours of fun, I can’t complain at all. I just wish they were releasing the next step sooner!
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