On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness (Episode 1)

[Scintillatus]

Goddamn. (http://www.playgreenhouse.com/)

Quite possibly the most entertaining game I have ever played.

Lovecraftian 1920s setting. Steampunkish magic-tech.
Gorgeous 2D cutscenes, portraits, magnificently-animated 3D models and combat.
Superbly intuitive and good-looking interface.
Magnificent atmosphere, extraordinary style, and fantastic audio.
Penny Arcade humour and quality of writing.

Help me, I'm running out of words that aren't "AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME".

Four months is too long for the next installment!

[BRC]

Definetally getting this, even if it's just for the name

[Hairb]

Downloading the demo now.
Depending on how it runs on my computer, OtRSPoD may be the first game I spend money on in *counts fingers* six years, it would seem. I'd known about it for a while, because I am (for my sins) a huge PA fan. Although I can honestly I haven't been the slightest bit interested until I heard the half-hour podcast they put up to test the site. Funny how these things turn out, isn't it?
As an aside, the only other thing that has come close to breaking the game/cash drought was Armageddon Empires and Dark Corners of the Earth.

[BRC]

Just played the Demo, I just want to say, BEST GAME EVER.


"The lightning bolt symbolizes being AWSOME"
So..Much..urge.to..make..a...rake..wielding..commi e...avatar...

[Hairb]

Nope... doesn't seem to be working at all.
(Something about needing to open 1.2 GL's or some gibberish... no wonder the consoles are eating PC gaming alive.)
Might try it on the rustbucket later today. Despite being an older machine, it actually has a much better graphics card.
Oh well.

[warty goblin]

Wow, just wow. Downloaded the demo, played it, then went, and I quote, "Damn..." then proceeded to dredge up the $20 for the game, and stayed up until 1:15 playing it. I really can't say the last time I've stayed up that late playing something.

Humor is amazing, I literally click everything in the game. I think I now officially want to live in New Arcadia...

I seriously dig the combat as well. It's nicely engaging, although some of the enemies are a little annoying, since I can't figure out how to block them. I really didn't expect this to so perfectly fit the feel of the comic, but damn if it doesn't do so perfectly, the insane gameplay, the hilariously violent combat, and the humor...

[Jibar]

I'll be downloading the demo later.
Heh. In my head for the longest while I've had this image of Tycho commiting Seppeku because the game was bad.
Nice to hear this image was unfounded.

[Hairb]

I'll be downloading the demo later.
Heh. In my head for the longest while I've had this image of Tycho commiting Seppeku because the game was bad.
Nice to hear this image was unfounded.

In the most recent podcast, he says he wouldn't have done it had he known how hard it was going to be... but they both seem very pleased with how it turned out. No seppuku this time around.

[Jokes]

I think I'm pretty close to finishing it, only one area left to go. I'm loving it to death (much like a fruitf'er). The banter between Gabe and Tycho is hilarious but other characters seem a bit weird because they are all trying to be "creepy." Gameplay is good, musics nice and the narrator had me in stitches in the tutorial.

Awesome.

[Hermit]

Loved it start to finish myself. The writing was absolutely top-notch, and I'm glad they didn't try to voice-act most of the game. I can't think of a game I've played recently with so many genuinely funny moments as this one.

I rather liked the combat too. A few of the moves were a little unintuitive to dodge (Curse you, Nuts and Bolts!) but I loved that kind of mechanic in the Mario RPGs and it works just as well here. Hothead have done a great job here, and it also bodes well for DeathSpank, Ron Gilbert's new episodic series he's working on with them too. Roll on the next episode.

[Tom_Violence]

I like it a lot. I certainly wouldn't say its the best game ever - that seems a bit much. But it is very impressive nonetheless.

The art style and the humour are probably the best things about it. It is a very polished game, which is nice to see given that its not coming from a huge publisher.

The gameplay is pretty solid too. By no means groundbreaking, but good fun and oddly enough it doesn't seem like the sort of thing that would get too boring too quickly, unlike most games of that sort.

There's a few areas that I think could be improved though. I would've liked to have been able to customise my own character a bit more, and not just in terms of appearance. The interface could use a few tweaks, and pathfinding seems to be pretty much non-existent.

Overall, I dare say I'll probably pick it up as soon as I manage to get some readies. :smallbiggrin:

[warty goblin]

I agree it's not the greatest game ever, but I did see the most hilarously Penny Arcade style badass thing the other night playing it. Minor spoilers, so spoilered, it's safe to read if you've gotten access to the boardwalk.


I was fighting the homicidal clowns, who flick you off when they die. Then I pulled off an Overkill (kill something with a perfect special attack, get permenant bonus damage) with Gabe on one- he literally punched the clown into componant pieces, which was awesome. Then the disembodied arm flicked me off. Best gaming moment I've had in a long time, and so completely Penny Arcade as well.

[Om]

Goddamn. (http://www.playgreenhouse.com/)

Quite possibly the most entertaining game I have ever played.

Lovecraftian 1920s setting. Steampunkish magic-tech.
Gorgeous 2D cutscenes, portraits, magnificently-animated 3D models and combat.
Superbly intuitive and good-looking interface.
Magnificent atmosphere, extraordinary style, and fantastic audio.
Penny Arcade humour and quality of writing.

Help me, I'm running out of words that aren't "AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME".

Four months is too long for the next installment!So how does it actually play?

[Tom_Violence]

So how does it actually play?

My experiences are limited to the demo, but its basically an RPG with combat similar mostly to the Final Fantasies, I would say (that is, combat takes place somewhat detached from the rest of the game, each side lines up and characters take it in turns to **** each other with whatever they've got). Outside of combat its kind of an isometric 3rd person dealy ala Neverwinter Nights, running around and interacting with the scenery, collecting goodies, etc.

As said before, the combat is good fun though a bit clunky at times, with nice animations and a very cool art style. The humour is spot on, and from what I've seen the plot looks like it could have some very real promise.

[warty goblin]

It plays great quite honestly. Combat is some of the most fun I've had gaming in quite some time. Essentially every character has three actions, Inventory, Basic Attack and Special Attack(s), all of which drain every time you take an action, and regenerate in that order- the catch being that an action doesn't start to recharge until any action lower on the queue has recharged. This means that inventory access recharges first and fastest, followed by basic attack, and then the special attack, which can take quite a bit of time. This is all stat-based to boot, so a character with a higher speed will recharge attacks faster, and one with lower speed will do so slower, which makes enemies that lower speed a real threat.

All of this happens in real time as well, which lends a really fun level of resource management to the mix, since you quite often end up using one character's basic attacks in order to keep the enemies occupied so that you can trigger a special attack for massive damage. One feature that took me a while to pick up on is that you get a temporary damage bonus for every hit you do as long as you keep the character from getting hit. This even persists from combat to combat, and can become quite formidable- I got it up to something like +10 damage once. It also increases the importance of blocking, since a missed or partial block will reset the damage bonus, a full block preserve it, and a perfect block will give a counterattack which actually increases it. All in all combat is pretty involving and frenetic, but without being overwhelming, at least until you end up fighting four of the advanced Fruit...er...juicer robots at once, which can be a bit of a challenge.

It also actually has enjoyable boss fights, which are something I generally hate, so that's saying something. Essentially the boss fights are particularly large normal fights, but they don't force you to play some other game everytime a guy with a bucket of health hits the screen.

Also, you can hit evil hobos with rakes so hard that they actually explode. Explain how this could not be awesome?

[Jibar]

I like to think of it as Lovecraft meets Arcanum meets Paper Mario.

And as a plus to the hobos exploding comment, you get a cat as a support character! A cat! You're even made to have a conversation with this cat who "appraises you and finds you wanting" to make it join your team.
I love that cat.

[Om]

I like to think of it as Lovecraft meets Arcanum meets Paper MarioActually its the Arcanum reference that has me worried. Great setting, plot, dialogue, etc, are of no use when married to gameplay flaws that more resemble deep chasms

Sounds like the gameplay's solid in this case though. Certainly it can't do any harm to try the demo

[Tom_Violence]

I wouldn't get too bogged down on the Arcanum thing. Its definitely more 20th Century than 19th.

[Revlid]

Okay, I've downloaded the demo, but what the hell is Gl 1.2, and where can I get it?

[tyckspoon]

Okay, I've downloaded the demo, but what the hell is Gl 1.2, and where can I get it?

OpenGL, presumably; it's a graphics rendering API, like DirectX. Means you need to update your graphics drivers.

[Merlin the Tuna]

$20 is maybe a bit steep for such a short game, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't love it to death. There were a few spots that the profanity seemed a bit clumsy, but all in all there was a lot of good humor and some legitimately intense battle sequences. They did a fantastic job with this, and I look forward to the next episode.

[warty goblin]

$20 is maybe a bit steep for such a short game, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't love it to death. There were a few spots that the profanity seemed a bit clumsy, but all in all there was a lot of good humor and some legitimately intense battle sequences. They did a fantastic job with this, and I look forward to the next episode.

Ya'know, I've read a lot of comments scattered over the internet to this effect, but really, do the math. The game is $20, and has maybe 5 hours of play, although I took more like 10. That comes to something like $4/hour, or $2/hour depending. A movie at a decent theater usually runs $10, and only lasts two hours. At worst OTRSPOD:EO is as dollar/hour of entertainment as efficient as a movie, with the added bonus of owning it, and, depending on your milage, may be even twice as good.

For a different reference point, take Call of Duty 4, which has a what, 10-12 hour campaign, and costs $60. For those of us with a clinical aversion to multiplayer, OTRSPOD:EO is literally at worst just as good a deal, and at best over twice as good.

On everything else I agree completely however.

[Om]

I wouldn't get too bogged down on the Arcanum thing. Its definitely more 20th Century than 19th.Don't get me wrong, I loved Arcanum's setting to bits but the actual gameplay mechanics were disastrously broken

Thankfully this does not seem to be the case with RSPoD, but then its hard to tell from the short demo. The gameplay that I did see though reminded me much more of adventure games (more Lara Croft than Guybrush Threepwood) with RPG elements thrown in. My only real criticism though is the terrible fixed camera. That really gives the game an early 90s arcade feel

[Morty]

I've played through the unfortunaetly short demo, and I have to say, it's fun. The combat is a neat mix of turn-based and real-time combat, and the whole thing is saturated in absurd Penny Arcade humor. Though I don't know if the full version is worth 20$.

[Cubey]

Yeah, the unfortunate effect of living in a country with a different economical situation is that even though the game's cost of 20$ is an equivalent of ~70-80$ in Polish currency.

[Attilargh]

Downloaded the demo yesterday, tried it this morning and finished it just now. I'd guess it took me about five to six hours, and I only missed a couple of collectibles and that meat quest. Pretty well written, although the swearing felt a bit gratuitous at times and at others I felt I was doing quests just for questing's sake, not because of any grand plot. But that was just at times, and the funny stuff was well worth it.

The gameplay was pretty smooth, although the battles were pretty darn easy. Furthermore, thanks to his awfully low Speed, Tycho was pretty often reduced to playing backpack-boy as Gabe and my character whacked the opposition. There's pretty much no pathfinding system, but the simple and open level design helps and I didn't get aggravatingly stuck at all. Also, some of the attacks were kinda hard to block, such as the Silent One's tentacle poke (Personal Attention or something like that?) and the aforementioned Nuts And Bolts. The fixed camera worked actually pretty well once I got past the first minutes., I do wonder why my character got that lovely pale complexion... Maybe it's set to contrast with the hair colour?

All in all, a well-spent 20$. (Or, as it seems to be up here, 13€. For comparison, that's about the prize of an issue of manga.)


Oh, any of you got the Dooming of the cat's attack? The probability is a bit low, so I didn't manage to hit it at all. And what about Fuschia, how big a bang did you manage to get it to generate? Mine zoomed off-planet.

[Scintillatus]

Got the 999 about three times, because I constantly used Mr. Kemper.

You can resolve the Meat quest by collecting Hobo meat and taking it to the meat press in the Slum-Lord's basement.

I also had the same problem with Tycho, until I abused speed potions with him. I suck hard at blocking, and still don't understand the principle. I had a whole lot of counterattacks at one point, and then they just dried up. Weird.

[Attilargh]

The enemy's health bar flashes white when it attacks (not when the animation starts, mind) and that's when you have to hit the space bar. It'll take a bit of learning to time it just right, but it gets much easier once you don't have to react to the flash.

[Jube]

I loved how they did consumables in this game. Everything scales, so even when you're max level tripped out with the best weapon upgrades adding an Attack potion only becomes EVEN BETTER!

That and the consumables are so very easy to aquire so they're literally no point in hoarding. Using a Weaksauce on an enemy utterly destroys his attack power, basically taking him outt'a the game, even freaking works on the final boss, I loved it!

Gabe with a +Attack Potion and Tycho with a +Speed potion freaking raped! I'm kind'a suprised though, Gabe tended to be my backpack bitch 'cause he was so crazy fast. I could use an item from him and still have a Special Attack ready by the time Tycho's or Mine was. No idea how you managed to beat the final boss without blocking though, you'd be constantly eating the -Attack debuff. That **** is serious business >.<

The price is ridiculously cheap for a game with as many awesome design features as this (Almost every part of it is either an improved twist on a classic design or a classic design polished till it shone) my only complaint at all is that Gabe's final attack could be a real pain to get off on the PC (I imagine it's a little better on a 360).

[Attilargh]

How could I not? The stupid thing kept poking one character over and over instead of spreading that ridiculously hard to block attack debuff across the party. Gabe and Tycho simply took it on the chin while my character raked it to death as it apparently had something against hitting girls.

[Tengu]

Finished the demo. It rocked. I'm tempted to buy the full version, even though it's not very cheap when you convert the price to Zlotys, as Cubey already said.

[Jube]

However it's very cheap when you consider that you're supporting

Episodic Gaming,
Online Distribution and
Penny Arcade itself. All in one fell swoop.

I'd much sooner give Gabe and Tycho $20USD to make a game targeted at me (A PA Fan) than to some other random company to make a game targeted at a broad Age demographic, endlessly censored and compounded in forced tropes.

Just imo 'course.

[Tengu]

Except that I actually loathe the idea of episodic games - I'd rather have a full game now than one half now, one half later, especially since you often have to pay more for the halves combined together than what would you have to pay for a full game.

[Falkus]

Except that I actually loathe the idea of episodic games - I'd rather have a full game now than one half now, one half later, especially since you often have to pay more for the halves combined together than what would you have to pay for a full game.

20$ for about eight hours of gameplay isn't bad, especially since there are companies out there charging sixty for the same time. And it's not like the game suddenly cuts off. It has an ending. Think of it like an episode of a good TV show, there's an ongoing plot throughout the season, but each episode has its own events that initiated and resolved within that episode.

I, personally, had a great deal of fun with this game, and I'm looking forward to the next episode.

[Tengu]

I was talking about the general principle, not this one specific case.

[Jube]

Except that I actually loathe the idea of episodic games - I'd rather have a full game now than one half now, one half later, especially since you often have to pay more for the halves combined together than what would you have to pay for a full game.

I agree in the sense that I'd much rather have moar Precipice of Darkness now than in 4months. I'm sure I'll feel the same after playing Episode 2 aswell.

However Episodic gaming seems like a method that'll let smaller studios actually get a foot in the door, get some sales and generate a fanbase. Rather than having to gamble it all on one game and hoping everyone notices it.

That and well, they can improve the game through feedback between the episodes. So yeah, it's all good.

[Eita]

Just finished the demo, and really must go windsurfing.

[warty goblin]

[QUOTE=Jube;4367480]I agree in the sense that I'd much rather have moar Precipice of Darkness now than in 4months. I'm sure I'll feel the same after playing Episode 2 aswell.
QUOTE]

Amen to that. I require more overly verbose yet lowbrow humor.

On the other hand, I'd rather have the ten hours of Precipace that are out right now than have to wait another 8-12 months for any. I'm really not sure how I survived life without being able to hit evil fruit molesting robots with rakes.

Also, would anybody else totally move to New Arcadia, or is this just me?

[RationalGoblin]

Grah! I downloaded the demo, but when I try to get on the game, it doesn't work! :smallfrown: It just freezes up and gives a generic Microsoft Error Report! And I was looking forward to playing it, too!

Could anyone help me with this problem?

[warty goblin]

Grah! I downloaded the demo, but when I try to get on the game, it doesn't work! :smallfrown: It just freezes up and gives a generic Microsoft Error Report! And I was looking forward to playing it, too!

Could anyone help me with this problem?

Your drivers, have they been updated?

[RationalGoblin]

Your drivers, have they been updated?

Nope. Not in a while. Don't they get updated when Windows wants you to update, though? I asked a computer guy, and he said that updating the drivers is free, and that they just get updated when you let Windows do it.

So I just figure out how to let Windows update itself, and it'll be fine, right?

[Scintillatus]

Nono. You know which graphics card you has, right? Go to the creator's website, pick out the right drivers, install. Windows only does it if you tell it to.

[RationalGoblin]

Nono. You know which graphics card you has, right? Go to the creator's website, pick out the right drivers, install. Windows only does it if you tell it to.

Apparently, I have the best I can have, while still using a Radeon 9200. At least that's what happens when I try to update the drivers. And it still won't work. I'll do a few other things, which may help, but I'll still probably need further instructions. Will you do that? Thanks.

[mechanicalmarz]

I bought this one without even trying the demo.

Loved to pieces, can't wait for next episode.

By the way they've said (Tycho and Gabe) they will further improve the combat system and the weapon/character upgrade parts, meaning it will be even more awesome!!!

Here (http://www.penny-arcade.com/2008/5/26/), scrooooooll down, extra concept artwork included in the video.

[Scintillatus]

Apparently, I have the best I can have, while still using a Radeon 9200. At least that's what happens when I try to update the drivers. And it still won't work. I'll do a few other things, which may help, but I'll still probably need further instructions. Will you do that? Thanks.

Sure, if my limited tech-knowledge doesn't fail me. :smallbiggrin:

[Azuroth]

Will you do that? Thanks.
Pick your operating system (http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx) from the link and click on the "ATI Catalyst™ 8.5 Display Driver for ..." option. On the next page, download the catalyst software suite (Option 1). That ought to be a self extracting .exe file that will run and update your drivers.
I'm at work (and don't have an ATI card) so I can't test this, but that ought to do it.