Playing A Game Penny Arcade's On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3 PC

It's been almost ten years since I played Episode Two. Let's see if I can remember the plot... oh, steampunk-ey Gabe and Tycho are fighting eldritch gods. Yeah, got it.

(Deep breath) Penny Arcade's On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3 looks like a significant departure from its predecessors, and not only because the words "Adventures" and "Episode" were dropped from the title -- part 3 is from a totally different developer, has a much lower-fidelity presentation, and is mechanically quite distinct.

But elaborating on those mechanical distinctions, there isn't much more to say than "Final Fantasy VI-style class uniqueness" (very cool) and "Cosmic Star Heroine-style useless filler abilities" (very meh). Rain-Slick 3's approach to combat customization is initially intriguing, but falls flat before long, and ultimately the game feels like it has too much combat in it.

And while its basic playability is better than that of Zeboyd's prior game, Cthulhu Saves the World, Rain-Slick 3's fundamentals are still surprisingly unpolished. Early-game tutorial prompts provide obscure directions like "Here's how MP works" and then disappear forever. Customizable classes don't explain, anywhere, their effects on character statistics. The menu for quitting the game is different from the menu for everything else, and I don't know if I was ever told that the "Q" key was how to open it; I just guessed.

What makes this game fun, that is, what motivated me to keep playing even after the combat became tedious and dull, is the same thing that made the previous games fun: Penny Arcade writing. Every narrative moment is punctuated with irreverent wit, every in-game concept has an entertaining etymology (like the "Crabomancer" class), and every bit of flavor text is worth reading for its delightful flippancy.

So I tolerated Rain-Slick 3's unpolished edges, and its gradually-tiresome combat, for the sake of the writing. Not because of an enthrallingly dramatic plot, mind you - I have no particular interest in Dr. Blood's motives - but because its prose is pure fun. And I look forward to more of that in the final chapter.

Better than: Cosmic Star Heroine, Cthulhu Saves the World
Not as good as: Final Fantasy VI
Arguably as good as: Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness - Episode Two

Progress: Finished on Normal, got the ... good? ending.

Rating: Good