SonicTK

On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness

» Written on May 25, 2008 at 9:27 PM «

Is Penny Arcade’s muted, quiet entry into the harsh world of video games, where black ravens await, eying every morsel that passes beneath their watchful gaze. Loved by many, hated by almost as much, Penny Arcade carries the same sort of acquired taste that one might more normally associate with wine connoisseurs, or those French museum curators with their upturned noses and glasses of eau de champagne.

Having been a more-or-less appreciative fan of their efforts for the past 6 years or so that I’ve known of their existence, their announcement that they themselves would take the plunge into game design, the very thing they’ve been satirizing all these years, well. You can imagine my past confusion upon hearing such news.

As the months passed, turning into years, the nature of the game was gradually disclosed, like hobos falling out of a sack one by one a glass of water slowly being filled from a dripping faucet. Understandably, Tycho and Gabe were apprehensive about excessive promotion of their self-proclaimed masterpiece, fearing the Fable-worthy backlash that they knew the industry would only be too eager to provide.

On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One was released on the 21st via the Greenhouse digital distribution system , a joint initiative by Penny Arcade and Hothead Games, the demented minds behind the actual coding of the game itself. The system seemed pretty intuitive for a completely unproven, previously unknown upstart, and I had an account up and running within minutes without any problems.

I first started my adventure by downloading the demo provided (~200 MB), which actually turned out to be the full game in disguise, its cover blown with the purchase of an install key for the highly-publicized price of 19.95 USD.

Spoilers follow below.

The game began with a short prologue, enough to give its narrative some manner of substance, while remaining firm and to-the-point enough that I imagine ecstasy-tripping junkies should be able to withstand it. It’s pretty much a standard Doomsday RPG plot, set in the town of New Arcadia, an anachronism of the 1930s (that somehow seems to be all the rage with games these days ever since Bioshock started printing money).

Anyway, I got to the character customization screen, where my expectations that I would be able to create a personalized avatar of myself to join Gabe and Tycho in their wacky universe were soon dashed; the available options are rather limited in their variety, and it soon became apparent that my character would have to remain a almost-generic avatar of sorts.

I suppose you could say that I’ve been spoiled somewhat by Oblivion’s character customization options, but I feel that, in this case, this entire aspect of the game could have been left out, as it were.

What was nice, though, was that my customized character would also appear in the same, stylized manner that we’ve all come to know and love in the 2D cutscenes that are sprinkled throughout the journey. And he really fit; he didn’t look half-assed compared to his more iconic counterparts and really looked as if he was truly a part of the comic/game.

Which brings me to the graphics of RSPD. They are understandably toned down, technically-wise, for the purposes of making this game accessible to a larger audience who may not have had the privilege of pimping out their rigs in the past few years, shown by the game’s availability on all three major OS platforms: Linux, Mac and Windows, and even going for 1600 Microsoft Points on Xbox Live Arcade.

The game employs cel-shading, a post-processing method that seems to be growing in popularity these days, the better to emulate the comic’s inks and colours and thus enhancing the hand-drawn feel of the game. In theory, anyway.

In my experience, most cel-shading in games never led to desirable outcomes, and going against popular opinion, I feel the same applies to RSPD: the 3D sections of the game always serve to remind me that I’m playing a title which has had a significantly lower production budget of sorts, even though I know the production values behind the game scream otherwise.

They just don’t fit with Gabe’s inking style at all, with little to no variation in line weight, static expressions on character’s faces and uninspired walk cycle animations. Additionally, the environments aren’t always cel-shaded either, leading to a weird blend of both schools of artwork, which, although not aesthetically displeasing, definitely doesn’t remind me of anything like Penny Arcade.

When it comes to the 2D cutscenes, however, the game delivers. Beautifully-animated vector artwork plays out some of the more memorable (and violent) scenes present in the game, and with Gabe overseeing almost every single aspect of the artwork, it’s almost like watching The Animated Adventures of Gabe & Tycho or something similar. In widescreen.

While the cutscenes still remind me of the Flash effect, in which you can clearly see where the animation ‘bones’ are defined, the artwork is good enough to keep me entertained. Unfortunately, these cutscenes don’t usually last very long (around 30 seconds at most), and you’ll soon be thrust back into the harsh reality of inadequately cel-shaded 3D worlds left wanting.

Of course, RSPD isn’t just an animated comic (though it would have already been worth it for its price). Gameplay was an interesting factor, seeing as how Gabe and Tycho have literally made it their living criticizing various aspects of game design; wondering what their approach would be like was one of my primary reasons for finally biting the bullet and throwing down the dough for the registration key.

RSPD, at its heart, plays like a toned-down version of Final Fantasy VII, bringing its own Active Time Battle system to the table, giving your party members (that means you, Gabe and Tycho) each a basic and special attack that take time to recharge before use. You can also opt to employ certain items that, in addition to having amusing names, are able to provide a variety of standard RPG effects and buffs, such as healing, increasing/decreasing attack/defence and items which when used cause a set amount of damage to be done to an enemy.

You can also summon support characters (some of which should be familiar to longtime Penny Arcade fans) whose purpose may be akin to that of the various summons you could utilize in FFVII as well. However, RSPD’s battle system, while far simpler and less convoluted than what you may find in standard RPGs these days, is a lot more reflex and action-oriented than one would imagine. Many attacks involve having to either mash the spacebar or hit arrow keys in timed, precise sequences, and blocking attacks, a critical element to staying alive in RSPD, takes some practice in order to pull off efficiently.

However, the widespread complaints that the game was way too hard seem a little weird to me; I’ve completed the entire game twice now, and at no point did I feel that the world was about to end like I did countless times in various other RPGs. If anything, the game suffered the same problem as Crisis Core did: it was far too easy. I didn’t even have to use any of my healing items until the final boss, and even then, I barely used any other support items throughout the entire game. And even Crisis Core had a pretty difficult boss or two to beat.

It made me feel a little underwhelmed that the combat system overall seemed rather well-thought out, but the problem instead lay in the enemies not proving themselves to be tougher adversaries that would actually require strategy and proper planning beforehand to defeat, instead of relying on mere reflexes and a keen eye on the meters showing the available moves that my party could perform.

Enemy encounters are visible, a nice change from getting raped by 80 groups of hobos while walking down a single street. Encounters can also be misleading; a group of 3 fruit…machines may be suddenly joined by a group of deadly hobos out for blood. While the variety of enemies and available moves seem rather small, the game manages to keep things fresh enough to remain appealing, though I still contend that a wider cast would have benefited the combat system a lot more.

Outside of combat, though, the game plays like a spiritual sequel of Monkey Island, surely giving point-and-click adventure gamers the nostalgia high they need. It works pretty well, although the AI parhfinding is nothing short of atrocious; my character would inevitably get stuck behind a fire hydrant or trashcan of some sort. Guiding your character constantly with the mouse alleviates this problem somewhat, but it remains a major annoyance, especially since you can’t control Gabe or Tycho, and when they get stuck, it takes a little more effort getting them out.

The narrative segments apart from the aforementioned cutscenes usually do the job well enough, allowing you at times to choose your own dialogue options, though they have no effect on the overarching storyline. This is not Knights of the Old Republic. The character expressions during such conversations are presented in static 2D avatars, a la Japanese RPGs, and they are orchestrated well enough sometimes to elicit laughter, a bonus.

The music of RSPD is nothing to write home about, but it does its job well enough, consisting mostly of orchestral score closely fitting the feel of 1922 New Arcadia, remaining a powerful presence, yet subtle enough not to interfere with your aural experience. Sound effects, likewise, are meaty enough to warrant praise, especially during certain segments of the narrative, although I feel the combat sound effects could have had their bass tuned up a little. However, RSPD fails to really impress any one tune or jingle upon me, something which most titles at least manage to accomplish. While this isn’t really a major detriment to anyone’s enjoyment of the game (since my liking of music genres is subjective anyway), it’s something which remains one of those things that remind me that, after all, I’m not playing a huge blockbuster title.

But you know what? It’s OK. I don’t need to play huge blockbuster titles all the time. Sometimes it’s nice to just skip lunch and blow the cash on something else that could possibly give me a couple hours more fun than rice and steak could.

Spoilers end here.

That said, for all of Penny Arcade’s polish, I was expecting a lot better with regard to their AI pathfinding, especially since it’s not the first time they’ve ragged games for it before. Additionally, their combat could use a little fleshing out; at the moment, it’s slightly too easy and requires little more than sharp reflexes to best.

In conclusion, RSPD is a well-executed title, with good humour, adequate RPG gameplay and a great look to it, and even though Team Fortress 2 may cost the same on a good day, it’s certainly worth the 20 bucks it asks for.

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On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness

» Written on May 25, 2008 at 9:27 PM «

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