GOT 'IM - Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode Two

This will be the easiest review I ever write. Because it's Penny Arcade Adventures 2, which is almost identical to Penny Arcade Adventures 1.

No, I'm really not kidding. The story's basically the same: a giant Fruit Fucker robot smashes your character's house, and paranormal investigators Gabe and Tycho team up with you to solve a mystery shrouded in evil. The two are almost the exact same game, except the details of the respective plots are different (of course) and a few improvements were made to the core gameplay from the first to the second.

My review of the first game is here: Forty Four. Everything's pretty much the same! The combat uses a series of slowing timers, there are timed hits for defense and minigames for special moves, and a lot of items available to the player. Upgrading weapons and skills is easier now, with more upgrade parts available, and there is much less backtracking. The fetchquest mission design is still present, but it's more smartly integrated and streamlined and therefore much more tolerable.

Episode 2 is still super-short at no more than four hours (I mean, come on, I beat it in two sessions), but overall I thought it was a little stronger overall. Combat was a reasonable challenge and there's harder difficulties if you want them, but I didn't. The humor and writing is still top-notch, and the animated cutscenes are delightful. Rain-Slick 2's storyline is a little more conclusive than that of its predecessor, but it's obvious that Hothead wasn't planning on stopping with 2. Too bad.

Last paragraph (already!? yup.): this makes me really excited for Rain-Slick 3. With the excellent writing and humor of the Penny Arcade guys and the rock-solid RPG sensibilities of the Zeboyd Games guys, the third entry in this series could be something really special. I'm looking forward to it a great deal.

Games Beaten: 2012 Edition

1. Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
2. Radiant Historia
3. Mass Effect
4. Mass Effect 2
5. Breath of Death VII: The Beginning (Hard mode)
6. Grandia II
7. On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness - Episode 2

Targets: 2/12

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That about wraps up my February gaming. I want to add a few details to my Mass Effect 2 file, so I'll play that a bit more today and tomorrow before Mass Effect 3 takes over March. Because, let's face it, Mass Effect 3 will take over March.