Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One

(Available on Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade, and for Windows, Mac, and Linux PCs through www.playgreenhouse.com/; rated mature)

At the beginning of the game—which will take the average player six to 10 hours to complete—you create a character with some basic personalized features. No sooner has the narrator of the tale placed you in the environment than a giant robot comes along and stomps on your house, rendering it uninhabitable.

You team up with Gabe and Tycho (stars of the Penny Arcade comic strip and the alter egos of Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins, the founders and creative force behind the Penny Arcade media empire) to solve the mystery of the giant robot’s origins and motivations.

You’ll roam through different environments—including a skid row, a boardwalk, and Desperation Street, where you used to live—in search of clues. Along the way, you’ll take on cases for other “clients”—the game’s aesthetic, set in a 1920s-like era, plays off of such influences as Dashiell Hammett and H. P. Lovecraft—and you’ll fight fruit fuckers (search the on-line comic’s archives for back story), mimes, and hobos.

As an adventure game with role-playing elements, combat is a modified turn-based system in which you control the actions of the three heroes and a motley assortment of accomplices. The more battles you win and the more experience your characters gain, the more powerful—stronger and faster—they become. It’s all presented in a clever comic style too, with panel borders and dialogue balloons.

The good news is that Precipice will most certainly satisfy the built-in Penny Arcade audience. It may not, however, appeal to anyone else. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but the average casual player just won’t get this game.

For one thing, it’s freakishly difficult at times. I’m kind of glad the combat wasn’t a complete lark, but I found myself on the verge of shutting the game off a couple of times when I couldn’t figure out how to defeat a barbershop quartet that had attacked my group. The fact that the game asks you if you want to save your progress immediately before you begin a boss battle is further proof that Precipice is not for the faint of heart. Your team has to deal some serious damage in order to succeed in its quest.

The other drawback for the uninitiated is the sarcastic, decidedly non–PC tone of the game, which is expected—and appreciated—by fans, but could turn off others. Still, it’s nice to have more diversity in the Xbox Live catalogue.

At the end of Precipice, you still haven’t located the giant robot that destroyed your house. But there’s a nice feeling of having accomplished something, even though the mystery hasn’t yet been solved. To the chase, Watson!